WssTP represented by Geoff Townsend at the 3rd edition of the FT Water summit 2018 conference.

On the 17^th October, WssTP was represented at the 3^rd edition of the Financial Time Water Summit by Geoff Townsend, Cluster Leader of the “Water Smart Industry” theme during the roundtable session on “new competitive edge: creating shared value through collective action”.

In association with WWF, the conference focused on businesses, investment opportunities, bankable water projects and other innovative financial solutions from a corporate perspective. It was a great occasion for participants to interact and debate with Executives from Heineken company, CDP, Nestle Water, MARS, WWF, Mondi South Africa and many other representatives from big organisations.

Geoff Townsend took part in the Watershed Moments session, hosting the roundtable session on “new competitive edge: creating shared value through collective action” that addressed how tackling larger-scale shared water challenges can benefit both businesses and the communities they operate in and how companies can work together and with government bodies to improve water availability.

With main traversing message of the session that “Water is a common shared value and needs collective actions”, Geoff raised key questions on how stakeholders can actually get engaged in collective actions that generate value for all and how making a societal improvement can generate profits for organisations.

Regarding companies operating in emerging markets suffering from poverty and endemic societal issues, Geoff particularly stressed out that ’It is vital to help them by demonstrating the value they can generate in a collective open transparent way, not only by making money and being prosperous in their location but by actually doing much greater good for that whole area. The way companies communicate that is a big challenge and the way they connect their brand and reputations is absolutely crucial to operate in these locations.’

David Martin from Nalco and Ecolab company who also attended the FT Water Summit pointed it out the importance of gathering all the stakeholders, such as WssTP, around the table to resolve water issues.“The core of WssTP lies in water and innovation, and sometimes we think of innovation as being technical or technologies issues. The event today was really around financial innovation in addressing the water challenges and I thought that the Geoff’s intervention and the collaboration between companies, research centers and association, such as WssTP and the financial community is the way to find the solution.”

For more information on the FT Live events, please click here.

Closed-loop systems used to keep astronauts alive in space could inform circular economy strategies

Dr Christophe Lasseur, coordinator of the European Space Agency’s Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELISSA),  studies how to keep astronauts alive in space by recycling their waste products into water, oxygen, food and other materials. Using this expertise is helping the NextGen project design circular economy solutions for water on Earth.

What were the goals of Melissa?

The main space agencies would like to explore further than the Earth’s orbit. To able to do that you need to carry onboard the spacecraft all the metabolic needs for the astronauts, which means air, water, food, etc. That is a lot of mass, it’s even too much for the capabilities of the launchers. The only solution is to recycle everything onboard, and try to reproduce oxygen, water and food from the waste.

What kind of waste are we talking about?

Not only human waste, there’s also CO2 which is breathed out by the astronaut, urine, plastic, packaging and so on.

So the idea is to create a self-sustaining environment?

Absolutely.

How does that relate to the circular economy and feed into the Next Gen project?

We started this investigation in Europe almost 29 years ago now. We were trying to create closed loops – this is now called the circular economy, but when we started this was not the name. We accumulated some know-how for space application.

But over the last more or less five years, you can clearly see a very strong movement to try to improve sustainability, to recycle, to try to reduce impact on the ecosystems [on Earth]. Reduce energy, reduce resources. [They’ve started] looking at what we already do for space – they are talking about towns, cities, and countries of course, but the idea is the same, it’s how can we try to close the loop.

What’s the relationship between closing loops in space and the circular economy on Earth?

From Melissa we have 4 spin-off companies which are currently focused for terrestrial application. Some are on biomass valorisation, some are on waste recycling, so there is clearly some synergy in between.

So we can learn ways to support the circular economy here on Earth, based on the research that you and other researchers have done on space?

I hope so, yes. To be able to transfer this information, this knowledge of Melissa, to another activity where there is terrestrial benefit – it makes sense. I would be very pleased if from time to time I was able to say to the Next Gen group – please don’t do it, we have already done it five years ago, here is the result, or that doesn’t work, better try this. That would already be very useful. Now of course [within NextGen] there is a new team and a new approach, and from time to time I will look at their approach to see if Melissa project can benefit as well.

What do you hope that the NextGen project will achieve?

It’s really important to be able to have a community that understands the challenges of a closed loop system. Today you have a lot of people who are talking about a closed loop, but they don’t realise what it really means. That will already be an achievement, that the people understand the challenges of closing the loop and [are then] able to progress altogether.

