Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly 16

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FROM THE EDITOR

DESALINATION, A STRATEGIC RESOURCE TO SOLVE THE WATER CRISIS

Water scarcity is an increasingly pressing problem worldwide due to unstoppable demographic growth, the exodus of the population to large cities and the ever-present effects of climate change. In many regions, the demand for water far exceeds the available supply, forcing the adoption of new strategies to address this water crisis. In this scenario, desalination and water reuse are two options increasingly used to continue reducing the gap in access to safe drinking water, in compliance with Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Seawater desalination has undergone significant developments in recent years. Research and innovation have made it possible to reduce its environmental impact, increase its efficiency in energy use and reduce the cost of producing desalinated water, making it a real alternative for tackling this crisis.

Currently, the use of renewable energies for the production of desalinated water and the digital transformation of all processes offer more possibilities to position desalination as a competitive option compared to other sources of the resource.

In this year’s first issue of Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly we wanted to analyse the importance of this strategic resource from all facets and first-hand from the key players in this field. In the following pages, you will be able to learn more about the potential environmental impact of brine in the Arabian Gulf, emerging technologies such as floating desalination or ceramic desalination, the latest advances in membrane technologies and their implications for desalination, the use of digital twins for the operation of desalination plants, the success story of the Arucas-Moya desalination plant in the Canary Islands, Spain, or about the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project in California, USA.

But if there is a world reference organisation in desalination, it is the Interna-

EDITORIAL STAFF

Laura Fernández Zarza

Paula Sánchez Almendros

Olivia Tempest Prados

Cristina Novo Pérez

tional Desalination Association. In the year that the Association celebrates its 50th anniversary, we had the opportunity to interview the President of its Board of Directors. Mr Fady Juez was elected last November for the period 20222024, after having been a member of its board for two decades. The protagonist of SWMB16’s cover begins his term with a clear objective: “to do everything in my power to ensure that all communities, rural, remote and otherwise, have access to clean, safe and clean water at all times of the day”. We at Smart Water Magazine wish Mr Juez the best of luck. His good judgement will be a success for all. Enjoy the magazine.

MANAGEMENT

Alejandro Maceira Rozados

David Escobar Gutiérrez

EDITOR

Alejandro Maceira Rozados

ADVERTISING

Javier de los Reyes

ART AND GRAPHIC DESIGN

Pablo González-Cebrián

Esther Martín Muñoz

DaviD Escobar - Partner at SWM D @davizescobar - E DavidEscobariAgua

PUBLISHER

iAgua Conocimiento, S.L.

C/ José Ortega y Gasset, 22-24, planta 5, 28006 - Madrid info@iagua.es

FEATURE

TACKLING THE ENERGY CRISIS

Pg. 20 Water utilities are seeking solutions to ensure the quality of services as rising energy costs challenge their operations.

CONTENTS

NUMBER 16 - FEB/MAR 2023

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW OPINION

A LOOK AT DESALINATION IMPACTS

Pg. 36 In this interview Prof. Francesco Paparella discusses the findings of a study on the potential impacts of desalination on the Persian Gulf.

ISOBARIC ERDS IN PRACTICE

Pg. 32 Idaira Sanchez, Manager of the Arucas-Moya SWRO plant in the Canary Islands, tells us about their experience with the Danfoss MPE 70 ERDs.

FOCUS ON THE MOST VULNERABLE

Pg. 86 Guillaume Baggio urges countries to pursue their commitments to the SDGs despite the challenging economic and geopolitical context.

CONTENTS NUMBER 16 - FEB/MAR 2023

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW IDA: ON COURSE FOR 50 YEARS

Pg. 12 In an exclusive interview, the President of the IDA Board, Fady Juez, gives us his views on the desalination and water reuse industry.

ADVANCES IN MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY

Pg. 44 Prof. Stephen Gray speaks to us about recent developments in membrane technologies and their applications in the water industry.

OPINION INTERVIEW

THE BENEFITS OF WATER REFINING

Pg. 43 We hear from Tina Arrowood on adopting a refinery mindset to reduce untreated wastewater and increasing safe water reuse globally.

FLOATING DESALINATION SAILS OFF

Pg. 24 Floating desalination solutions are emerging as a promising option to supply freshwater; Michael Larsen from EnviroNor explains why.

FEATURE

A WORLD REFERENCE IN DIGITAL WATER

Pg. 64 ICEX explores the opportunities in the digital transformation of the water sector, and the contribution of Spanish companies.

INTERVIEW

THE DOHENY DESALINATION PROJECT

Pg. 52 The South Coast Water District, in California, is embracing desalination; General Manager Rick Shintaku describes their plans.

OPINION

EMERGING MARKETS FOR DIGITAL WATER

Pg. 19 Utilities in emerging markets are at earlier stages of their digital water journeys, creating opportunities for long-term expansion.

OPINION

THE UNLIMITED POTENTIAL OF DIGITAL

Pg. 69 Sheilla De Carvalho discusses the value of water digitalisation, calling for a different way to preserve, use and reuse water.

OPINION

A WATER SOLUTION FOR GROWERS

Pg. 92 Agriculture is the largest water user globally; Peter Blezard reviews a solution to enable growers to reduce water use by half.

INTERVIEW

WATER TECH FOR WATER SECURITY

Pg. 80 We speak with Professor Thalappil Pradeep, winner of the VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators from Developing Countries.

OPINION

A SHIFT IN OUR NOTION OF SECURITY

Pg. 79 Dr. Rosario Sanchez shares her thoughts on how climate, water, and our environment are testing our very cherished paradigms of security.

FEATURE

A CONFERENCE FOR WATER ACTION

Pg. 88 The UN 2023 Water Conference in March will be a unique opportunity to accelerate action for water and advance water-related SDGs.

CONTENTS

NUMBER 16 - FEB/MAR 2023

CONTENTS NUMBER 16 -

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE KEY PLAYERS OF THE WATER SECTOR

DIGITAL TWIN SOFTWARE FOR PLANTS

Pg. 58 Envirosuite’s Plant Optimiser provides real-time advice to manage climate change-induced events and deliver compliant operations.

OPINION

AN ANSWER FOR INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER

Pg. 42 Greg Newbloom describes new technology to treat industrial wastewater streams through the use of ceramic desalination membranes.

OPINION

CONNECTING THE VOICES OF WATER

Pg. 18 The Reservoir Center for Water Solutions Washington D.C. provides an opportunity to boost collaboration in the water community.

YOUNG AND DRIVING CHANGE

Pg. 30 Alexia Leclercq, grassroots organizer, educator, scholar and artist, is the 2022 recipient of the WWF Conservation Leadership Award.

PERSON OF THE MONTH INTERVIEW

THRIVING IN A DRIER FUTURE

Pg. 74 In this interview, Dr Caitlin Peterson shares her insights on how the state of California can address its water challenges.

FEATURE INTERVIEW

FOCUSING ON COMPLIANCE

Pg. 60 David Lynch and Nick Zarzycki answer our questions on their recent report about the challenges utilities face as they go digital.

MEET THE NEW FACES IN THE MOST IN

In this section we have compiled the most important appointments that have taken place recently, and entail taking up a position or role within influential entities (public, private or mixed) in the water sector.

PETER HERWECK

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC APPOINTS PETER HERWECK AS NEW CEO

Between 2016 and 2021, Herweck formed part of the Schneider Electric team as Executive Vice President of Industrial Automation

Schneider Electric has appointed Peter Herweck as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective on May 4th, 2023. For the past two years, Herweck has served as CEO of AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving innovation and sustainability. The company was acquired by Schneider Electric in January 2023.

“In the last two years, I have had the privilege to lead AVEVA where we have undergone a massive transformation. Changing the scale by integrating three great companies – Schneider Electric’s Software, AVEVA and OSISoft. Launching the Platform of the new Data Hub, including the transition to cloud. Pivoting the organization to offers facilitate the decarbonization of industry,” wrote Peter Herweck in a LinkedIn post.

Herweck will be replaced in AVEVA by Caspar Herzberg, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, as Herweck announced on LinkedIn: “Caspar Herzberg will become the AVEVA Chief Executive Officer, effective March 1. Congratulations Caspar Herzberg.”

Between 2016 and 2021, Herweck formed part of the Schneider Electric team as Executive Vice President of Industrial Automation. From May onwards, he will replace Jean-Pascal Tricoire, who has served for the past 17 years as Chief Executive Officer. Tricoire will remain chairman of the board.

“I am excited to take this role, following in the strong footpath of Jean-Pascal Tricoire, under whose leadership Schneider Electric has developed into a global leader in digital, electrification and sustainability,” said Herweck.

MENTS _ FLUENTIAL WATER SECTOR ENTITIES

Pragada confirms focus on driving significant profitable growth and delivering on the company’s strategy accelerators

Jacobs confirms Bob Pragada has been named Chief Executive Officer. Pragada brings more than 30 years of global business leadership and military experience to Jacobs, including 17 years with the company and nine years as a Civil Engineer Corps and Seabees Officer with the U.S. Navy.

Having served as a facilities director at Camp David during the Clinton administration, Pragada is the second Indian American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Subsequently, he is the first Indian American, veteran and person of colour appointed as CEO of Jacobs.

“It is an exciting time for Jacobs,” said Pragada. “Concentrating our strategy accelerators around climate response, data solutions, and consulting and advisory services, we’re anticipating the global trends most important to our clients to develop differentiated, data-enabled solutions that meet their needs. I am honored to take on the role of CEO and advance the compelling work underway to further diversify our capabilities and offerings, increasing opportunities and value for our people, our clients and our shareholders alike.”

