How to secure drinking water quality? The new ToDrinQ project is here

On 15-16 December 2022, the partners of the new EU-funded project, ToDrinQ convened in Delft, the Netherlands, for its kick-off meeting. Climate change and increased pollution from, among others pesticides, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, present drinking water operators with an increasing challenge to monitor and ensure the quality of our drinking water.

Due to the increased risk and complexity of pollution, the EU revised the drinking water directives and sharpened the risk assessment. As a result, drinking water operators face the challenge of collecting more information on drinking water quality in order to take timely action. In particular, real-time data on compounds and organisms of emerging concern such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, disinfection by-products, heavy metals and micro-organisms are often not available.

The project ToDrinQ is here to investigate this further. Led by TU Delft, the new project brings together 16 partners from 8 countries to develop new technologies for real-time detection and monitoring of water quality and test innovative treatment systems especially suitable for small-scale treatment plants. Water Europe is glad to be among the partners leading the project’s Communication, Dissemination, and Clustering activities.

Interested in following ToDrinQ’s updates? Follow its social media (Twitter, LinkedIn) 

New event coming up: Water efficiency in industry- Register by 02/01

Join us on January 12th and take part in a discussion on how industry can mitigate and overcome the challenges of water in a sustainable and efficient way.

Water is an essential resource for our society, nations and the industries supporting the growth we aim for. While water scarcity is discussed as global resource challenge, it is today also becoming a European issue with water scarcity and droughts emerging across Europe and in some areas have become the new normal. The water scarcity issue poses threats to our people, nature and not least our economy as it a vital input to our production of food, building material and industries.

According to the UN, industry today represents 50% of the total water consumption in Europe. Therefore, when meeting the demands of our European societies in the future, water resources in industries need to be utilised in a more efficient and sustainable way. Not only to meet the demands but also to minimise the rising risks of water shortage as input for the production of goods and infrastructure.

The technical potential to save water in industrial processes is 75%, but today only a few percent of water is being reused. To catch the untapped potential of water efficiency in industries, ambitious regulatory frameworks and goals need to be addressed by the EU. How can industry really contribute to a water-smart society?

Registrations open until 02 January 2023. Check the full programme and register here.

New EU-funded project WATERVERSE has started its activities

How can we make water data management accessible, affordable, secure, fair, and easy to use? This autumn, a new EU-funded project saw the light, committed to do exactly that. WATERVERSE project, funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, aims at developing a Water Data Management Ecosystem (WDME) for making data management practices and resources in the water sector accessible, affordable, secure, fair, and easy to use, improving the usability of data and the interoperability of data-intensive processes.

Digitalisation is a key enabler for the water sector, which can be leveraged to implement strategic policy commitments and directives at national, European and international levels. Data-intensive technologies are being adopted in the water sector but the actual use of data is hindered by strong data ownership approaches due to the perception that data sharing is a risk for confidentiality leakage, security aspects of critical infrastructures, unclear business models, poor quality of data, as well as the fragmentation and conservative attitude of the end-users.

The three-year project is now stepping in to blend together competencies from the water domain technology providers and innovation companies, as well as the technical community that is driving the development of data spaces, thus increasing the resilience of the water sector and water utilities, as a whole. The project will be demonstrated in 6 countries (Cyprus, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the UK), establishing clear and measurable indicators to assess data equity in water-related data spaces and ensuring feasibility and the sustainability of the ecosystem, as well as its replicability, scalability and business applicability.

WATERVERSE brings great expertise on board, combining the skills of 17 partners from 10 European countries, including research organizations, water service companies, technology providers and innovation companies. Water Europe is among the consortium’s partners, leading the Communication and Dissemination activities. The kick-off meeting of the project was held on the 11th and 12th of October 2022, in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted by the project’s coordinator CERTH.

Interested in the project’s developments? Follow its social media LinkedIn, Twitter.

New WE Position Paper for a Water-Smart Nutrient Management Action Plan

In the context of the public consultation on Nutrients – action plan for better management, Water Europe released a policy-oriented paper to encourage a water-smart Nutrient management action plan.  The water sector and particularly the utilities are key actors to recycle and recover nutrients but it needs to be supported by:

1. Raising Awareness through efficient monitoring to better understand the impact of nutrients on water and our environment
2. Reducing nutrients uses with targets and a clear framework for legislative clarity, that includes to:
   • Close the nutrient cycle to stop nutrient loss, recover and recycle through nature base solutions for instance
   • Reduce the exploitation of natural (virgin) resources to reduce the dependency of importations
   • Enable recovery and recycling of materials with good quality and efficient function suitable for their applications

Have a look to Water Europe policy-oriented paper here and all the different related projects.

Water Europe present at the World Water Week 2022

Last week, Loic Charpentier, our WE Water Innovation Policy Manager joined the World Water Week 2022, held from the 23rd to the 1st of September in Stockholm.

During the session ”Creating New Champions: Enhancing Links to Achieve SDG 6 Across”, Loic spoke on behalf of the EU Water Alliance, presenting the work done over the previous couple of years by the EUWA. The session, overall, provided information and evidence-based recommendations about how to increase the political prioritization of the #water and #sanitation agenda, both within other sectors and with high-level decision-makers around the world.