What’s the biggest risk in terms of a closed loop system in space?

The biggest risk is that it doesn’t work! In principle there is that risk, that the astronaut will suddenly have no oxygen, no water and no food, but this is a limited risk because in space we never have just one technology, we always have another in case of redundancy and so on.

There are other problems however, for example when you are living in a habitat that is extremely closed, anything can become harmful, such as chemicals that are [present during] the first hours at a very low level but accumulate progressively and can then become toxic for the astronaut. We also have a lot of microorganisms, because the astronaut produces a lot of these as well. There could be pathogens and this could be a risk. Generally the astronaut is living in microgravity, meaning everything is floating, and there are also some particles that can be floating in the air. If they are swallowed by the astronaut by mistake that becomes a risk as well. The challenges of managed space missions are very high.

Is there any way to control for micro-oganisms?

We are developing an instrument in order to be able to follow almost continuously the microbial pathogens in water, in the air, in order to be really able to identify the pathogen and see if it is worse for the astronaut or not. In principle the technology is generic enough [to be applied to water treatment plants], however we would need to know more about required performances.

Has there been anything that you discovered during Melissa that surprised you?

Two surprises! We were testing bacteria to check if it was edible or not and during these tests we realised that this bacteria has an effect on bad cholesterol. We patented it and now we have a company for this, it was a very pleasant surprise.

The other good news is that we’ve demonstrated that we can have very good control of algae in space. We cultivate spirulina which is an edible cyanobacteria. We have done this on board the International Space Station (ISS) – we predicted what the behaviour of this cyanobacteria in space should be and it behaved exactly as we expected, which was really a very pleasant surprise.

SAVE THE DATE: Young Water Fellowship Pitching Night Brussels, 13th September 2018

Young Water Solutions gladly invites you to the 2018 Young Water Fellowship Exclusive Pitching Night.

When ? Thursday 13th September 2018 – 6:30 pm. Where ? Thon Hotel EU [Roi de la Loi 75, 1040 Etterbeek] 

The Young Water Fellowship is an initiative by Young Water Solutions that empowers young community leaders from low and middle income countries with financial and technical support to launch their own social business initiatives to solve local water issues in their communities.

The 2018 Young Water Fellows will join a one month training programme in social entrepreneurship and exchange ideas with international experts and leaders. The programme will culminate with the 2018 Young Water Fellowship Pitching Night on September 13th.

You are invited to attend the Pitching Night, where you will be inspired by the stories and innovative ideas of these outstanding young leaders and their water projects. Each of them will give an exclusive presentation of his / her water project, followed by a networking reception [walking dinner] during which you can get to know the Fellows.

You can find out more about them here.

Agenda

6.30pm: Welcome by Young Water Solutions & key-note
7.00pm: Pitch by the 2018 Young Water Fellows
8.15pm: Cocktail & mingle – opportunity to meet and discuss with the 2018 Young Water Fellows during a walking dinner
9.15pm: End

Participation in this event is free and includes a walking dinner and drinks, but registration is mandatory (by clicking in the button below). Due to limited capacity, only the first 100 people who register will secure a place at the event.

If you would like to donate the equivalent cost of the dinner to support the 2018 Young Water Fellows, you can transfer it to our bank account:

IBAN : BE07 3631 5983 9266     –    BIC: BBRU BE BB

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can also transfer it to our partner organization GoodPlanet Belgium, on the following bank account: IBAN BE41 5230 8017 3710 – BIC: TRIOBEBB. Please mention ‘Young Water Fellowship’ in the transaction reference.

If you want to support one of the 2018 Young Water Fellows projects directly, please indicate also their name in the reference and then you will receive an implementation report including financial information on their project.

The Pitching night will take place in Thon Hotel EU (Roi de la Loi 75, 1040 Etterbeek).

More information: Bart Devos – bart@youngwatersolutions.org – +32489443308

website: www.youngwatersolutions.org

The importance of having a Cluster dedicated to the “Water Smart Industry” theme by Geoff Townsend (Leader of the WssTP Cluster Theme ‘Water Smart Industry’)

Why is it important to have a Cluster dedicated to the theme ‘Water Smart Industry’?