As CEO, Pragada remains focused on continuing Jacobs’ efforts to align its portfolio to attractive, high-growth sectors –specifically in the areas of water infrastructure, environmental resiliency, energy transition, EV, life sciences and semiconductor manufacturing – leveraging the company’s deep domain experience and unique capabilities.

BOB PRAGADA

JACOBS APPOINTS BOB PRAGADA NEW CEO

SUSAN GEHOSKI

Gehoski has over twenty years of experience at Fortune 100 and 500 companies with experience in business strategy and talent management

MIGUEL ÁNGEL SANZ

MIGUEL ÁNGEL SANZ BECOMES FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF MS WATER CONSULT

With a career of over thirty years at Suez, Miguel Ángel Sanz has become President and Founder of MS Water Consult

Brown and Caldwell announced Susan Gehoski has joined the leading environmental engineering and construction services firm as its new chief people officer (CPO).

With over 20 years of experience at Fortune 100 and 500 companies, Gehoski has held various human resources (HR) leadership roles, providing strategic direction in start-up, mergers and acquisitions, and growth modes for healthcare, manufacturing, engineering and professional services, and utilities.

Before joining Brown and Caldwell, she served on the leadership team at a global mining company, building its HR function and serving as an executive advisor to implement strategic people plans to support business objectives.

Her broad experience includes business strategy, talent management, leadership development, change management, organizational design, and employee experience.

As CPO, Denver-based Gehoski will lead Brown and Caldwell’s people and culture strategy as it continues to grow across North America and the Pacific. In the last five years, the firm has increased its headcount by one-third to over 1,900 employee-owners.

She will play a key role in enhancing creative people-centric approaches in support of Brown and Caldwell’s growth aspirations as it invests in its people through leadership and technical development programs, benefit options, and continuing education. She will counsel and lead all talent and HR-related initiatives while serving as a culture steward for the company.

Miguel Ángel Sanz announced a new stage in his career as President and Founder of MS Water Consult, with the aim to work as a consultant in the field of Technical and/or Commercial Development for water treatment plants and desalination technologies, drinking water, wastewater and biosolids.

With a Masters’ Degree in Industrial Engineering, he has worked for 39 years in the international water market for Suez. He joined the group in Degrémont (Spain) in 1983 and since then has held various positions at the Spanish and French sites, including Technical Director, Desalination Manager, Proposal Director; in addition to Business Development Director, and Director of Strategic Development in the Infrastructure Division.

“After 39 years of activity in one of the biggest companies in the sector, such as Suez, the objective now is to take advantage of that experience and knowledge of the market on a smaller scale, but to continue in the exciting world of water, and desalination in particular,” he said.

“In this first stage of MS Water Consult, the vocation is to concentrate a little more on the desalination and reuse market, as it is a market with strong development potential and great growth, and one in which I have been very involved over the last twenty-five years.

He has also been president of the IDA between 2017-2019 and a member of its Board of Directors since 2009. In addition, Sanz has been on the Board of Directors of AEDyR since 2008. He also served as director at EDS for 8 years.

BROWN AND CALDWELL NAMES

SUSAN GEHOSKI NEW CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER

BUSINESS

MR FADY JUEZ

Last October, Mr Fady Juez, Managing Director of Metito Overseas, was elected President of the Board of the International Desalination Association (IDA) for 2022-2024, after serving the IDA Board of Directors for the last 20 years. A global expert in the water industry, Mr Juez has been key to the expansion of Metito’s business in the Middle East and South East Asia. We had the pleasure of interviewing him on his plans for this term as President of the IDA Board and his views on trends in the desalination and water reuse industry as it further develops to meet water demands and secure clean water for all.

What are your goals for your term as President of the IDA?

My goal is straightforward: to do everything within my power and calibre to see that all communities, rural, remote, or otherwise, have access to clean, safe, and sanitized water at any time of the day. This can only be done by carrying on the monumental work of those who came before me and propelling the work of the people I surround myself with during my term at the IDA. I aim to ensure the IDA continues the tremendous global recognition and financial turnaround accomplished in term 19, under the leadership of Shannon McCarthy and Carlos Cosín, with the board’s full support. The IDA will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, and I am honoured to lead the Board of Directors in this important term. Considering the growing need for non-conventional water solutions to offset the effects of climate change, population growth, and industry needs, the board and I will continue the work to engage with the global stakeholder community to bring solutions to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, water

This year the International Desalination Association celebrates 50 years of connecting the global desalination and water reuse community, as the world increasingly recognises the importance of these unconventional water resources to meet the water-related Sustainable Development Goals and adapt to a changing climate.

for all. The special initiative to ensure a water-positive world.

Can you comment on the role of desalination and water reuse as tools to solve water scarcity and ensure adaptation to climate change?

As of 2019, about 300 million people are supplied with fresh water every day by more than 20,000 desalination plants in over 150 countries. As of 2022, the desalination contracted capacity stands at over 107 million m3/ day and the water reuse at 7.12 million m3/day, respectively. Desalination was initially considered a niche product for energy-rich and water-scarce cities, particularly in the Middle East. However, as its cost continues to decrease and environmental viability increases, its use will likely increase significantly – especially in rapidly growing coastal cities experiencing water shortages. To meet the growing water demand gap, desalination and wastewater reuse can be considered as one of the options in

a portfolio of water sources, including surface water and groundwater.

How does IDA support the desalination and water reuse industry?

The IDA plays a significant role in making water desalination and reuse technology available at a lower cost in places where water is most scarce. Operating in over 60 countries, the IDA team consists of multi-faceted members who provide industry insight acquired through years of experience and core knowledge of the topic. Its membership comprises scientists, developers, off-takers, regulators, end-users, engineers, consultants, media,

“The IDA will continue to adapt to the latest innovations and practices in the market while internally developing them”

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL DESALINATION ASSOCIATION, 2022-2024

"The board and I will continue the work to engage with the global stakeholder community to bring solutions to meet UN SDG 6"

Z Cristina Novo Pérez

and researchers from governments, corporations, and academia united under one front – to make clean, safe, and potable water readily available for all.

The IDA has recognised PPPs as a viable model for financing unconventional water solutions. Can you comment on the benefits of this working mod-

el? What can be done to create more awareness about its positive impacts? Water security cannot be enhanced without substantial investments in infrastructure to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal No 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation, as well as No 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities. As international associations such as IDA play a crucial

role in highlighting successful working models, sustainable solutions must be promoted to achieve these goals. To continue to promote the development and use of desalination technologies and practices, advocacy and a community to support this must be at the forefront of our efforts, especially in desalination and water reuse. As a result of climate change, population

growth, and industry demands, non-conventional water solutions are becoming increasingly critical. Bringing solutions to UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 - Water for All requires engagement with global stakeholder communities.

What is the future outlook for floating desalination barges?

Floating desalination barges can house a total capacity of 50 thousand m3/ day; the first of three were delivered in January 2022. Now more than ever, we need to incorporate innovation into our designs to lessen the gap between the supply and demand of water. I firmly believe a project of this calibre sets out to do just that. These barges were designed considering mobility, flexibility, and the future demand for water. The fundamental concept of the barge is that it was created to be able to sail to different locations in accordance with the changing needs and growing demand for water.

While desalination is a trusted solution to secure clean water, water reuse is gaining traction as an additional option. What are key indicators for water reuse to meet growing water requirements, and how do you expect it to evolve?

Access to water in any way, shape, or form is always good. Be it desalination, water reuse, or otherwise. A key indicator that water reuse meets growing water requirements is whether it creates a tangible impact on increasing water demands. Wastewater treatment technologies currently provide a sufficient supply

of reclaimed water. As a result, there are many opportunities for water reuse, but the challenge lies in implementing them, which is extremely critical in regions with limited water resources. Reuse can be encouraged and evolved through a variety of measures. These include investing in infrastructure, incentivizing users, and establishing a framework that will assist users in adopting safe reuse practices. As part of this process, educating the public and decision-makers on the importance of reusing water is also necessary.

Looking ahead at the next few years, which digital innovations do you think will be making a difference in plant and network design, construction, and operation?

As we move forward, we should expect innovations in digital technology to improve productivity, efficiency, and

the supply and demand of water"

"Now more than ever, we need to incorporate innovation into our designs to lessen the gap between

The IDA plays a significant role in making water desalination and reuse technology available at a lower cost where water is most scarce

construction techniques. All have now reached market maturity, including augmented reality, drones, 3D scanning, 3D printing, building information modelling (BIM), autonomous equipment, and advanced materials. As we utilize these innovations, productivity will increase, project management and procedures will be streamlined, quality will be enhanced, and safety rates will be improved. The industry will have to devote a lot of attention and effort across a number of aspects, from technology, operations, and strategy to personnel and regulations will be needed to capture all this potential.

The water-energy nexus is key for a sustainable future. What are some of the challenges to expanding the use of renewable energy to power desalination plants?

The growing demand for freshwater can be met by desalinating seawater and brackish water. It is, however, an energy-intensive process to desalinate water. Incorporating alternative, renewable energy sources like solar is the answer to this problem. Increasing mainstream acceptance of renewable energy and declining technology prices make renewable energy a viable option. There is a large market potential for renewable en-

ergy-powered desalination systems in energy-importing countries because of the growing demand for desalinated water.

The International Desalination Association (IDA) celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023. As it adapts to a changing world, what role do you see for the IDA in the future?

The IDA Role has always been and will always be consistent. We are providing a myriad of resources, research, knowledge, and industry experience aimed towards the shared goal of achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal No 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation. The only

IDA Board of Directors Term 20, IDA Sydney World Congress 2022.

variables that I see in the future are the methods by which we do this. There will always be a better method of fighting the fight towards accessibility to clean water for all. IDA’s methodologies of accommodating the fast-paced shift in the industry are to continue to adapt to the latest innovations and practices in the market while internally developing them through an incremental approach brought on by creative mindsets. As long as there is purpose in our work, the drive of all stakeholders will follow. As I have mentioned prior, we aim to constantly improve ourselves because we believe in the finite fact that water is a right of all.

