MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Members,

Covid-19 has imposed great restrictions, but the experience of quarantine has helped us to strengthen our belief in ourselves, our businesses, our teams, and our ideas.

As Darwin’s theory of evolution proved: complications make us stronger and prepare us to better withstand a situation of constant uncertainty. In this context, I would like to express how robustly our sector has endured and is enduring this period of instability, during which our treatment plants have continued to produce and treat water with even greater availability, we have continued to build the plants contracted prior to Covid-19, and the sector has shown itself to be resilient.

In this time of change, IDA continually works to promote best reuse practices.

Reuse of wastewater constitutes a source that could easily replace conventional water resources for many uses in agriculture or industry. Today we have the necessary experience and technology, ranging from reuse by simple filtration that removes suspended solids to elimination of salts by reverse osmosis technology. We can achieve zero brine concentration and discharge to obtain the required qualities depending on the use to which the product water is put.

There is a clear intention to expand the water reuse in the market, and increase reuse levels in all countries. The new European regulation will enable increasing the use of reuse technologies in Europe, thereby helping to fight water stress and scarcity. To date, European legislation had not been of much help, but now there is an appropriate framework. Greater reuse of treated wastewater will decrease withdrawals from surface water bodies and groundwater, promoting water savings and ensuring a high degree of environmental protection.

Currently and due to the situation, there is a general shortage of government funds for construction and upgrading of water infrastructures, but it is not true that there are

no other well-managed financing sources as good as or better than state budgets. We know, there are funds for water-related projects in the multilateral bodies. Many financial institutions and banks have the necessary appetite for financing water infrastructures provided that the payment and withdrawal guarantee of the transactions are properly structured.

The application of funds by private enterprises ensures the economic support, which relieves the pressure on global and regional economies, drives professionalization of the sector and provides solutions to the aforesaid challenges. As an example, the public-private model in combination with Project Finance that has achieved excellent results over the past decade, implementing many water solutions and upgrading infrastructures with record rates. This allows all the stakeholders involved to make progress to obtain a risk optimization model under which each stakeholder assumes the risk for which it is best prepared.

Also, it is crucial to invest in social awareness and education of the population so that people understand that recycled water now achieves exceptional quality standards that are high enough to allow it to be considered a water resource that is safe for health and for companies. Local and national strategies are needed to promote the healthiest use of recycled water in the best conditions. And as acceptance by users increases, standards for reuse will be achieved and accepted around the world, which will help in the fight against water shortages and water stress.

The big challenge in the next decade is to overcome these four barriers. If we can achieve this, then incredible solutions will be available to replace the very limited precious freshwater resource that is being used for industrial uses and agricultural purposes (10-15% and 70- 80% respectively), reserving our freshwater resources for future generations. With only 4% of water reused globally to date, there is a large gap to cover growing global water needs. With desalination and water reuse solutions, our sector can fill this gap.

In IDA we believe that alternative water resources can help to make a better world, so we promote them in every activity we develop. We hope to count on all our members and associates to continue to be a standard bearer in the desalination and advanced water treatments.

I hope you enjoy summer 2020 and, that those of you who get the chance to go on holiday enjoy it with your loved ones.

Carlos Cosin IDA President