An innovative new product, developed jointly by Essex & Suffolk Water's parent company Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) and Furst Technologies has been launched to the wider water industry.

In late 2023, Northumbrian Water Group unveiled the mobile pressured water supply unit, or ‘MoWBi™’, which is a genius invention that keeps taps flowing during supply interruptions and vastly improves customer experience. This week Furst Technologies successfully rolled out to the industry during Utility Week Live at the NEC in Birmingham.

‘MoWBi™’ can be deployed quickly in emergency situations, or as part of a planned approach when essential works are required on the water network. They are connected to customers’ homes to maintain water supply during these periods of disruption, and as a consequence, reducing the need for bottled water to be delivered.

The idea first arose in 2020 in collaboration with specialists, Furst Technologies, whilst looking for ways to protect the most vulnerable members of society in the event of a water outage.

Working together, the two organisations designed and built an initial prototype, before transforming this into a legitimate version to be used on site.

The MoWBi™ unit holds about 120 litres of portable water – enough to supply a household for approximately six hours if being used to flush toilets, hydrate or boil water for drinking and cooking.

Not only can MoWBis™ be used individually, but when linked together they can support the more substantial water demands of many customers across a large site or development. This was tested earlier in the year when a nursery of more than 80 children in Chelmsford was kept open and supplied using a fleet of MoWBi™ units, during repairs to a burst pipe.

Northumbrian Water Group and Furst Technologies have also developed the ‘ToWBi™’, which is a large-capacity version of the MoWBi™, designed to support the water needs of whole streets of houses, apartment blocks, and commercial properties such as care homes, vets, hairdressers and schools.

Stuart Sullivan, Customer Field Services Area Manager at NWG said: “MoWBi ™and ToWBi™ are game-changing ideas which mean we can keep our customers’ taps flowing during work to fix a burst or a leak. It’s particularly useful for those customers who are on our Priority Services Register and are vulnerable or have specific medical requirements. We know how distressing it can be when water supplies go off and we’ll always do what we can to reroute water through the network to prevent this from happening. Sometimes though, it’s just not possible and it’s in cases like this that we can deploy MoWBi™ and ToWBi™ directly to the site to continue to support our customers.”

Conrad Baxter, Managing Director of Furst Technologies, said: “I am delighted to be introducing MoWBi™ and ToWBi™ to the wider water industry following a successful project with the dedicated team from Northumbrian Water Group in developing this pioneering product. Designed and engineered to supply everyday alternative water, Both MoWBi™ and ToWBi™ are able to be deployed quickly in an emergency and maintain a drinking water supply when and where it’s required, without the need for any power source.”

Find out more about Furst Technologies at www.furst-uk.com

NWG continues to operate a Priority Services Register, meaning it will also deliver bottled water during lengthy interruptions to supply to those customers signed up to receive extra support.  

The service is free to sign up to at www.eswater.co.uk/priorityservices.