A key indicator that water reuse meets growing water requirements is whether it creates a tangible impact on increasing water demands

JOSH MAHAN DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY RELATIONS, XYLEM

RESERVOIR CENTER FOR WATER SOLUTIONS:

D.C. HUB IS UNLOCKING INNOVATION FLOODGATES

As the Western States oscillate between relentless drought and record-breaking rainfall, it’s clear that the need for an industry-wide response to water challenges has never been more acute.

Uniting a sector

To unite the sector in the drive for change, the Reservoir Center for Water Solutions was founded in June 2022. The Center’s ethos – that ideas for the future of water and sustainability don’t come from a single voice – is one that Xylem, a founding partner, shares.

The opening of the Center represents a commitment to strengthening collaboration within the sector, and to strengthening water’s voice beyond it. As a consortium of 38 non-profit partners from academia, youth outreach organizations, local waterkeepers, international organizations, trade associations and think tanks, the Center is an important catalyst for progress – providing a neutral space where individual agendas are left at the door in favour of diversity and shared goals. This fusion of skills, resources, and perspectives, means we can advance breakthrough solutions to overcome the world’s toughest water challenges. Together, we can write the next chapter for water.

Growing momentum

We’re just eight months in and we’ve already made progress in advancing the global conversation on water. Our recently launched Annual Report 2022 outlines some of the successes achieved under our framework for action that encompasses three key elements – convene, ideate, and educate. With partners including the US Water Alliance, the International Water Association, EarthEcho International, and the Aspen Institute, we’ve brought together diverse players from state and national agencies, utilities, non-profits, private companies, and members of the Washington D.C. community.

Events have included curated conversations on the current state of the sector and career development seminars. We also held two service projects to benefit the community and the local watershed.

Informational webinars on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also outlined the resources available to underserved communities.

For us, the Center’s location – 301 Water Street – along the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. has proved instrumental to its success. In providing a focal point for water interests, the Center allows us to convene a unique cross-section of enthusiasts. Even more encouraging, the Center is already reverberating beyond D.C., facilitating collaboration both nationally and internationally. Recent seminars on climate resiliency and women in water featured live discussions from COP27 in Egypt and World Water Week in Sweden.

Casually coined the “WeWork for Water”, the Reservoir Center’s model is also having an impact. By providing shared facilities, office space and event space – which some organizations may not otherwise have access to – the Center is removing barriers between stakeholders and democratizing action.

Creating community

To build on the Reservoir Center’s success in the months ahead, growing this community is vital. The gains that can be achieved from collaboration, as well as those “meeting at the water cooler” moments, can’t be underestimated. The Center provides an opportunity to fast-track progress by connecting partners, engaging thought leaders, and elevating new voices. In 2023, the Reservoir Center will host a series of themed workdays, including days focused on Data Science, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Showcasing water sector careers such as environmental justice, the “Careers for Change” series will also connect and nurture professionals in the space.

Moving forward together

Looking ahead, to build on the Center’s success we encourage present and potential partners to consider Henry Ford’s maxim, “if everyone is moving forward together then success takes care of itself.” By uniting experience, resources, and perspectives, the Reservoir Center can open the floodgates for the solutions the water sector – and the world – needs.

The Center is a catalyst for progress, a neutral space where individual agendas are left at the door in favour of shared goals

ERIC BINDLER

SENIOR RESEARCH DIRECTOR, BLUEFIELD RESEARCH

WHEN EVALUATING DIGITAL WATER OPPORTUNITIES, LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT THE MARKETS OUTSIDE OF THE U.S. AND EUROPE

When we talk about the digital transformation of the water industry, the focus often turns to advanced economies like the U.S., UK, and Australia. But as competition heats up, leading companies are increasingly seeking greener pastures, turning their attention to emerging pockets of opportunity across Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.

According to Bluefield’s global digital water forecast, emerging and developing markets will account for roughly 30% of the US$387.5 billion in total global digital water spending expected over the next decade. In fact, digital water expenditure in emerging markets is projected to scale at an annual rate of 11.4%, compared to 7.7% for advanced economies.

Digital water opportunities vary significantly by region, based on geography, demographics, income level and digital maturity. While utilities in emerging markets are at earlier stages of their digital water journeys, this is creating vast opportunities for long-term market expansion. In China, large urban utilities are making initial investments in core hardware and software solutions like meters, billing and customer management, and asset management platforms, creating new growth opportunities in technology segments that have become more saturated in other parts of the world.

SCADA capabilities embedded at the outset as part of new water supply networks and smart city initiatives.

A focus on improved water management, in the face of water scarcity, is driving digital opportunities. The Middle East’s reliance on desalination and reuse are driving an increased focus on digitalization at the plant level, while integrated smart city initiatives are creating showcase project opportunities to educate the market. Israel is a regional leader with a water-centric approach to policymaking, a strong innovation culture, and a robust digital water startup scene.

Infrastructure convergence drives greater investment in holistic network and resource management. In the Gulf States, water is managed by large national multi-utilities enabling water operations to enjoy the spillover benefits of investment in cutting-edge customer service, remote monitoring, and asset management platforms which are driven principally by the electric side of the business.

Digital water opportunities vary significantly by region, based on geography, demographics, income level and digital maturity

Keep an eye out for these trends driving digital water growth globally: Rapid population growth, and urbanization spurring water infrastructure buildout, enabling technology leapfrogging. High population growth rates in Middle Eastern markets incrementally expand the addressable market for metering and remote monitoring, while India is facing pressure to meet Sustainable Development Goal targets for water and sanitation access for its fast-growing, increasingly urban population. This creates opportunities for technology leapfrogging, with smart metering, remote monitoring, and

Private participation opens the door to innovation and digitalization. Utility consolidation and private participation in Latin American markets are opening the door to greater investment in digital technology, though the region’s complex political-economic environment can create long project lead times. In Brazil and Chile, increasing private participation in the water sector provides an avenue for greater market maturity, importation of foreign expertise, and a growing emphasis on digitalization to drive efficiencies. The Chilean water industry is dominated by large, regional utilities backed by private capital, investing in remote monitoring capabilities to better manage their vast networks.

Digital water opportunities are growing in every corner of the world, but each market is unique. Understanding local market structure, technology preferences, policy shifts, and the competitive landscape is crucial, underscoring the need for reliable market intelligence.

Although the water sector is one of the most affected by the current energy crisis due to the water-energy nexus throughout the entire water cycle, it once again demonstrates its resilience and seeks alternatives to reduce costs, although it is not an easy task.

In the midst of the economic recovery from the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, and with a still uncertain future, 2022 was marked by the onset of a huge and complex energy crisis aggravated by Chinese restrictions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gas and coal prices reached record highs, resulting in increased electricity prices, which is not only having an impact on household energy bills, but also putting significant pressure on industrial sectors, including the water sector.

During the pandemic, the water sector proved to be an essential sector that remained operative. Its robustness, stability and efficiency in adapting to extreme situations, guaranteed the water security of citizens by maintaining the quality of the service and supported the most vulnerable population through different strategies and mechanisms, despite a socioeconomic crisis with pronounced effects on our society.

We are now once again immersed in a new global crisis that challenges energy security and the role of industrial poli-

cy, and the water sector is standing firm despite being one of the most affected.

The impacts of the water-energy nexus

The current energy crisis affects not only the direct use of energy, but also all the processes indirectly involved, whether they concern raw materials, transport or structural costs. In this regard, water and energy have a two-way relationship: on the one hand, energy is consumed throughout the water cycle and, on the other hand, water consumption is necessary for energy production. This makes energy a determining factor that provides people with access to water and wastewater services in an adequate quantity and quality. “The cost of energy is one of the biggest contributors to the final price of water production and distribution; therefore, the impact of the increase we are experiencing is directly transferred to production costs”, says Fernando Cortabitarte, Director of the Water Cycle at ACCIONA.

Water treatment processes demand so much energy that the current energy crisis has had a significant impact on operating costs, and in every stage of integrated water cycle management, energy consumption is the main variable cost. In the United States, the EPA remarks that drinking water and wastewater plants are usually the largest energy consumers for municipalities, accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of total energy consumed. “Overall, drinking water and wastewater systems account for approximately 2 per cent of energy use in the

U.S.” In Northern Ireland, for example, Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) is the largest electricity consumer.

Water treatment processes demand so much energy that the current energy crisis is having a significant impact on operating costs, and in every stage of integrated water cycle management, energy consumption is the main variable

We are immersed in a new crisis that challenges energy security, the role of industrial policy and the willingness to embrace change

Z Laura F. Zarza.

cost. Most affected are wastewater treatment and drinking water production in terms of the cost per m3/hour treated or produced, respectively, considering the difficulties in adjusting the processes of wastewater treatment plants, drinking water treatment plants, seawater and brackish desalination plants to take advantage of cheaper energy prices at cer-

tain hours of the day. As much as 40 per cent of operating costs for drinking water systems can be for energy, adds the EPA.

This situation means that integrated water cycle management companies are caught between a dramatic rise in their costs - energy prices have tripled - and sometimes, depending on the country, a lack of autonomy to increase water tar-

iffs, meaning that water sector companies are bearing the impact of the increase in costs with great uncertainty about their recovery. “If this continues, we run the risk of abandoning contracts and even the bankruptcy of some companies that are currently providing their know-how. This, in turn, could strain the provision of services that is undoubtedly essential

for our society,” warns Ignacio López del Moral, head of the Water Segment at Schneider Electric Spain.

