COVID‐19 and the UK water sector: Exploring organisational responses through a resilience framework

Abstract

The unprecedented scale and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has required organisations to adapt all facets of their operations. The impact on the UK water sector extends beyond engineering and treatment processes, with social, economic and environmental consequences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with executives from ten UK water companies to investigate the organisational response to the pandemic, and how their response impacted operational delivery. The Safe & SuRe framework was used to structure interview questions and analysis. Emergent themes of: changes to customer behaviour; changes to operational practices; and industry collaboration, were mapped onto the framework and a ripple effect map developed. Lessons learnt highlight: a failure to adequately prepare for the scale of the threat; the success of sector level collaboration; and a need to embrace new ways of working.