Global Water Awards 2026

AI Project of the Year 2026:

In the Southwest of the UK, Metasphere, a Grundfos company, together with Grundfos turned overwhelming data into clarity by integrating real‑time rainfall, ground‑saturation and tidal insights.

A predictive sewer-level AI filtered out 9,500 phantom alerts each month, empowering South West Water to act where it truly mattered.

With 95% accuracy, it shifted operations from reactive monitoring to proactive intelligence, preventing spills before they began and cutting storm‑spill incidents by 50% year‑on‑year, a testament to how low‑cost, precision AI can reshape entire systems.

But the most powerful aspect is what it signals for the future: a blueprint for how utilities everywhere can address climate-driven pressures, ageing infrastructure and operational overload through smart, scalable AI.

The process is quick and simple:

1. Check your inbox for an email from GWI sent on March 30th “Vote Now! Global Water Awards 2026”

2. Open the email and click the voting link

3. Find Grundfos under the category “AI Project of the Year”

4. Cast your vote for Grundfos’ project “SWW Sewer Optimization”

5. Submit your vote and wish us luck!

Your support helps raise awareness of the work being done to safeguard water, reduce waste and build a more sustainable future for all.

SWW Sewer Optimization

South West Water (SWW) faced an overwhelming challenge: more than 10,000 monthly alerts, with 95% of them false, creating severe alarm fatigue and masking real issues in the network.

To solve this, Metasphere, a Grundfos company, together with Grundfos, integrated real‑time rainfall, ground saturation and tidal data with 12‑hour predictive sewer‑level AI, eliminating up to 9,500 phantom alerts each month. This shift restored operator confidence and enabled a true management‑by‑exception approach.

Operational through 2024–2025, the project has already delivered major environmental impact, including a 50% reduction in storm spills and pollution incidents and 240 blockages prevented before they became spills.

This project represents a fundamental transformation in how wastewater networks can be monitored, protected, and proactively managed. With 95% alert accuracy, the combined intelligence of Metasphere’s MAP analytics platform and Grundfos’ predictive AI filters out non‑genuine telemetry events at scale, distinguishing between rainfall-driven behaviour, saturation effects, and tidal anomalies. This level of precision has enabled SWW to remove over 7,000 avoidable blockages, strengthening network resilience and dramatically improving environmental outcomes.

Beyond performance, the project demonstrates a globally replicable model for turning big data into actionable insight. The transition from reactive monitoring to AI‑driven decision‑making ensures that teams intervene only where it matters most, reducing wasted resources and restoring confidence in digital infrastructure. SWW’s operators now work with clarity rather than noise, supported by a system designed to predict, prioritise, and prevent environmental harm.

The economic benefits are equally compelling. A complementary AI-led initiative within the programme has reduced flow-monitoring costs nearly tenfold, cutting installation time from 36 hours to just 60 minutes. This demonstrates that transformative technology can be both high‑impact and low‑cost, delivering value without complexity.

But perhaps the most powerful aspect of this nomination is what it signals for the future: a blueprint for how utilities everywhere can address climate-driven pressures, ageing infrastructure and operational overload through smart, scalable AI. It showcases what is possible when innovation and environmental responsibility align, and when utilities partner with organisations committed to meaningful, measurable impact.

Vote for Grundfos and support a future where every alert leads to action — and every community is protected from preventable pollution.