Another of the problems that this energy crisis and the volatility of the price of energy is generating is the financial uncertainty that companies are enduring: “Business margins have been drastically reduced”, says Teresa Quiróz Lodoli, assistant technical director at Gestagua. “Competitiveness between companies is directly affected, benefiting especially companies with more technical and economic resources” and she warns that, apart from the risk of bankruptcy of the companies as they are unable to pay for the energy bill, the companies will try to minimize expenses with the consequent damage to the correct functioning of the managed services. “Without a major tariff revision linked to energy costs, it will be practically impossible to continue with the contracts.”

Water sector options

The water sector is characterized by giving more than it receives. Access to water and sanitation is a human right and, as such, its services are considered essential for the population. It has always been ready to step up to any crisis and demonstrate, once again, its strength in the face of adversity, ensuring the continuity of services.

However, not everything is in their hands. Faced with an exceptional situation like the one we are experiencing, exceptional measures must be taken, starting by promoting more exhaustive planning of energy management in general, and in the water sector in particular. According to Ignacio López del Moral, this involves reviewing the current situation of infrastructure and equipment, establishing a comprehensive action plan to reduce the energy demand and guarantee access to the best prices, while reducing the carbon footprint: “We include these actions within our global sustainability strategy; they are already being applied in our facilities and to customers who want to count on us as a sustainability partner”. A small investment in the design phase of infrastructure can lead to significant savings throughout their life cycle, not only in terms of costs, but also in terms of water and energy efficiency.

Another exceptional measure refers to water tariffs and service costs: “Water tariffs and service provision costs should

assume the real costs of production, but there is a political component that we cannot ignore,” says Fernando Cortabitarte. “Currently, most contracts are unbalanced because the real costs have not been passed on. If the high energy costs remain in force and cannot be passed on, the imbalance will increase”. This could lead to unsustainable situations for water managers from an economic point of view, so “in the short term, it should be made easier for contracts without price review provisions to pass on the exceptional cost overruns and, in the medium term, agile and rigorous mechanisms should be established so that water tariffs reflect the real cost of providing services”.

From Gestagua, Teresa Quiróz Lodoli asks for “a special tariff for consumers

Water treatment processes demand so much energy that the current energy crisis has had a significant impact on operating costs

The water sector has always been ready to step up to any crisis and demonstrate, once again, its strength in the face of adversity

whose turnover is directly proportional to energy consumption as they carry out their activity”, as well as “subsidies to improve the energy efficiency of existing equipment or any necessary upgrades, and lowering the cost of CO2 emission rights”.

Last year, Europe’s water sector gathered at an event organized by EurEau to discuss how it could maintain affordable water services in an uncertain energy future and highlighted the need to develop strategies to become energy independent, which would, in turn, make the water sector more resilient to energy price shocks.

Future: the commitment to clean energies

The management of water services involves a high energy cost that the sector has tried

to alleviate through technological development and the implementation of digitalisation under the umbrella of sustainability and the much-needed energy transition.

In this regard, in recent years we have seen facilities for the generation of electrical energy through processes that are synergistic with water management, such as the use of renewable energies for the production and distribution of water, as well as the production of biogas and green hydrogen in wastewater treatment plants.

In short, the technological maturity for the production of clean energy, added to the electricity consumption of each of the stages in the integrated water cycle, makes renewable energies the key to meeting the electricity de-

mand of the water sector and reducing both production costs and the carbon footprint. The EPA assures that by integrating energy efficiency operations into their water and wastewater treatment plants, municipalities and utilities can save between 15 to 30 per cent, saving thousands of dollars.

The management of water services involves a high energy cost that the sector has tried to alleviate through technological development

MICHAEL LARSEN

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AT ENVIRONOR

Floating desalination solutions are emerging as a promising option to augment water supplies, offering a series of advantages that include quick deployment and flexibility to adapt to fluctuations in water demand.

In October of last year Mitsui O.S.K. lines, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, signed an MOU with EnviroNor, a Norwegian company that provides disruptive water treatment solutions such as offshore desalination, to discuss collaboration on a Floating Desalination Vessel. Their approach involves converting a used ship into a platform to produce drinking water. In this interview, Michael Larsen, Chairman of the Board at EnviroNor, explains the details of their concept and the benefits it presents.

Please tell us briefly about your career path and your current role at EnviroNor. I have been in the shipping industry soon to be eight years, and have been through most of the layers within, from

demurrage, operations, and insurance to currently as a shipbroker for soon 4 years now alongside my role within EnviroNor. However, it was my father Sigmund Larsen that started with the idea around the EnviroNor solution in 2011. He built up the fundamentals around it in a very innovative and structured way. Unfortunately, he unexpectedly passed away in April 2021; after that happened, I had to take a deep dive into all his work to get detailed knowledge about it in order to be able to bring the EnviroNor solution to the next level. Therefore, I felt the obligation and honour to step into his role and have made quite a bit of changes on how the structure will be going forward, which I believe will be key to success. Also, I have the great pleasure and liberty to join Mitsui O.S.K. Lines as collaborating partners working towards a common goal: to create a better future for life at sea as well as on land.

Can you tell us about the collaboration between Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and EnviroNor on a Floating Desalination Vessel (FDV)?

Kotaro Goto, a seafarer in MOL had applied to an entrepreneurship programme which gives their employees the opportunity to investigate new business possibilities. He wanted to solve social issues by utilizing vessels, and came up with the idea of the floating desalination vessel.

MOL has experience with a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading system (FPSO), and power generation vessels, which are not used for transporting products. Goto thought he can do something similar to produce water, which is already a global issue.

However, MOL did not have experience with entering the water business, so he was searching for a partner, and then found EnviroNor. They were also looking for a solid partner with experience in the ocean, so we both found the best partner, and signed an MoU in October 2022.

How do floating desalination solutions compare to land-based plants?

Floating desalination solutions are far superior compared to land-based plants, not only are they much more competitive in CAPEX, but also, they are more cost-efficient operationally. The most significant elements are, on one hand, that it gives the client flexibility, in the sense that you can actually move the FDV to another location in the country or area

“The OPEX of floating desalination solutions is lower than for land-based plants, with 25-33% less energy consumption per m3 of water”

"Floating desalination solutions are superior than land-based plants: more competitive in CAPEX, and more cost-efficient operationally"

Z Cristina Novo Pérez

where needed; you cannot do that with a land-based solution. On the other hand, the delivery period is much shorter, there is no land space requirement, and there are energy savings in terms of water intake, water supply and drainage, which means it is possible to design it with a low environmental impact.

Let’s take a mining company as an example since they need large amounts of water. They purchase or lease an FDV, and need about 50,000 cubic metres daily production in let’s say Indonesia, but the FDV is only needed for about 5 years, and they have mines located in various places around the world, e.g. South America. After 5 years have passed, they can move the FDV to their mines in South America and keep producing freshwater. The additional advantage is that if there is space for additional capacity on board the FDV, they can increase production to about 75,000 cubic metres and either sell the 25,000 cubic metres to the locals or give the excess freshwater to the community as part of their social responsibility profile. There are numerous options on the table.

In California they just agreed to build the Monterey Desalination Plant, it is going to cost over USD 300 million only in CAPEX and the production capacity is about 9.6 million gallons per day, which

is equivalent to about 36,300 cubic metres daily of freshwater. The CAPEX for a 36,300 cubic metres daily FDV would be around USD 40 million.

In Morocco, they are also building a desalination plant on land for 300,000 cubic metres of daily production capacity and the costs are estimated to be USD 1 billion in CAPEX. The CAPEX for a 300,000 cubic metres daily FDV would be around USD 390 million.

What sources of energy can the floating desalination vessel use?

There is a variety of energy sources that can be used for an FDV; the main reliable and easy access energy sources would be for example very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO), marine gas oil (MGO), liquified natural gas (LNG) and energy provided from land. The latter can come from a solar plant, wind farm, hydro, or geothermal…it depends really on the geography where the FDV is located and what source is most accessible, as well as on the market. Then in the near future, energy sources would be ammonia, hydrogen, methanol and even possibly nuclear energy, such as molten salt reactors, which are moving forward at a high pace.

In addition, I would call add-on sources such as wave, solar and wind energy; however, the latter has been proven the most reliable of them for the time being.

It really depends on the pace of technology development in the other industries to reach the same level, and of course, the challenge of ensuring a reliable and constant source of energy.

In conclusion, it is really up to the client that purchases or leases an FDV, depending on what they are willing to pay per cubic metre of water, how easy they can have access to the various energy sources, and what sustainable profile they chose to have.

Can you tell us about the desalination technology used on the vessel? How is the water produced transported to shore and stored?

The technology we use is reverse osmosis, so the technology is well-known in the market today. The water is pumped

With floating desalination, the delivery period is much shorter, there is no land space requirement, and there are energy savings

up from the sea and goes through the various steps in the RO facility. After it has gone through the RO process, it is pumped to shore via a submergible pipeline that is connected to an injection point on land. This is very common in the oil industry, to pump to shore this way, especially in Norway.

What are the environmental costs and benefits of this type of solution to supply fresh water?

Floating desalination solutions are competitive concerning capital expenditure - the CAPEX is significantly lower than for land-based solutions, and the OPEX is also significantly lower than for landbased plants, with 25-33% less energy consumption per cubic metre. They reuse old vessels and extend their lives by

between 20-35 years, instead of sending them to scrap.

The pace of development in RO technology is growing faster for modules used on ships compared to the large systems used on land, therefore it will be much easier to change to more efficient technology in order to reduce the environmental impact further. Moreover, they are modular solutions, where capacity can be increased at location while the FDV is in operation, and are flexible regarding the energy source.

