[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Session 4 of Water Innovation Europe concluded yesterday, leaving us more informed than before about what the Living Labs are and how they can foster a Water-Smart Society. The speakers of yesterday’s session opened new horizons for the future of water innovations. They proved that the Living Labs represent the best opportunity to promote water solutions for targeted problems but also a resilient strategy to train a new generation of water professionals.
We spent the afternoon joining two exciting Workshops where a variety of water professionals presented their pioneering solutions based on hybrid green and grey infrastructures. There is a lot we have learnt yesterday, but we summarized for you 5 key messages to take home:
✅ Innovation is not limited to technology but also concerns finance and governance. We need equitable innovation and for this, we need the political will to make water a global and local political priority.
✅ Water Oriented Living Labs are an opportunity to address the right way governance, finance and technologies can work. It is a very inclusive and collaborative structure that includes multiple groups of stakeholders, breaks the silos and delivers results and solutions to targeted problems.
✅ To involve citizens, transparency, information and incentives are key elements. The public and youth are aware that water is not an infinite resource. It’s very important to include them in the management of water by providing real-time transparency on the effectiveness and efficiency of the local water management systems.
✅ Investing in information and giving access to information are crucial. It is key to bring technological providers all together to cooperate and make information more reliable by sharing data.
✅ Technologies and tools are available- The biggest challenges are collaboration, bringing people together, sharing information, and connecting these technologies. There are what we need to work on.
During the event, we had the pleasure to know who is the winner of the Water Governance Award, thanks to Manon Berge’s presentation.
Water-Smart SME Awards: Central Solutions deserved this award for its outstanding solution.
The last, but not least, Session 5 is coming up. We are looking forward to meeting you there.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/JNpwHJmvDTU”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
