WssTP Innovation Awards Winners 2018 announced !

In the context of Water Innovation Europe 2018 conference “The road towards a Water-Smart Society: Overcoming the Water challenges of the future”, the WssTP Water Innovation Awards 2018 ceremony was held on the 13th of June.

• SMEs Award: Altered: Nozzle 
• Water technology & infrastructure prize: TECHNI
• Digital Water Prize: SmartH20 
• Water Governance Prize: CONCERT’EAU 
• Global Water Challenges Prize: HSBC Water Programme

For more information on the WIE2018 winners, please read the full press release here. To learn more about WssTP Water Innovation Awards 2018, please visit the conference’s webpage.

HYDROUSA: Closing the water loops of the Mediterranean region with innovative regenerative business models [Launching soon]

REGENERATIVE & NATURE-BASED WATER SOLUTIONS

HORIZON 2020 project on Innovative, regenerative and circular solutions for nature-based water management, based on circular value chains.

Water management in Mediterranean islands is currently fragmented and there are several barriers, which need to be overcome in order to close water loops and contribute towards the environmental and economic development of these regions. Mediterranean islands, in particular, face significant challenges in terms of water management and conservation. Water reserves are scarce, while the high touristic activities during the summer months stress the limited water reserves.

To overcome these challenges, a new HORIZON 2020 project, HYDROUSA is set to launch in July 2018 to reimagine a water resilient economy, mitigate climate change and reform the agro-food system.

HYDROUSA aims to provide innovative solutions for Mediterranean islands in terms of water/wastewater treatment and management, which will close the water loops and will also boost their agricultural and energy profile. HYDROUSA goes beyond the current water and wastewater management practices by adopting innovative, nature-based water management solutions for different types of water characterised by low energy footprint. Clear water loops will be demonstrated, recovering added value products, while integrating and interacting with the local market.

These technologies will be demonstrated at six demonstration sites at full scale in three Mediterranean islands (Lesvos, Mykonos and Tinos) whereas the transferability of HYDROUSA solutions will be assessed in 25 early adopter cases in Mediterranean coastal areas and islands and at several water-stressed rural or peri-urban non-Mediterranean areas.

The additional services that will be provided with the innovative approaches will lead to a win-win situation for the economy, the environment, and the community. Comprehensive business models will be developed to demonstrate the economic viability of the aforementioned technologies and services as well as the resulting economic benefits from the recovered materials and energy.

HYDROUSA will not only develop and demonstrate innovative water services, but will revolutionise the water value chains in Mediterranean areas from water use up to sewage treatment and reuse. It will change the human water cycle by valorising non-conventional water resources, which are currently not being exploited.

The consortium of the HYDROUSA project consists of 27 high competent organisations involved in water management, agricultural activities, ICT and, business/marketing, dissemination/ communication spanning throughout the whole water supply chain.

The project is led and coordinated by National Technical University of Athens, (NTUA).

Contact Person:

Simos Malamis

Email: smalamis@central.ntua.gr

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HYDROUSA will officially launch in July 2018. Follow the project’s first steps on twitter @HydrousaProject.

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European media and press enquiries:

Dimitris Kokkinakis

Impact Hub Athens

Email: dimitris.kokkinakis@impacthub.net

The HYDROUSA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776643.

CENTAUR wins Water Industry Award for Innovative Technology

CENTAUR technology was recently awarded as the ‘Most Innovative New Technology of the Year’ at the 2018 Water Industry Awards, an event that celebrates and rewards outstanding achievement and innovation in the UK water industry.

One of the most widespread impacts of climate change will be the increased frequency and severity of urban flooding due to peaked storms with intense rainfall. This has the potential to impact thousands of EU citizens. CENTAUR has been designed in response to the need to reduce flooding in increasingly crowded urban areas by utilising the existing storage capacity within wastewater systems. During periods of intense rainfall, these systems can overflow because their local capacity is exceeded.

The CENTAUR system measures level at key points within a wastewater network and communicates this information via a proprietary radio protocol to the CENTAUR Hub. The Hub uses an Artificial Intelligence algorithm to instruct a gate to effectively manage and utilise capacity that exists within the network.

The CENTAUR project, was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and the technology was developed by a consortium including scientists and engineers from Environmental Monitoring Solutions (EMS) the University of Sheffield, the University of Coimbra, EAWAG (Zurich), Steinhardt GmbH, Veolia and Águas de Coimbra.

To read the full press release, please click here.

For more information about the project itself, click here. If you need a more focused industry approach, you will find more details on the EMS website page.

Newsletter April 2018

WssTP Newsletter April 2018

NextGen : Welcome to the next generation of managing our most important resource

 Major new European initiative announced, which aims to evaluate and champion circular economy solutions and systems in the water sector.