No land purchase is necessary, and it can be located out of sight if that is what the client needs. Floating desalination is tsunami and earthquake resilient, and easy to mobilize and de-mobilize. Moreover, the deployment time is short, from 6 to 15 months.

They require limited bureaucracy, regulations, labour and permits. They have been verified by DNV (Den Norske Veritas), the world’s largest classification company, and approved by IMO (International Maritime Organization) and MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships).

These solutions are environmentally friendly and robust, and respond to accelerating climate and social changes, contributing to solving the water scarcity challenge and meeting 17 out of 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In short, they provide a reliable and affordable water source, superior compared to conventional land-based solutions.

What markets are you initially targeting with the floating desalination vessel?

The global market in general, the water shortage problem is a worldwide challenge that needs to be addressed head-on.

Can you tell us about any projects where the deployment of this type of vessel is planned?

At this stage, we can say that EnviroNor and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines – the 3rd largest shipping company in the world – have extensive knowledge and drive to take part in tackling the climate and social changes in the future. Their experience and track record speak for themselves, and there is a lot of interest and inquiries about our FDV solution. We are certain there will be even more projects to come when people see and understand what a great asset this is for countries, cities, businesses and communities around the globe.

"A variety of energy sources can be used for a FDV; the main would be for example VLSFO, MGO, LNG and energy provided from land"

XYLEM TO ACQUIRE EVOQUA IN A $7.5 BILLION ALL-STOCK TRANSACTION

The combination provides a platform to leverage the companies’ combined strengths and address the world’s most critical water challenges

Xylem, a leading global water technology company, and Evoqua, a leader in mission-critical water treatment solutions and services, have entered into a definitive agreement under which Xylem will acquire Evoqua in an all-stock transaction that reflects an implied enterprise value of approximately $7.5 billion.

Building on Xylem’s global leadership in water solutions and Evoqua’s leadership in advanced treatment solutions and services, the combined company will be uniquely positioned to develop and deliver an even more comprehensive offering of innovative solutions.

Evoqua, a leader in North America water treatment, complements Xylem’s distinctive portfolio of solutions with advanced water and wastewater treat-

ment capabilities, a powerful and extensive network of service professionals and access to a number of attractive industrial markets with resilient, recurring revenue streams.

Xylem and Evoqua generated over $7 billion in combined revenue in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2022, with $1.2 billion in adjusted EBITDA. The combination unlocks compelling new growth opportunities and is expected to deliver run-rate cost synergies of $140 million within three years, driven by scale efficiencies in procurement, network optimization and corporate costs. In addition, the transaction allows Xylem to maintain its strong balance sheet, which provides the combined company with significant strategic flexibility and optionality.

SAUDI ARABIA ALLOCATES $104.7 BILLION FOR WATER SECTOR PROJECTS

The projects include a desalination plant with a capacity of 800,000 m3/d

The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia has approved SAR 393 billion ($104.7 billion) for 3,300 development projects in the water sector, announced minister Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Fadhli.

Arab News reported that Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli explained that the Ministry is presently working on various stages of the supply chain: to either implement, award or purchase the service from the private sector. He also said that 2,000 of the 3,300 projects that have a cost of around SAR 210 billion ($56 billion) have already secured funds.

During his participation in Al-Ahsa Forum 2023, Al-Fadhli remarked that this announcement is made as Saudi Arabia’s agricultural sector is experiencing a boom, with the sector contributing to the gross domestic product by SAR 72 billion ($19.2 billion) in 2021.

The agriculture sector has approved as much as SAR 91 billion ($24.3 billion) to implement initiatives, programs and incentives for farmers, the minister revealed, which will drive the efficiency and development of the agricultural and food sector.

Al-Fadhli said that the initiatives announced will also contribute to attracting investments estimated at over SAR 159 billion ($42.4 billion).

The projects include the addition of a desalination plant on the country’s eastern coast with a capacity of 800,000 cubic metres per day and the expansion of water supply networks in Saudi Arabia to over 3.5 million cubic metres per day.

THE MOST EXCITING STARTUPS AND INNOVATORS IN THE WATER INDUSTRY. MEET THE WILL ACCELERATOR COHORT

The Water Innovation Living Lab is a free incubator for early technology spin-offs and start-ups in the water sector internationally

The Water Innovation Living Lab (WILL) kicked off this past month of January. A free 16-week incubator for early technology spin-offs and start-ups in the water sector internationally, the incubator supports technologies in the water sector to provide innovative solutions for water sector challenges.

WILL is created and managed thanks to the collaboration of industrial, academic and supply chain operators. The project is sponsored by Bonomi Group, technology partners Isle Utilities and

CSMT Innovative Contamination Hub and with the collaboration of Acque Bresciane Srl SB and the University of Brescia. The incubator provides knowledge, tools and connections to ensure the success of emerging companies.

Ten candidates were selected through an international call based on the following criteria: dedication to the enterprise; commercially promising initiative in the water sector; the impact of the contribution to sector challenges. The January 2023 cohort includes the following com-

panies: Tomea, SEAL Water Technology Ltd, PYDRO GMBH, Mop Tech Industries, Mixanox, MetZero, Klar2O, HydroDrip, Hulo, and Aldam Technologies.

From data science consulting, to leak detection, smart metering, and water treatment solutions, to a digital water credits platform, the WILL cohort aims to provide the most technologically advanced solutions to water challenges, while respecting the environment and sustainability in order to solve the most pressing water challenges we currently face.

HRS Heat Exchangers operates at the forefront of thermal technology, offering innovative and effective heat transfer products worldwide, focusing on managing energy efficiently

ALEXIA LECLERCQ

WWF’S 2022 CONSERVATION LEADERSHIP AWARD WINNER

Alexia Leclercq, a grassroots organizer, educator, scholar and artist is the 2022 recipient of the WWF Conservation Leadership Award, which celebrates the achievements of exceptional young leaders working toward environmental conservation. Her work has been instrumental in the fight against pollution and injustice in East Austin, Texas. She co-founded the Colorado River Conservancy, a coalition of community stakeholders that seek to protect and restore parts of the lower Colorado River. She is also the co-founder of Start:Empowerment, an environmental and social justice education project. Ms Leclercq has been involved in different conservation efforts, from organizing community members to conduct water quality

testing, to working with scientists and planners on a vision for a healthier and more sustainable future of the river corridor. In addition, her work contributed to the passing of a city-wide resolution on the protection of local streams from pollution.

She was an Ambassador at the 2022 UN Youth Assembly and has been invited to speak at events that include COP27, Global Peace Education Conference, Bioneers conference, CUNY Climate Education Conference, etc. She graduated summa cum laude from New York University in 2020 and is currently a graduate student at Harvard University, where she works at the Haber Lab of the Harvard Graduate School of Public Health.

© Beatrice Bucht

WATER TREATMENT

IDAIRA SANCHEZ

MANAGER OF THE ARUCAS-MOYA SEAWATER DESALINATION PLANT

IN GRAN CANARIA, CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN

Operated by ACCIONA since it was commissioned in 1995, the Arucas-Moya seawater desalination plant is a state-of-the-art facility. In addition to having a nominal production capacity of 15,000 m3/d, capable of meeting the water needs and demands of the area, it is equipped with the latest technology available in terms of energy recovery: the Danfoss MPE 70 isobaric energy recovery devices (ERD), the world’s first active isobaric ERDs designed for medium and large SWRO plants.

Z Águeda García de Durango

Idaira Sánchez, industrial engineer and plant manager at the Arucas-Moya desalination plant since 2021, tells us in this interview about the particularities of the plant, the characteristics of the Danfoss energy recovery device and the advantages of having it installed.

First of all, we would like to know about your career path up to the position you currently hold.

I have been an industrial engineer since 2013 and my career in the water sector began in ACCIONA in 2018. Since then, I have worked in different areas and departments, until, in June 2021, I started working in my current position as plant manager of the Arucas-Moya desalination plant, operated by ACCIONA.

Please tell us about the particularities of the Arucas-Moya plant. The Arucas-Moya desalination plant has been in operation since 1995. It is owned by the Gran Canaria Island Water Board and has been operated by ACCIONA since it was commissioned.

It is located in the municipality of Arucas, specifically in El Puertillo, Bañaderos. It provides drinking water to the population of Arucas, Moya and a small nucleus of Firgas, a total of approximately 45,400 people.

It is designed with two osmosis racks that produce 7,500 m3/day each, so it has a nominal production of 15,000 m3/day, with a salinity of 500 µS/cm. The specific consumption of the facility is 3.84 kWh/m3

“Seven Danfoss MPE 70 isobaric energy recovery devices have been installed in one of the treatment lines of the Arucas-Moya seawater desalination plant”

Seawater is collected for the facility using six coastal intake wells and a tank. The first filtration stage consists of four sand filters and the second has four 5 µm cartridge filters; there is no chemical dosing in the pretreatment. In addition, there are two high-pressure units plus a reserve unit: 2 (TBB-ERIs) + 1 (TBB-MPE 70).

We also have several models of isobaric energy recovery devices. On the one hand, we have a set of ten passive isobaric ERDs, ERIs PX-220, for each line. And, in the high-pressure backup group, seven Danfoss MPE 70 active isobaric ERDs have been installed in one of the lines.

It has 1,262 membrane units (high rejection and low energy) and has a remineralization system based on the injection of carbon dioxide and calcium hydroxide, which makes it possible to adapt the Langelier index to the requirements of Spanish legislation on water quality criteria for human consumption (Royal Decree 140/2003).

