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.

Tomas Michel, President’s Editorial

Dear Water Europe family,

Last week, the Water Europe Board met in Helsinki, hosted by Ilari Aho from Uponor. It was great to meet up again in person, and Helsinki greeted us with an extraordinary mild climate for the time of the year. This board meeting was important because among many other administrative and housekeeping issues and decisions, the board decided to coopt Hans Goosens to the Board, which will leave his actual board seat open for election,  and further elected him as new Water Europe President for the period 2022-2024. These changes will be effective from June on, and have been made to allow for a smooth transition at that point in time.

The board further approved the WE Diversity and Inclusiveness Plan, the launch of a new series of WE publications on Water-Oriented Living Labs, the appointment of three new members to our Vision Leadership teams whose rooster is now almost complete, as well as the adoption of three new WE White Papers and Technical Reports.

As you are aware, Water Europe has chosen the Living Lab approach as the core element of its implementation strategy to achieve a Water-Smart Society. After publishing the Atlas on Water-oriented Living Labs, which set the stage and analyzed existing experiences and the status quo, Water Europe is now about to launch two new publications that further elaborate on the WOLLs concept and methodology. The first document “What you should know about Water-oriented Living Labs” summarizes the history of the Living Labs concept, while the 2^nd document ‘How to assess and evolve a Water-oriented Living Lab” elaborates on a methodology that makes it possible to compare WOLLs on a large number of properties and to assess them with a quantitative instrument. A third document in the form of Advanced Guidelines will contain a tailored approach for WoLLs to advance to WELLs building on the WE Vision.

In the moment of writing this editorial, one more exciting edition of Water Market Europe 2022 with 140 participants attending in person and online, is taking place. Back to back to the event, Working Groups meetings will be taking place and two workshops have been also organised. One dedicated to the SIM4NEXUS Serious Game, organised by the SMARTEN project which was held on March 30th and the workshop on Digitlisation of Bathing Water Management which is taking place on the 5th of April, co-hosted by digital-water.city, Water Europe, iBathWater and Sinergea. Learn more about the full programme here.

After the conclusion of this Water Market Europe 2022 edition, Water Europe is getting ready for its first International Water Dialogues 2022 event that will take place under the title ”International Cooperation through a Water-Oriented Living Lab (WOLL) Approach” on the 26 and 27 of April 2022. The IWD event aims to raise awareness about the main water challenges and analyse the progress done between the European Union and the world, particularly with China, India, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. More details here.

Just before addressing the WME2022 audience, Charlie Walker is setting the scene for WME with an exclusive editorial that offers us an outlook on the industrial water market at a European and global level.

This year promises to be one of interesting changes and new challenges and opportunities. So, stay tuned for more news.

The Water-Smart community mobilised for the World Water Day

This year’s World Water Day was dedicated to groundwater and across the whole week of this official day, Water Europe’s community was mobilised to raise the importance of a Water-Smart Society in Europe and beyond across several direct and indirect actions.

A Water-Smart Society is a “society in which the true value of water is recognised and realised, all available water sources are managed in such a way that water scarcity and pollution of water resources are avoided, water and resource loops are largely closed to foster a circular economy and optimal resource efficiency, and the water system is resilient against the impact of climate change events ; and all relevant stakeholders are involved in the governance of our water system”.

The Water Europe Community had the opportunity to raise its voice at the World Water Forum, taking place in Dakar from the 21^st to the 25^th of March, during which several Water Europe’s members actively participated in the debates, stressing out examples, challenges and opportunities for a water-smart management.  In particular, Dominique Darmendrail – BRGM and VLT leader for the value of water –  participated to the sessions on Science, Research, Innovation and Technologies which highlighted the importance of sustainable water resource management and the key role of groundwater for new solutions, specifically for the regions strongly impacted by climate change. There is a need to make visible groundwaters to protect them against pollutions and unsustainable exploitation. Moreover, collaborative research and innovation across the value-chain and at all levels is the prerequisite to achieve a Water-Smart Society. Now, these elements must be translated into actions by all the stakeholders, including financial institutions to support research and deployed innovative solutions. The forum closed its curtains with a Dakar Declaration, calling for a “Blue Deal”.

Last week, Water Europe was also invited at Dubai Expo 2020 to raise its expertise and Water Vision. Invited by the Slovenian Government, Water Europe had the chance to debate with the innovative water stakeholders in the Slovenian pavilion on climate change and groundwater. It was a fruitful exchange on several water-related topics such as public health, drinking and bathing water, circular wastewater management and digitalisation. This water week in Dubai Expo was also an opportunity to discuss water-smart solutions with innovators from other European member states’ such as Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Estonia. Read more about the Dubai Expo 2020.

On the 25^th of March, the MEP Water Group and UNESCO organised the annual event on the United-Nations Report 2022, dedicated to Groundwater: Making the invisible visible with the participation of the Italian Ambassador Stefano Verrecchia, Deputy Permanente Representation of Italy to the European Union. Louise Haxthausen, Director of the  UNESCO Liaison office in Brussels reminded us that “Better protecting and managing Groundwater is our collective responsibility and it is in our collective interest”, while Sophie Vermooten – Deltares and Member of the Policy Advisory Committee of Water Europe underlined that a holistic approach of surface and groundwater is key to ensure sustainable water management. Read the full report from the event here.

Water Europe supports a stronger involvement of the European Parliament for a Water-Smart Society. As mentioned during the MEP Water Group- UNESCO event, the legislators have a political responsibility to ensure water security. On the 22^nd of March, Water Europe addressed an open letter to the Members of the European Parliament calling on them to protect our water resources by adopting a Water-Smart Society and recognising the true value of water. Several water-related legislations are under revision and must consider the value of water. The latest IPCC report highlights the lack of political support for tackling water-related challenges.  In this context, Water Europe welcomes the coordinated action of the Steering board of the MEP Water Group to address a number of water-related questions to the European Commission on the importance of the protection of our groundwater resources.

All the relevant updates are available on our website and social media. Did you miss any highlights? Click here.

4 Things you might have missed this week

Spirits were high at Water Europe this week as we celebrated the World Water Day 2022, under the theme of Groundwater: making the invisible visible. All eyes were on the 2022 UN World Water Development Report on “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible” , released by the United Nations at the 9th World Water Forum, held in Dakar, Senegal.

-On this occasion, Water Europe and the MEP Water Group organised a special event to inform participants about the countless groundwater opportunities and the relative legal and regulatory framework.

-To raise awareness on the importance of our groundwater resources for our society and economy, Water Europe actively contributed with a number of key actions. One of these included the open letter sent to the Members of the European Parliament, as a call for protecting our water resources by adopting a Water-Smart Society and recognising the true value of water. 

-The World Water Day made us realise that achieving a Water-Smart Society, is more important now than ever. On this matter, we actively spread this message over all our social media channels, to remind everyone that a Water-Smart Society is a society where:

✔ the true value of water is recognised and realised,
✔ all available water sources are managed in such a way that water scarcity and pollution of water resources are avoided,
✔ water and resource loops are largely closed to foster a circular economy and optimal resource efficiency,
✔ the water system is resilient against the impact of climate change events,
✔ all relevant stakeholders are involved in the governance of our water system.

-Besides our digital campaign, Water Europe was also physically present at the Dubai Expo 2022. Here, our Innovation Water Policy Manager, Loïc Charpentier joined a variety of events and workshops to promote our collective job and objectives but also to network with water expert from all around the world. To wrap up the Dubai week, a more detailed article will follow up soon.