As appetite for the world’s most important resource continues to grow – from water use in industrial processes and agriculture to intensity of urban demand – a new European consortium called NextGen is setting out to challenge embedded thinking and practices in the water sector. By embracing ‘circular economy’ principles and technological innovation to preserve natural capital, optimise resources and improve system efficiency, NextGen aims to boost sustainability and bring new market dynamics throughout the water cycle.

Amongst an array of solutions proposed, advance treatment technologies and nature-inspired storage solutions will optimise water resources; managing and recovering energy more efficiently will turn treatment plants into positive energy generators; and ground breaking nutrient mining and reuse will create new products from waste streams.

Tangible, high-performance innovation, business models and governance conditions to mainstream these solutions are at the heart of NextGen, with 10 large-scale demonstrations in eight different EU countries. Six sites will demonstrate a completely new approach to water supply infrastructures and solutions in urban or rural areas. These full-scale deployments will build capacity, experience and financial models in a further four sites – plus inspire others around Europe and worldwide. Associate partners in the project include organisations from Korea, India and China.

Because everything we own or consume has a water footprint and our every gesture depends on it, the project is also designed to be ‘circular’ in its consultation of citizens and stakeholders. NextGen will aim to energise and engage others to participate in the design and assessment of selected solutions. This includes :

• co-designing new technologies through local Living Lab structures
• taking a leadership role in collaboration platforms and events

Serious games will be used to envisage and test applications and augmented reality applications developed to increase the learning value and understanding of what the demonstrated solutions can achieve.

The breadth of this approach will produce a new level of ability to recover, refine, reuse, repurpose and extend the use-life of an ever-increasing range of water resources and products. It is hoped this will help reinforce the European water and allied sectors as global circular economy pioneers able to transfer and up-scale innovation effectively.

A wide mix of skills and actors will help realise this vision and the project comprises a strong partnership of :

• water companies
• industry
• specialised SMEs
• applied research institutes
• technology platforms
• city and regional authorities

For each of them, NextGen builds on an impressive portfolio of research and innovation projects and leverages multiple European and global networks to deliver real impact. It is lead and coordinated by Dutch water cycle research institute, KWR.

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NextGen will officially launch in July 2018. Follow the project’s first steps on twitter @NextGenWaterEU.

European media and press enquiries:

Alec Walker-Love, European Science Communication Institute (ESCI)

+32 497 487 486

NextGen is a collective water research and innovation initiative from Circular Economy pioneers with diverse areas of expertise. The consortium has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 776541.

POWERSTEP final conference will be held on the 16-17 May in Munich

Transforming municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) from net power consumers into energy neutral or even energy positive service providers is no longer a dream.

Today’s cutting-edge technologies, such as Resource Recovery Factories, have become more affordable for many cities and regions, empowering urban areas with a new source of flexibility in their energy system while also facilitating their commitment towards climate goals.

Discussions around innovations that enable these new Resource Recovery Factories will be at the core of this two-day conference which will feature recognised experts. Participants will learn about the European and energy framework in which the WWTP as a renewable energy source operates, whilst also investigating the market deployment potential.

The project is committed to working in close collaboration with both academia and the industry, therefore each topic has been developed and shaped to meet the IFAT audience expectations: to learn, be questioned and challenge the discussions.

The wastewater sector has a potential in the energy transition for Europe. Don’t underestimate the power of wastewater. Come and discover the circular wastewater economy!

Event details:

CITY: Munich (IFAT)

• START DATE: 16/05/2018
• END DATE: 17/05/2018
• WEBSITE: http://powerstep.eu/powerstep-final-conference

Water Innovation Europe 2018 is knocking at our door with the 4th edition of WssTP Water Innovation Awards!

For this 2018 edition, the Water Innovation Awards is back on track with a big mission: Put the spotlight on new technologies and innovative solutions that respond to the WssTP Water Vision ‘The Value of water’, and support the transition to a European Water-Smart Society.

Do you have an innovative technology but you find it difficult to catch the attention of your target audience?

The WssTP Water Innovation Awards is the competition you are looking for!

Who can apply for these Awards?

WssTP Awards open their doors to diverse areas of expertise, as five different prize categories are featured:

• SMEs prize => SMEs that are innovative both in terms of the solutions and the technologies they create and the way they market th
  ems
  elves and/or their solutions.
• Water Technology & infrastructure prize => Innovative technologies related to all aspects of the water cycle.
• Digital Water prize => Solutions providing digital value to water.
• Water Governance priz
  e => Successful governance solutions.
• Global Water Challenges Prize => Water innovative initiatives
• following the Sustainable Development Goals.

Take Up the Challenge & Register Now!

! Applications Open Until the 13th of May !