The plant has several Danfoss energy recovery devices installed in parallel. How many of these units are installed in the rack, and how long have they been in operation?

There are seven units of the MPE 70 isobaric ERDs installed in parallel for an osmosis rack, with a nominal production of 7,500 m3/day.

They have been in continuous operation since January 2022.

Improvements are currently being made in desalination plants thanks to

The Arucas-Moya desalination plant has been in operation since 1995 and has been operated by ACCIONA since its commissioning

the digitalisation and optimisation of equipment operations. How does the new Danfoss active ERD fit with these new trends?

In a device like this, where each of the elements can be adjusted to a specific operational point, its operation can be optimised by applying digital techniques and tools, thanks to the features of the MPE 70 ERD: the start-up is simple and controlled; the speed of operation, also controlled in each of the devices with its 2.2 kW electric motor; the ease of operation with balanced flows; and the salinity balance in all the units.

What do you think about the possibility of being able to monitor each ERD individually?

Monitoring the MPE 70 devices provides us with real-time and digitised information on the status and operation of each ERD independently, which is very useful not only to control and supervise the process, but also to be able to anticipate any potential anomalies.

Concerning technical details, what is the maximum capacity of the new ERD rack, and what are the mixing levels of this equipment?

The maximum high-pressure output flow rate of each ERD is 70 m3/h. Therefore, having seven units, the maximum capacity of the MPE 70 rack is 490 m3/h.

The salinity increase in the membrane with a 40% conversion factor should be 3% according to the manufacturer, and we have verified that the maximum mixing limits specified are met.

By being able to control the speed of the ERDs and being able to operate with overflushing without any risks, what improvements in mixing have been observed compared to normal operation?

We have found that by increasing overflushing to 5%, mixing over the device has been reduced to about 1.9%.

In terms of reliability and safety, do you think that being able to control the rotation speed at all times brings an extra benefit to the ERDs?

Yes, since, by controlling the rotor speed, there is no risk of overspinning in the MPEs, thus avoiding serious damage to the pressure exchanger.

In addition, it allows us to control the flow rate of each MPE depending on its position in the train, so that the ERD rack is as balanced as possible.

Finally, how has Danfoss’s support been during the commissioning and operation of the equipment?

The support has been very good, both during the development phase and during the commissioning of the equipment.

There has always been good communication between ACCIONA and Danfoss, and they have always been able to adapt to the way of working and the particularities of the plant.

Danfoss has supported us to solve any doubts and problems that have arisen during the operation of the plant. In short, they have taken into account the needs and the points of view of those of us who work in the facility every day.

MPE 70:

The first active isobaric ERD for medium and large SWRO plants

The Danfoss MPE 70 is the first active energy recovery device designed for medium and large SWRO plants. The integration of a low-voltage motor allows unprecedented control to facilitate smarter automation, prevents rotor stops due to biofouling and provides greater flexibility during plant maintenance. Its smart design also keeps mixing levels consistently low, year after year, to reduce membrane feed salinity and help plants achieve very low energy consumption.

Key features:

J Full control of each equipment unit.

J Controls and reduces mixing over time.

J Gets the most out of overflushing.

J Improved OPEX throughout the plant’s lifetime.

J Smart operation compatible with automation.

J Continuous operation even with biofouling.

J Optimised design for energy recovery.

J Robust design from a world leader in innovation.

The desalination plant has two osmosis racks that produce 7,500 m³/day, so it has a nominal water production of 15,000 m3/day

INTERVIEW

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AT THE NYU ABU DHABI ARABIAN CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES.

ever-increasing brine releases from desalination plants could in the long term lead to a substantial increase in salinity in the entire Gulf.

Desalination is the only means of reliable water supply in most of the Arabian Gulf states. Countries like United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain depend on desalination facilities to obtain drinking water with current production already exceeding 20 million cubic meters per day of freshwater.

In spite of the widespread oil and gas extraction activities, the Gulf is still a mostly uncontaminated body of water, which hosts important and unique marine ecosystems: coral reefs, uniquely adapted to extreme seasonal swings of sea temperature; seagrass meadows, home to the world’s second-largest population of dugongs; mangrove forests, that can sequester from the atmosphere as much CO2 per unit area as a tropical rain forest. These ecosystems support thriving economic activities (mostly fisheries and tourism) but would be endangered by significant, basin-wide increases in water salinity. A handful of previous studies have yielded conflicting results: some didn’t find a significant increase of salinity, while others did, with one of them reporting truly alarming results. This called for a thorough investigation that could simulate a vast number of scenarios, including the effect of climate change, and elucidate the underlying physical mechanisms affecting the salinity of the Gulf.

Francesco Paparella, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Principal Investigator at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences, and fascinated in studying mathematical models for geophysical fluids and Earth-systems processes, was not convinced by contradicting research previously published about the impact of this vast and vital industry on the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and thus created a team of researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) and Water Research Center. Made up of John Burt, Associate Professor of Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Daniele D’Agostino, post-doc in marine ecology, New York University Abu Dhabi, and himself, they studied how the increased use of desalination technologies in combination with projected climate

change will affect Gulf-wide salinity in the coming decades.

You have recently released a paper titled: “Long-term, basin-scale salinity impacts from desalination in the Arabian/Persian Gulf.” What drew you to investigate this topic?

As of today, nearly half of the global freshwater production from desalination comes from plants located along the coastline of the Arabian/Persian Gulf. The amount of water treated is staggering: the current production already exceeds 20 million cubic meters per day of freshwater and will double by 2030, with no end to the growing trend in sight. The Gulf is also a very shallow sea (the average depth is just about 30m) connected to the rest of the world’s oceans only through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, concerns have been raised that

What were the main conclusions of the study?

We first compared the yearly amount of desalinated freshwater production with the data on the yearly net evaporation occurring from the sea surface. This means comparing the amount of freshwater drawn by human activities and that drawn from natural processes. We found that the levels of desalinated water production projected for the second

"Concerns were raised that ever-increasing brine releases from desalination plants could lead to an increase in salinity in the entire Gulf"

Z Olivia Tempest

half of the century will amount to about 10% of the net evaporation. This is a level where the impact of human activities cannot be automatically discarded as insignificant with respect to natural ones. We thus formulated a physical model of the overturning circulation of the Gulf. Its simplicity allowed us to explore several different scenarios, and an extremely wide range of desalination fluxes. Most importantly, it allowed us to identify a positive feedback between brine discharge and the flux through Hormuz. The slightly saltier, shallow coastal waters sink into the deepest part of the Gulf (a wide underwater valley running parallel to the coastline of Iran, with depths gradually declining from -60m to -100m) and then flow along the bottom out of the Strait of Hormuz into the In-

dian Ocean. These volumes of water are replaced by much less salty Indian Ocean water flowing into the Gulf at the surface of the Strait of Hormuz. Any increase in salinity of the coastal waters makes the bottom water denser and heavier, and thus increases the rapidity with which it is expelled through Hormuz. Thanks to this feedback, it is very difficult to achieve any substantial, large-scale increase of salinity by adding brines along the coastlines, because doing so increases the rapidity with which they are flushed out of the Gulf. As a result, even with extreme amounts of desalination, we find increases in salinity smaller than the size of the observed salinity fluctuations due to natural causes (e.g., the seasonal cycle). Thus we conclude that desalination-induced salinity increases are not a cause of concern in the Gulf, at the basin scale.

Your research model is also the first to consider the possible future effects of climate change. What were your findings in this respect?

Our model is extremely simple, and we are currently working on more sophisticated general-circulation models that will be able to look at this question in

more detail. However, as a preliminary investigation, we also run our simple model in a way that mimics IPCC’s SSP5-8.5 (Shared Socio-economic Pathway n.5, forcing of 8.5 w/m2). This is an extreme climate change scenario where the average air temperature over the Gulf would increase by about 5 oC by the end of the century. Our model showed that warmer (and thus lighter) waters may throw a wrench in the feedback mechanism that flushes heavy, salty waters out of the Gulf. In the most extreme cases, the salinity increase in the coastal waters may increase by more than 1 PSU (practical salinity units). Of course, the rise in the Gulf region of the average temperature by 5 oC would be an event capable, alone, of severely upsetting,

"Even with extreme amounts of desalination, we find increases in salinity smaller than the size of the observed salinity fluctuations due to natural causes"

The levels of desalinated water production projected for the second half of the century will amount to about 10% of the net evaporation

and likely destroying, most of the marine ecosystems of the region (e.g. even the very resilient coral reefs of the Gulf underwent massive bleaching during the warm summer of 2017, with ecologically important genera, such as Acropora, becoming functionally extinct in most of the Southern Gulf). Thus, in the case of extreme regional warming, desalination activities would lead to a small, but measurable salinity stress added to the immense temperature stress due to climate change.

In the paper, you concluded that hypoxia, low or depleted oxygen levels in water, posed a larger threat to marine life than desalination brine discharge. What are the main causes of hypoxia in water?

Good question! Hypoxia is the major bane of marine ecosystems. Not only it stresses, and kills, if intense and prolonged enough, any multicellular organism (and many single-celled ones, too) but it also triggers several changes in the biochemistry of seawater (e.g., it causes the removal of nitrates, an essential nutrient of phytoplankton) which further fluster and disrupt the ecosystems. Hypoxia is well-known to occur in some deep, poorly ventilated water masses of the world’s oceans (e.g., several hundred meters below the surface in the Arabian Sea, the portion of the Indian Ocean sandwiched between Africa and India). For those cases, there is a growing understanding of the physical and biogeochemical causes of low oxygen

water content. But those mechanisms cannot be at play in the Gulf: it is just too shallow. In shallow waters, hypoxia is generally due to an overabundance of organic material, which is decomposed by bacteria that use oxygen for their metabolism. The typical example is the aftermath of water eutrophication, where after the end of an algal bloom, decomposing bacteria feasting on dead algae use up nearly all of the oxygen dissolved in the water column, killing most fish in the process. We recently published two papers, one focusing on coastal hypoxia, and the other on hypoxia in the central Gulf. In both cases, the oxygen levels are depleted mostly at the base of the water column. Our observations and modeling suggest the hypothesis that decompo-

sition occurs in or close to the benthos (the sandy and muddy substrate that constitutes the seafloor). However, we still don’t know which is the source of organic material that feeds the decomposers, thus we can’t draw firm conclusions.

