A tribute to Lisa Barrott 1964 – 2024

CIWEM Fellow Lisa Barrott, who passed away earlier this year, will be greatly missed by colleagues and contemporaries in the water industry alike, writes CIWEM Water Supply and Quality Panel chair Richard Lake.

Having completed her PhD, under Nigel Graham at Imperial College, Lisa joined Stantec in July 1996 and throughout her more than 27-year career, her expertise and passion for all things water always shone through.

Lisa had a particular interest in drinking water quality and risk management. Recently she was lead process engineer for Durleigh Water Treatment Centre for Wessex Water and had been involved with Northumbrian Water’s HazRev programme for two years.

Lisa had a strong interest in small community and advanced water treatment processes and had substantial experience with Drinking Water Safety Plans. She was also on the End User Group for the WIRe programme at Cranfield University and for many years and chaired CIWEM’s Water Supply and Quality specialist panel for 7 years.

Lisa was a Fellow of CIWEM and a member of the Institute of Water and worked for almost all the water companies in the UK during her career. She had worked in several countries, including St. Lucia for her PhD fieldwork, the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong.

Lisa’s passion for water continued outside of work and she really enjoyed paddling in the local canals and rivers in her inflatable canoe. She was also active in her local church community, loved the theatre and storytelling and regularly supported climate emergency awareness through a local group. She would enjoy going to see colleagues who were spending their leisure time nearby, one, in particular, being very surprised to see her at the side of a hockey pitch to watch a game that he had mentioned in passing earlier in the week.

Lisa was a brilliant colleague with a great sense of humour. She was always quietly modest about her vast technical knowledge which she shared generously with her colleagues, always leading, mentoring, and helping others to grow their own technical knowledge and capability. While her home office was High Wycombe, she worked closely with many people across the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong and we will miss her greatly, especially those she was closest to.

Personally, I don’t remember when I first met Lisa, she was just always there. Since I started in the water industry, just 2 or 3 years after Lisa, her’s was a voice and a laugh that I would listen out for at a conference, knowing that there would be a friendly chat and an excellent opportunity to learn from her.

Working more closely with her during the past two years was a real joy, and a real opportunity to understand the breadth of her knowledge on all subjects. I was delighted to take over as Chair of CIWEM’s Water Supply and Quality Panel, safe in the knowledge that she would be available to talk through any issues.