Anusha is Director-Resilient Cities at Arcadis. She is also a Royal Academy of Engineering-Visiting Professor at King’s College London on Climate Adaptation, Sustainability and Inclusive Design. A Fellow with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), she is the third woman and only BAME Vice President in 200 years of ICE’s history and is set to be President in 2023 (subject to interim council elections). She has recently been appointed as a Non-Executive Director at the Met Office, UK.

Anusha is an External Examiner at Leeds Beckett University, an Honorary Professor at University of Wolverhampton and a Visiting Professor at University of Edinburgh. She is also Past Chair of the Thames Estuary Partnership Board a charity working towards sustainable management of the Thames Estuary. Anusha has held various roles at the ICE including youngest and first female Chair of ICE London. She has specialisation in Water & Environmental Engineering with over 20 years’ experience in designing, managing and leading projects and programmes both in the UK and internationally. Anusha sits on various industry NetZero groups and represents Arcadis at the London Climate Change Partnership and 50L Home Initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. A recipient of several awards including 2020 – Top 50 UK Women Engineers Sustainability Award and CECA FIR Inspiring Engineers Award 2019, Anusha is regularly invited to panel discussions and for delivering keynote speeches at various high profile industry events. She was recognized by Climate Reframe as one of the UK’s leading BAME voices on climate change.

Anusha was invited to the panel due to her innovation and sustainability expertise and experience in transferable sectors.

Anusha on the most exciting opportunities and key challenges for the Water Sector in England and Wales right now…

“Climate and nature emergency is posing an existential threat to humanity, severely impacting the water cycle causing extreme weather events; from flooding to drought. Cities worldwide including the UK face threats of “Day Zero” when water sources run dry. We have a choice, we can carry on business as usual or take advantage of the crisis and drive bold solutions by thinking out of the box, driving behavioural change and seeking multi-benefits through cross-sector collaboration, for example, implementing blue-green infrastructure: creating new habitats, improving air quality and reusing flood water for the benefit of all. It’s time to fully leverage Data Analytics and IoT for empowering consumers for better decision making, driving smart end to end solutions, reusing wastewater, reinventing systems, applying principles of circular economy thus averting a Day Zero and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. Responsible use of freshwater, can only drive positive outcomes for people, nature and climate.”