In your opinion, what are the environmental impacts of desalination in the Persian Gulf, and how are they being addressed?

It is really important to distinguish between local-scale impacts (in the vicinity of a desalination plant) and basin-scale impacts (which would involve altering the physical, chemical or biological conditions on areas spanning tens of thousands of square kilometers). There is an immense literature on avoiding, mitigating and/or managing the local scale impacts. Those are always present, but engineers are becoming better and

better at reducing them to very low levels. Brine must be sufficiently diluted before being released into the environment. Recent research even shows that the aquaculture of halophytes may be part of this dilution process. Substances other than salt may be released into the environment by desalination plants. These are mostly heavy metals (whose concentration may escalate to toxic levels along the food network) and descalants (substances that avoid limescale encrustations, and generally maintain pipes and membranes clean). The amount and type of these substances strongly depend upon the specific desalination technology being used. Old technologies based on distillation are generally the worst offenders. For those, a proper management strategy calls, in addition, for the cooling and re-oxygenation of the brine, which comes out of the distillation stages as a hot, oxygen-poor fluid. More modern technologies, such as those based on reverse osmosis, greatly reduce these problems. Care in the selection of the descalants also reduces the impacts.

The potential for basin-scale impacts, on the other hand, is probably unique to the Gulf, because of its enclosed nature. Concerns that desalination activities could upset the Gulf-wide salinity

balance were justified by the enormous amount of desalinated water produced along the shores of a small, extremely shallow marginal sea, connected to the rest of the world’s ocean by a very narrow strait. Those concerns could have been legitimate, if it weren’t for the vigorous overturning circulation, that flushes the entire Gulf out into the Indian Ocean in less than 3 years. In our study we focused on salinity, because any technology that extracts freshwater from seawater must leave some salinity-enriched water behind. We neglected heavy metals and descalants because those are technology-dependent, and are best managed by management practices that avoid their release into the environment in harmful quantities. We did not conduct a specific study on the policies (that’s best left to social scientists). But the industrial data that we used for our study reveal that Persian Gulf countries have always been early adopters of new technologies. The existing distillation plants are generally old, and new installations have embraced the emerging membrane technologies. Neither I, nor my colleagues who spend a lot more time in the field than me, have ever observed any obvious signs of mismanagement of a desalination plant. Thus, I’m inclined to conclude that desalination in the Gulf has not had unbearable environmental costs, even in the vicinity of desalination plants.

In 2019, the UN called for improved brine management strategies due to a dramatic rise in the number of desalination plants posing major risks to ocean life and marine ecosystems. Your research contradicts the UN findings, does it not?

No, it does not. The UN-backed paper (Jones et al. Sci.Tot.Env. 2019) offers a review on desalination technologies and calls for sound management strategies for minimizing local-scale effects. It is not concerned in the least on ba-

"In our study we focused on salinity, because any technology that extracts freshwater from seawater must leave some salinity-enriched water behind"

In the most extreme cases, the salinity increase in the coastal waters may increase by more than 1 PSU (practical salinity units)

sin-scale impacts. We all agree that the leftovers of the desalination process cannot be casually dumped in the water, or severe environmental impacts will occur in the vicinity of the plant. Proper management, filtration and dilution are necessary. No doubt about this. What should be stressed, is that even that paper concludes that “There is a need to make desalination technologies more affordable and extend them to low income and lower middle income countries, increasing the viability of desalination for addressing SDG 6 in areas where developments have previously been limited by high economic costs.” (SDG 6 is the UN’s 6th sustainable development goal: clean water and sanitation.) The rich Gulf countries have shown the via-

bility of desalination as the main source of freshwater for arid lands close to the sea. All the metropolises of the Gulf depend on desalinated water to the point that they simply could not exist without it. As early adopters, the Gulf countries have effectively funded the development of new, better and cheaper desalination technologies, which can now be made available to developing countries.

Could your research be extrapolated to other areas of the world?

The potential for large-scale impacts was probably unique to the Gulf: if all the desalination plants of this region were moved, say, along the Indian coastline, the concerns connected with local impacts would remain, but the idea that

desalination activities could upset the salinity balance of the entire Indian Ocean would simply be preposterous: an ocean is just too big! Even the Mediterranean Sea, which is closed by a narrow strait just like the Gulf, is too large and deep to experience measurable salinity increases due to desalination activities far from the desalination plants.

"The rich Gulf countries have shown the viability of desalination as the main source of freshwater for arid lands close to the sea"

GREG NEWBLOOM CEO & FOUNDER OF MEMBRION

CERAMIC DESALINATION IS THE PATH TO ELIMINATING TRUCKED WASTEWATER

For a moment, consider a world in which driving a tanker truck full of wastewater down the freeway was the best possible option for meeting regulatory requirements. No facility wants to pay more than $1 per gallon to deal with wastewater. Unfortunately, for thousands of facilities across semiconductor, food & beverage, automotive, oil & gas, and other industries, this is the economic reality.

There are other options, but most are not much better. The alternatives to trucking wastewater include evaporation, chemical addition and sludge handling, and single-use ion exchange resins. These can have multi-million-dollar labor and OPEX implications. Since wastewater treatment teams are chronically short-staffed and underfunded, trucking wastewater doesn’t sound so extreme.

Wastewater is trucked off-site for treatment for various reasons. Commonly, the problematic components are dissolved salts, minerals, and metals, and these can be regulated or hazardous, or both. For example, municipalities often set total dissolved solids (TDS) or specific ion discharge limits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets safe discharge limits for metals, metalloids, and non-metals that can adversely impact human health and biodiversity.

Many cost-effective solutions exist for lowering TDS to acceptable and safe levels, including reverse osmosis and electrodialysis reversal. However, these technologies rely on delicate membranes that are often incompatible with the co-contaminants within wastewater.

Wastewater that is trucked off-site is often corrosive, highly organic, or highly mineralized. Corrosive wastewater is commonly found in semiconductor, automotive, steel production, mining, and other industries that rely on the use of metals. It typically has low pH, oxidizing agents, and/or reducing agents, which break down polymeric desalination membranes, rendering a high replacement frequency. Wastewater with high

organic content is found in oil & gas and food & beverage. Fats, oils, and greases can lead to fouling and the need for frequent membrane cleaning and/or replacement. Highly mineralized wastewater is a common byproduct of reverse osmosis or evaporative processes, such as cooling towers. In these cases, minerals are concentrated and eventually become saturated. Further concentrating these minerals can lead to precipitation, scaling, and membrane module clogging. In all cases, complex pre-treatment steps are needed to protect the TDS removing membranes.

Co-contaminants, such as oxidizers or organics, can often be removed using enzymes or nanofiltration, but these pre-treatment steps increase the complexity and costs of desalination equipment. Multiple pre-treatment steps are required in advance of a polymeric desalination membrane to ensure long-term operability. For many, trucking seems simpler.

New technology capable of treating these streams involves the use of ceramic desalination membranes. Ceramic materials are well known for their durability and broad compatibility with co-contaminants. In fact, ceramic membranes exist as microfilters (MF), ultrafilters (UF), and nanofilters (NF). CeramIX® by Membrion® is the first ceramic membrane capable of removing salts, minerals and metals from harsh industrial wastewater streams that are corrosive, high in organic content or high in minerals. This leads to minimal-to-no pre-treatment required for desalinating streams that are otherwise being trucked off-site.

Membrion has demonstrated the capability to remove TDS from trucked wastewater, enabling up to 98% water recovery for facility re-use or sewer discharge. To make life easier for the facility, Membrion deploys this process under a water service agreement. Trucking OPEX is reduced, and that savings is split with the facility. The facility also sees a major sustainability boost through reduced CO2 emissions and water savings.

CeramIX® by Membrion® is the first ceramic membrane capable of removing salts, minerals and metals from harsh industrial wastewater streams

TINA ARROWOOD

SUSTAINABILITY

ADOPTING A REFINERY MINDSET FOR WASTEWATER

Across the world, we use more than 9 billion cubic metres of water daily – of which 56% becomes wastewater. Usually locally contained, nearly 80% of the wastewater goes untreated and is left to be managed by natural biogeophysical processes. Unfortunately, nature can’t keep up with the pace of human influences, and as result, our limited global freshwater resources are becoming more challenged by pollution and scarcity.

UN Sustainable Development Goal 6.3 aims to improve water quality by halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally by 2030. How can advances in wastewater treatment technology help achieve this?

Let’s take the case of zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) wastewater treatment. It is an extreme wastewater treatment process that maximizes water recovery for reuse and avoids discharging contaminants. However, ZLD has traditionally relied on thermal treatment methods, making it cost-prohibitive and unsustainable with high energy demand.

Despite this, in water-stressed regions like China and India, many industries have been driven to adopt ZLD to comply with stringent regulations. As such, advanced approaches were needed to improve sustainability (and affordability) for achieving ZLD. Evaluating how these industries, such as the textile industry in Southern India, have been able to implement ZLD without going bankrupt provides valuable learnings.