This was a great opportunity to exchange with Water Europe members, partners and other key stakeholders, especially, at this timing, in light of the recast of the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Urban Wastewater Directive.

WE WOLLs Workshop at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition

Water Europe is hosting a dedicated Water-Oriented Living Labs Workshop during the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, happening from the 11 to the 15th of September in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Under the title ‘ Water-Oriented Living Labs as a mean to engage stakeholders in the development and demonstration of water technologies’, the workshop will present cases and discuss WOLLs as a mean to engage stakeholders to co-develop water technologies and speed up the demonstration of innovation.  In particular, WOLLs and lessons learnt will be presented from different European regions and sectors:

• Water Europe, Belgium: Overview of European WOLL’s Atlas and mechanisms to promote its development, presented by the association leading this effort
• Scottish Water Horizons will present the Water Test Network, offering testing facilities for SMEs to develop new technology. Partners are from Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Belgium
• REWAISE will present activities of 24 partners demonstrating innovative processes and governance models at WOLL’s in three hubs (Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental).
• Sweden Water Research will present Oerewise, the Greater Copenhagen Living Lab focusing on climate change adaptation in urban areas of the Oeresund Region.

The workshop will take place on the 14th of September from 15.45 – 17.15.  Check the full event’s programme.

Water4All Partnership kicks-off

Water4All co-funded Partnership started on 1st June 2022. The WATER4All initiative main objective is to enable water security for all on the long term, by boosting systemic transformations and changes across the water-research innovation pipeline. Water Europe leads the key Pillar D of Water4All on demonstration of innovation through the Water-Oriented Living Labs.

Water4All published the Pre-Call Announcement of the 2022 Joint Transnational Call. Thirty-Three Funding Agencies from all over Europe and beyond are pleased to pre-announce a joint transnational call for research and innovation projects on “Management of water resources for increased resilience, adaptation and mitigation to hydroclimatic extreme events”.

The call will focus on solutions for hydroclimatic extreme events and will address at least one of the following topics:

Topic 1. Resilience, adaptation and mitigation to hydroclimatic extreme events
Topic 2. Tools for water management – in the context of hydroclimatic extreme events
Topic 3. Improved water governance in the context hydroclimatic extreme events and international contexts
The call should open on 1st September 2022 and final confirmation is expected soon, so stay tuned!

For more information, please contact Andrea Rubini

New Water Europe Board Composition 2022-2023

Water Europe is pleased to announce the new composition of its Board of Directors for the period 2022-2023. The Annual General Meeting was held digitally in the context of the Water Innovation Europe 2022 conference on 14 June 2022.

The Board of Directors is the Water Europe’s deliberative and decision-making body with representatives from all five corporate membership colleges. In line with the new governance adopted at the general meeting, five Vice-Presidents will be elected by the board in September 2022 where they will be given different portfolios according to the main priorities of Water Europe.

Hans Goossens has been elected as our new Water Europe President. After 10 years behind the wheel, Tomas Michel passed the torch to Hans Goossens during the Water Innovation Europe Awards Ceremony on the 14th of June. Tomas remains as Past-President in the Water Europe Board. Watch here the first video interview of Hans Goossens, as WE president.

This year, also, for the first time, the Water Europe board welcomed two advisors, Luisa Prista and Paul Rübig that will bring their great expertise from their respective fields into the Board activities. Discover their role and expectations in this new video.

Find here the full composition of our Water Europe board.

Water recycling system Hydraloop wins UN award

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the agency of the United Nations, has chosen Hydraloop as winner of the WIPO Global Awards Program. Hydraloop was elected because it has developed unique, patented technology that can substantially reduce water consumption worldwide, realizing a huge social impact. Due to human behavior and the effects of climate change, almost every region in the world now suffers from water stress.

WIPO’s Global Awards program praises Hydraloop as an exceptional company that uses its intellectual property (IP) in an innovative and smart way to help solve the water crisis and improve the quality of life worldwide. Arthur Valkieser, CEO of Hydraloop, says: “This UN award is a great recognition of the value of our intellectual property and the impact Hydraloop has in the fight against the rapidly growing global shortage of clean water. Our no filters/membranes/chemical technology and proprietary IP are unique and change the market. With Hydraloop, anyone – anywhere in the world – can take action and save water.”

The Global Awards program is rooted in WIPO’s mission to ensure a world where innovation and creativity are supported by intellectual property. WIPO’s program recognizes the central role of innovative and creative activities of SMEs that leverage intellectual property rights to develop solutions that make a positive contribution, economically, socially and culturally. The prize is awarded based on successful commercialization of IP and its positive impact on society.

To learn more about HYDRALOOP company, click here.

WE Working Groups ready for Water Innovation Europe 2022

Water Europe Working Groups are preparing their main annual meetings back to back to Water Innovation Europe 2022 where they will discuss on the achievements and future programme.

New thematic cooperation and alliances are emerging in the WE WGs clusters, such as the collaboration between the WG Zero pollution, the WG Water and Health and WG Water and Biodiversity that have already met and plan to meet in future to create a critical mass of expertise on crucial challenges requiring different contribution and crosscutting knowledge.