The Jaws of Death
This year’s Annual Lecture explored London’s increasing demand for water verses nature’s rapidly reducing supply. Without water there is no life; without clean water there is no good life.
Our 2022 lecture was presented by Dr Chris Lambert, Water Resources Senior Technical Adviser and Thames Water’s long-term strategic water supply demand planner, and Dr Priti Parikh, Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction and founding director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre.
The Master, Nick Jones, with Dr Lambert on his right and DR Parikh on his left
The Chairman of our Education & Technical Committee, Richard Soper, who has overall responsibility for our annual lecture, on the left, with the Master and our two presenters
Once again we enjoyed the superb facilities of the Royal College of Physicians next to Regents Park who hosted us, as always, excellently. After tea and coffee we moved into the main lecture theatre. Dr Lambert outlined the demands facing Thames Water’s long-term assumptions and plans to continue to maintain London’s water supplies and the associated risks.
Dr Parikh followed him focussing on climate change and the wider human and social aspect that water shortages are already having around the globe and could have on the City and its population.
A lively Q&A session invariably ran out of time, before we returned to the library for pre-dinner drinks.
The college served an excellent three-course dinner to us all, before which the Master presented our own Certificates of Excellence to this year’s HIP Magazine ‘Learner of the Year’ award winner Ruben Duggan, the magazine for plumbing students and apprentices, the BPEC (British Plumbing Employers’ Council) Excellence Awards for ‘Best use of Technology in Training’ to Jon Conlon and David Warren, the BPEC Award for ‘Best Plumbing Apprentice/trainee’ Iain Winnard and the BPEC Award for ‘Best Plumbing Trainer in the Workplace’ Matthew Mellor. Congratulations to all of them.
We were delighted that over 140 attended the lecture including visiting Masters and Wardens from twelve fellow Livery companies.
And a big thank you to our corporate members for their sponsorship of the event.