Stand out among the most influential stakeholders of the European water sector and showcase your new technologies and innovative solutions.

Are you ready to take up the challenge ? Click and register here. 

[To learn more on the eligibility and conditions to participate, please click here.]

Water Market Europe 2018 Market & Investment for Innovative Digital Solutions concluded with success!

Water Market Europe concluded successfully its second edition on the theme ‘Market & Investment for Innovative Digital Solutions’ on 21 March in Brussels!

The 2018 edition achieved bringing together a unique mix of representatives from the whole water sector, bridging the gap between problem owners and solution providers, while giving the floor to distinguished finance experts and investors to share their insights about the market scenario for the digital water sector. Over 65 organisations and companies were present at the event, half of which took part in the programme of Water Market Europe 2018 to showcase their digital solutions at the Marketplace session. With the speed dating and networking session following, Water Market Europe 2018 provided participants with a promising business platform to meet key stakeholders, exchange information about the innovations presented at the Marketplace session and build bridges for future collaboration.

Water Market Europe 2018 Digital Awards

WssTP hosted the Water Market Europe 2018-Digital Awards, giving the chance to all the organisations and companies that joined the Marketplace session, to present their innovative digital water products and be live voted by the voted by the audience.

Winner of the Water Market Europe 2018 Digital Award was the Space-O project, presented by Apostolos Tzimas from EMVIS, which was selected by the audience as the most innovative digital technology of the event. To read more about the SPACE-O project, please click here.

WssTP & Ιnternational Cooperation

WssTP Vice-President Wim van Vierssen and WssTP Executive Director Durk Krol seized the occasion of Water Market Europe 2018 to meet up with a delegation of the China Europe Water Partnership (CEWP) to discuss future collaboration in the context of the new WssTP International Water Dialogues (WssTP IWD). WssTP IWD aim to facilitate our member’s involvement in business and research collaboration with China, India, and Iran.

WssTP Working Groups

Back to back to Water Market Europe 2018, WssTP Working Groups held their meetings on the 22nd of March 2018 to discuss their latest developments and pave the way towards the finalisation of their annual plans that will be officially presented at the upcoming Water Innovation Europe 2018 conference on the 13-14 June 2018.

About Water Market Europe: Water Market Europe is an event cycle launched by WssTP in March 2017, with the aim to create a unique innovation and business environment, where state of the art water knowledge and research results meet with market actors within and outside the water sector to create new business opportunities. The main edition of WME is hosted in Brussels in spring every year, while smaller editions of WME are being organised during the whole year, back to back to other conferences, trade fairs and conventions. For more information, please contact us.

Quality of life is impossible without quality and abundance of water’ says Neno Dimov, Minister for Environment and Water, Bulgarian EU Presidency

It’s my pleasure to address the WssTP audience on behalf of the first ever Bulgarian Presidency of the ENVI Council!

Nowadays, Europe and its citizens need more security, stability and solidarity. Security which guarantees and protects the health of the planet and of the people. Stability which creates a competitive environment, including sustainable growth and a “green” economy with a focus on the transition to a circular economy and eco-innovations. Solidarity which is based on cohesion and the overall convergence of the society, while taking into account the geographic, cultural and socioeconomic specifics of the regions.

As a rotating Presidency, we put emphasis on the transition to a circular economy which is resource-efficient. We will work for sustainable growth, environment and conditions conducive to eco-innovative solutions.

When talking about circular economy one of the strategic resources of crucial importance we should focus on is water. Quality of life is impossible without quality and abundance of water. This goal is achievable only by common efforts on local, regional, national, European and international level.

As a country that is part of both the Danube and the Black Sea regions, we have a clear understanding on the importance of cooperation for water quality, fighting water pollution, but also the economic perspectives of well-governed water resources.

As a rotating Presidency, we welcomed the revision of the Drinking Water Directive. We consider DWD as one of the essential tools to ensure the quality of the water consumed in the EU. We are confident that our common objective will be that the revised Directive ensures the same level of protection of human health from adverse effects of any contamination of drinking water equally across the whole EU.

Last but not least, we know that water scarcity has worsened in some parts of the EU in recent decades, with damaging effects on the environment and the economy. The reuse of treated wastewater is, therefore, a good option to increase water supply and to alleviate pressure on the water resources, but has to take place in safe and cost-effective conditions. In that respect, the BG Presidency looks forward to the adoption of the new Commission proposal setting minimum requirements for water reuse.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that the Bulgarian Presidency comes at a key point for the future of the Union. I believe that the challenges brought us together and made us stronger. We should respond to crises with “more Europe” because I believe that the future belongs to a united, prospering and inclusive Europe. Because United We Stand Strong!