Water is a business imperative – a strategic resource that enables growth, profitability and competitiveness of European industry. Consequently, challenges in supply, delivery and quality pose a relentless risk to corporations making the identification and management of these crucial to building operational resilience. In many regions, the rate of growth of water-related risks is far outpacing the efforts being made to mitigate those risks. This ever-widening disparity is attracting the attention of investors, shareholders and regulators. Superimposed on the macro trends that drive water scarcity is the growing inability to withstand local events, whether droughts or more frequent catastrophic storms that disrupt water supplies.

The industrial water-energy nexus is also an important factor. It’s no coincidence that the industrial sectors with the highest water use (power production and manufacturing) also contribute 53% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in Europe. Addressing sub-optimal performance in these water systems can make a significant contribution to emission reduction.

How is the Cluster ‘Water Smart Industry’ going to drive the way to the implementation of the WssTP Water Vision 2030?

The Cluster will help drive connectivity between the working groups and industry providing greater clarity on innovation needs and deployment opportunities aligned to the Value of Water framework. To this end, it is important that we enhance the engagement with operational teams within industry and their decision makers. The Cluster will also facilitate the setting up of living labs focussed on assessing technologies that support best available techniques as well as those that foster collaboration between the Clusters.

A key ambition of the Cluster is to go beyond addressing water risks to develop a strategy that truly embraces business opportunities so as to create greater value and impact for a business and stakeholders. In essence, industrial engagement needs to be energised by promoting water strategies that support business stratagems. This will ensure water quality and scarcity are factored into decisions that protect current operations and support business growth.

What are the key actions the Cluster has identified to bring research and innovations from the SIRA to the market?

The WssTP SIRA strategy is aimed at creating and supporting robust new technologies, funding/financing, business models and partnerships. Ultimately, confidence to invest in these is predicated on having robust, evidence-based water quantity and quality targets founded on a thorough understanding of the local context. Understanding the fundamental obstacles to truly sustainable water use at this level is essential and is likely to be the rate-limiting step on technology adoption. Consequently, specific actions associated with bringing the SIRA to the market must reflect this and the interconnectivity between innovation, collaboration and advocacy.

To see the full integrity of Geoff Townsend’s latest interview and WssTP Newsletter Summer 2018, click on the joint link.

What will it take for water to finally disappear from the list of highest global risks?

Alex Mung

Head of Water Initiative, World Economic Forum 

Water is the number 5 global risk of highest impact in the next decade, as ranked in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Risks Report.  In examining the top global risks of highest likelihood and impact over a 10-year horizon, all but one can be linked to water.

Featuring prominently in that group is a cluster of environmental risks, including extreme weather events, natural disasters, climate change & adaptation, man-made environmental disasters, and biodiversity loss & ecosystem collapse.  Water’s link to each of these is evident through droughts, floods, and mis-management of water.  Equally, geopolitical and societal risks in the form of food security, involuntary migration, and inter-state conflict being triggered by water insecurity are well documented.

While the international water community has for years pointed to these links, the Global Risks Report represents the perspectives of nearly 1,000 decision-makers from across public and private sector. These are not dedicated water or environment professionals, but rather risk officers from companies and experts from institutions around the world, who have identified this interconnected set of risks and signaling their concern for the global economy and value chains.

Even more sobering is while we have seen the emergence and disappearance of other global risks – including the financial crisis, and chronic disease – over the past decade, water has stubbornly remained in the top 5 for seven consecutive years.

What will it take for water to finally disappear from the list?

While the foundations of water resource management – such as strengthening governance and policy, enhancing capacity, and building public-private cooperation – must continue to progress, the emergence of transformative technology has significant potential in supporting, accelerating and scaling this work.

Could blockchain technology be applied to create transparent and verifiable water allocation and market schemes that reflect true values of water?  Or could a combination of advanced satellite imagery, big data, and artificial intelligence help improve real-time, actionable information for city officials to predict and manage any future Cape Town “Day Zero” scenarios?

These technologies – what we call the Fourth Industrial Revolution – are being applied in other sectors.  Why not water?

This is the next chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Water Initiative, called Water Security Rewired.

As the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, we are using our platform and networks to support a community of water leaders and technology innovators to explore and understand the realm of possibility, including its limitations.  Water Security Rewired will help spark new ideas, collaborations and lay the groundwork for next generation technologies to emerge.  This new innovation agenda marks an exciting new chapter for the future of water.

WssTP present at the CEWP PI ACCESS Program in Qingdao

This last 27th and 28th of June, WssTP was represented by Antonio Lo Porto (IRSA and Euraqua) at the CEWP ACCESS Program in Qingdao.

