Matt Wheeldon – Getting the balance right between housing, nature & countryside A watery perspective

Matt is Infrastructure Development Director at Wessex Water. He starts with the big picture, and moves onto looking at if we harness nature and mimic nature everyone is a winner. There is a need to move from centralised solutions for water and drainage to more decentralised solutions where we are harnessing this natural resource called rain not seeing it as a burden and then we are getting rid of it locally as possible. For example, in Germany, the German Federal Water Act puts a duty on every person to conserve water that lands on their property and to not accelerate runoff from their property. A few catchphrases to take away: Manage rain better where it lands. Harness nature - mimic nature. Keep raindrops lonely - don't let them meet their friends. And as Matt work for a water company, his last takeaway sound bite is this. "We want your poo, but please keep and use your rain."