The value of water – if hidden, it will be overlooked

The value of water – if hidden, it will be overlooked

by Gonzalo Delacámara

Whatever choice in life is based on our perception of the value of things, experiences, and expectations. Whether something is taken, somewhat downplayed or completely overlooked is often the result of the value we assign to it.

Unlike common wisdom, almost everything about water remains unknown. Urban users tend to ignore how much water they consume, most upstream activities before water reaches their tap (notably water withdrawal in the catchment), what happens once wastewater is flushed down the toilet, let alone what an aquifer is or whether water infrastructures are properly maintained and replaced… Barely all that is invisible to them. Other water users (farmers, manufacturing companies, hydropower operators, etc.) may be more aware of the actual impact water has as a critical input for their production processes but it is very likely that, even in that case, they ignore the outcomes on aquatic ecosystems of their production and consumption patterns, the reason why we refer to these as external impacts (either benefits or costs).

There is, however, a clear misconception about the value of water itself, as if it were possible to decide on whether to value it or not. Every individual or collective decision we make about water is implicitly based on values, both on the use of water (both consumptive and not) or its non-use. Ascertaining the value of water is very much about deciding whether to make it explicit.

The WssTP is firmly convinced of the need to raise the profile of water discussions, acknowledging that water resources are critical for social and economic development even where it is a relatively abundant asset, as it is the case in most northern European countries. Water management is connected to social cohesion, spatial development, geo-location of economic activities, macroeconomic performance, social equity, sustainability of development patterns, competitiveness, circular economy, food security, power generation and other energy conversion activities, public health, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation… Within the context of least developed countries, water is also connected to opportunities for a meaningful life, gender equity, poverty alleviation, mass migration and flows of refugees, geopolitical conflicts, all, in turn, having serious long-term implications beyond Europe and in Europe.

Water policy challenges range from structural scarcity and drought risk management to flood and flood risk management, going through water quality enhancement and the conservation of biological diversity and the delivery of aquatic ecosystem services. Nowadays, though, all this happens within the imperative of climate change adaptation, a clear opportunity for social and economic development. Climate change magnifies pre-existing challenges, increasing the frequency and intensity of drought and flood events as well as the level of uncertainty. All in all, this provides a unique opportunity, a generational one, to commit to the challenge of greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation.

In a market economy, economic values of water, sometimes defined by its price, serve as a guide to allocate water amongst alternative (and competing) uses, diverting water into uses in which they yield the greatest economic return. This view, though, is quite limited and shortsighted. Albeit critical, the monetary valuation of water and the identification of the value and the market price of water can be misleading if not adequately understood and explained. If it held true that the economic value of water is measured by its market price, this would entail that only marketed water can have an economic value. Yet, there are clear public-good management situations around water as well as many cultural perceptions that should not be dealt with from economic analysis. The economic value is different than the price, prices do not in general measure the economic value and a number of things with no market price may still have a positive economic value since they nevertheless contribute to human well-being.

The value of water is one of the four key components of the WssTP’s Vision. Understanding and eliciting that value is, therefore, one of the crosscutting, strategic priorities of the Platform, and one leading to a water smarter economy, to foster water use efficiency, reclaimed wastewater reuse, more equitable and efficient allocation, and further sustainability of production and consumption patterns Europe wide. Needless to say that this also entails the recognition of the value in water, linked to nutrients, minerals, metals and other energy and material flows embedded in wastewater effluents.

The value of water goes well beyond the contribution of the water and sanitation sector to GDP, employment, and competitiveness. Water resources management is critical for agriculture, mining and other extractive activities, manufacturing, tourism and other recreational activities, and energy conversion… As above, this is just one dimension of the value of water, in which water is recognised as a critical input for all those economic activities if an important one.

The new WssTP Cluster on the value of water aims at showing the role water plays in our society and our economy, contributing to an enhanced understanding of that value, conveying that value within and outside the water community – hence highlighting the critical interlinkages between water and social and economic development, and estimating when and how it is needed those values in an explicit way so as to inform corporate decision making, social awareness, and policy making.

The Cluster will not only contribute to the implementation of the WssTP Water Vision 2030 but also to a wider work stream that is connected to worldwide initiatives such as the Valuing Water Initiative of the Joint World Bank – United Nations High Level Panel of Water, launched on November 30th, 2016, that has presented the results of its regional consultation at the recent World Water Forum 2018 (Brasilia). This includes the so-called Bellagio principles: recognising water’s multiple values, building trust, protecting water sources, educating to empower, investing and innovating.

As part of the work in the Cluster, we will contribute to understanding the value of water, to measure that value for different uses and users, integrating the value of water in improved decision making at different levels, and overall enhancing water governance.

Valuing water should change our mindset when approaching water and its management. If its value remains hidden and implied not only will we face significant challenges but we will also miss a great opportunity.

Gonzalo Delacámara