During the session of “Relations of Rural Water and Food Security to the Water SDG“,  A. Lo Porto gave a presentation on “SDGs implementation in Europe” which was held in parallel with the CEWP Joint Steering Committee.

The audience was of around 150 participants, with among others Chinese researchers and practitioners. In the presentation A. Lo Porto discussed the differences between the current approach based on SDGs and the previous one based on MDGs.

It was showed how “water” is a transversal subject present in all the SDGs. Furthermore, the SDGs, in which the issue of water use in agriculture is prominent ,were also discussed and analysed.

A. Lo Porto also showed that to achieve the goals a new “model for water-smart society” must be conceived and implemented in which the innovation must play its role based on a multi-stakeholder approach.

On the 28th of June,  A. Lo Porto participated at the session of “Game Changers for the Future Market – setting the scene“, at the CEWP PI ACCESS Program, with about 250 attendees.

Antonio Lo Porto gave a presentation on the WssTP Water Vision and on its SIRA. The concept and the meaning of the ETPs was introduced and a short story of the WssTP was highlighted summarizing current achievements and structure. The three different programmes constituting the backbone of the WssTP activity (Collaboration, Advocacy and Innovation) were descripted.

The value “of” the water and “in” the water were discussed, showing how reusing water sources, adopting the multiple water concept, recovering the valuable goods in the used water streams and advancing the innovation can achieve the goal of creating a future-proof model for water smart societies through the development of water smart communities, the increasing of the circularity in the water economy and the rationale use of multiple water sources.

These concepts are the basis on which the WssTP SIRA has been developed. The major references to water in agriculture, in food production and in the bioeconomy present in the SIRA were discussed and analysed. In the conclusions, the aims of the newly developed “WssTP International Water Dialogues” were discussed.

After this presentation, a cluster of other presentation followed given by representatives of the European Investment Bank, the China Industrial Bank and others, after which a panel debate of around 40 minutes took place.

Water Innovation Europe has been successfully concluded !

The Water Innovation Europe 2018 edition dedicated to “The road towards a water-smart society: “Overcoming the water challenges of the future” was concluded on the 14^th of June in Brussels, with about 200 participants joining us from the whole water sector.

The two special ingredients woven into the fabric of this year’s programme: a strong and visible inclusion of water in HorizonEurope (FP9) including a possible Mission on Water, and provision of a more central place for water in the governance structures at all levels were enthusiastically received by the water community that was present to prove that the sector can become less fragmented and more united on occasions as such. Patrick Child, Deputy-Director General for Research & Innovation, European Commission opened the conference with his key-note speech, highlighting that the next years will be significant for the water sector and that the new programme Horizon Europe will offer the opportunities that the sector urgently needs.

What are the WIE2018 take-home messages?

Built upon the main concepts of the new WssTP Water Vision 2030, the programme of WIE2018 featured high level speakers and panellists who exchanged insights on how we can overcome the future water challenges and achieve a zero-water stress society.

The outcomes emerged out of the five panel sessions: Water Crises; Water -Smart Industry; Water-Smart Cities; Water-Smart Agriculture; Water-Smart Society, keynote speeches and discussions during the WIE2018 conference can be summarized into the following messages:

• Even though in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2018, the water crises were ranked for the 7th consecutive year among the top 5 global societal risks in terms of impact, the value of water for our society is still not sufficiently recognized.
• The impact puts at risk our well-being, health, food production, and our economy, and may lead to social instability and uncontrolled migration.
• To address the water crises at EU level, water needs to be better anchored in the institutional build-up of the Europe Union in a way that does justice to the value of water for our society and all its different uses (urban, industry, food, and nature). The combination of water and energy in a DG Energy & Water seems the logical way forward. Research and innovation are essential to develop better and more affordable solutions and the complexity of the water crises make water a self-evident topic for a HorizonEurope Mission “Securing water for all”.

The whole WIE 2018 Press-Release can be viewed here.

GW4 Water Security Alliance conference

This GW4 Water Security Alliance forum will be focused on the future of innovation, ecosystems and resilience for water security.

It will bring together industry, government and charity leaders to discuss pressing global challenges on water resources.

Confirmed speakers so far include senior representatives from ARUP, the Met Office, Wessex Water, Welsh Water and UKWIR, as well as prominent researchers from the GW4 universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

For more information, please contact gw4water@cardiff.ac.uk