With more than 10 years of commercial practice, textile wastewater treatment to achieve ZLD has been optimized on two fronts. Firstly, the energy demand and cost of the total water recovery process were reduced by approximately 52% by using an energy-efficient reverse osmosis membrane process where 85-90% of the wastewater is recovered for reuse. The process, referred to as Minimal Liquid Discharge (MLD), reduces the volume of water needing the more energy-intensive and expensive thermal ZLD treatment to only 10-15%. Cou-

pling MLD with ZLD lowers the cost for total water recovery from approximately $3.48 per cubic metre to $1.76.

Secondly, they make the entire wastewater treatment process more attractive and affordable by capturing value for not only the water, but also the salts. Both are recovered for reuse in the textile process for a combined reuse value of $1.06 per cubic metre of wastewater treated. Together, using MLD and circular economic benefits, the cost of achieving ZLD could be reduced from $3.48 per cubic metre to $0.70.

The textile industry has pioneered an MLD-ZLD wastewater treatment process with salt and water recovery which can be managed and optimized much like a petrochemical refinery that refines petroleum. Impaired water can be refined into fractions that have reuse value that offsets the cost of treatment. Other industries can learn from this and should consider shifting from treatment to a refinery mindset when managing industrial wastewater. Unlike treatment processes, where the objective is defined by local regulations, refinery processes are value driven and aim to generate an income from the process stream that outweighs the expenses. For wastewater, this income can be water value, salt value, recovered organic raw materials, or even biogases.

Proven technologies exist for practicing water refining – including membrane bioreactors, ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration membranes, and reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. These technologies offer the complementary benefits of both resource and water recovery. Advances in the energy and separation efficiencies of these technologies coupled with adaptable processes guided by digital monitoring will serve to further optimize the refinery process.

By adopting this sustainable and value-driven refinery mindset, industries will increase the adoption of processes and technologies that will help us achieve SDG 6.3 to maximize the benefits and reduce the risks related to such a large percentage of wastewater going untreated.

By adopting a value-driven refinery mindset, industries will increase the adoption of technologies that will help us achieve SDG 6.3

PHD; DUPONT WATER SOLUTIONS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY MANAGER FOR GROWTH AND

DR STEPHEN GRAY

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIES AND LIVEABLE CITIES, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

as economic and social aspects of water management. It provided experience in working with social scientists as well as STEM scientists, and the applied nature of CSIRO research led to a focus on research impact.

I moved to Victoria University in 2006 to set up a water research programme and established a multi-disciplinary research programme that focuses on research impact, addressing urban and industrial water challenges.

Membranes are playing an increasing role in water and wastewater treatment, desalination and water recycling. Emerging design and fabrication technologies hold the promise of more sustainable membrane-based approaches.

Membrane research for water applications has enabled the development of materials and fabrication methods that have resulted in enhanced properties, leading to improved efficiency of membrane-based processes, with less energy consumption and overall reduced costs. To learn more about the latest advances in membrane technologies and their implications for the use of non-conventional water resources we spoke with Professor Stephen Gray, the Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities at Victoria University, whose research focuses on water and membranes and the impact on current challenges in urban and industrial water.

Can you tell us briefly about your career path and how you became involved in water research?

After completing a PhD in mineral processing and surface chemistry, I was

fortunate to receive a post-doctoral fellowship position and then an ongoing position in the CSIRO’s water research group. This team focused on water treatment technologies and developed Magnetic Ion Exchange (MIEX) material that was commercialised by Orica (now IXOM) as well as the Sirofloc technology and the readily available COD meter (RACOD meter). This team was composed of water and polymer chemists, engineers and biological wastewater treatment researchers, so provided great experience in working with other STEM disciplines.

Later, CSIRO set up a broader multi-disciplinary team of researchers that became the “Water for a Health Country” research programme, and I became a member of this programme. This programme had a broader remit than just water treatment and included water resource and asset management, as well

What have been the most significant advances in membrane technologies in the past few years?

Micro (MF)/ultra-filtration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) have been present for many years and they have enabled water recycling and seawater desalination to become viable. More recently high recovery and resource recovery objectives have become more prominent and advances in membrane technologies that are enabling these objectives to be more readily met are: ultra-high pressure RO and ultra-high pressure energy recovery devices. These advances have extended the salt concentration range for which membranes can operate economically, and can outcompete alternative non-membrane water recov-

“Membranes that offer greater specificity in separation could also offer improved water management”

"High recovery and resource recovery have become more prominent, and advances in membrane technologies are enabling those objectives"

Z Cristina Novo Pérez

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

ery approaches. I expect to see many high-recovery RO processes implemented over the coming years.

As water scarcity leads to the treatment of poorer water quality sources, then membranes that can cope with high solids loads and high foulant loads are required. Ceramic MF/UF membranes are now reaching economic viability and offer greater abrasion resistance and have the ability for more aggressive cleaning to recover from fouling. I expect more ceramic membrane plants installed as costs continue to decrease. A technological advance that is enabling this is the PWN Technologies CerMac housings that can include up to 90 ceramic membrane elements within one housing. Similar housing ideas are now also being used for RO membranes e.g. the Veolia barrel.

Small and uniform pore size UF and nano-filtration (NF) membranes have also become available on the market, and have enabled reliable removal of viruses as well as bacteria. These membranes are finding application for water recycling without RO where salt removal is not required, and potentially to achieve colour removal without chemical addition. The control of pore size is enabling simplified process flowsheets and avoidance of unnecessary production of salty concentrate.

You participate in research teams working on different membrane materials. Could you give us some highlights of that research, and what are your expectations for their commercialisation?

We have undertaken research on increased abrasion resistant polymer UF membranes that led to significantly improved abrasion resistance. The focus was on enabling polymer UF membranes to perform better in applications such as seawater RO pre-treatment where sand particles are more abrasive than organic particles found in wastewater streams. The objective was to

increase the service life of polymer UF membranes in seawater applications to similar or extended lifetimes for UF in wastewater applications. Our research has indirectly led to one producer offering greater abrasion-resistant UF membranes.

We have also undertaken research on high-flux hydrophilic pervaporation membranes and anti-wetting membrane distillation membranes. The application for such membranes is longer term when thermally driven membrane processes for higher water recoveries (following ultra-high-pressure RO) become economically viable. Such membranes will improve process performance in the drive towards zero liquid discharge processes.

Can you comment on trends in membrane monitoring technologies?

The use of data and artificial intelligence is increasing in the water industry and its use is driving improved operating performance. Software that uses operating performance data to optimise energy use for seawater desalination plants and for control of RO systems dealing with variable salinity water sources is available. However, there is also a trend for more sensors to be installed, with wirelessly connected salinity sensors now available for installation on individual RO elements. Early-stage scaling sensors to identify the need for cleaning prior to detection via operating variables have also been considered, but are yet to reach the commercialisation stage.

We are working on membrane integrity monitoring technology to ensure RO and UF virus rejection during operation that will verify pathogen rejection performance for recycled water applications.

What would be the most pressing research needs for the treatment and use of non-conventional water resources, such as water reuse and desalination?

"Small and uniform pore size UF and NF membranes are available on the market, and enable reliable removal of viruses as well as bacteria"

Ceramic MF/UF membranes are reaching economic viability and offer greater abrasion resistance and tolerance to more aggressive cleaning

Municipal water reuse and desalination are widely practiced commercially, so there is no impediment to their immediate application. However, improvements in performance could enable improved economic performance, more reliable treatment and reduced chemical requirements. For instance, online membrane integrity monitoring in water recycling applications would enable high Log Removal Values (LRV) to be claimed for the RO stage, and hence reduce the number of unit processes required for the water recycling process. Similarly, a better understanding of micro-contaminant rejection may enable the operating performance of RO membranes to be used to verify micro-contaminant rejection in a similar manner to what is now used for pathogen rejection.

The trend towards high recovery RO means the treatment of higher salt concentration streams, and hence there is potential for increased scaling. Silica scaling is particularly problematic and often cleaning of silica scale from membranes requires hydrofluoric acid. Hence, membranes that better mitigate silica fouling could enable higher water recoveries and alleviate the need for handling and managing dangerous cleaning chemicals.

Generally, MF/UF and RO operate well but are not specific in their separations. Membranes that offer greater specificity in separation could also offer improved water management. For example, saline municipal wastewaters are often high in sodium and have high sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). Membranes that are better able to separate monovalent and divalent membranes could enable such wastewaters to be more readily used for agricultural irrigation by lowering the SAR to values suitable for unrestricted land application. Specific separation could also enable industrial recycling of compounds in waste streams at a more localised level – e.g. ammonia specific membranes to enable recycling of ammonia for reuse

rather than disposal in wastewater, or the use of membranes for recovery of specific compounds e.g. lithium specific membranes are being developed.

How has the development of new technologies and the evolution of their cost affected the global use of non-conventional water resources? Can you comment on the differences between different world regions?

Seawater desalination and municipal water recycling have been the two most prominent technologies recently implemented to address water scarcity challenges and membranes play a leading role in both these processes. Cost reductions of membranes and their increased energy efficiency and availability of energy recovery devices have enabled the growth of seawater desalination and water recycling.

The implementation of seawater desalination or water recycling in various regions of the globe appears to not just rely on economics and available water sources, but also on local politics. For instance, in Australia, many large seawater desalination processes were implemented during a period of drought around 2010, but no potable water recycling systems were introduced until recently. This is because water recycling plants usually require the community to be accepting of drinking recycled water and this can take years of community engagement to achieve. The time available between recognition of the requirement for a new water source and the need to construct a plant did not allow this to occur in Australia, and desalination plants were installed without the need for community consultation.

Conversely, in the U.S. the move has been towards potable recycling rather than seawater desalination largely due to environmental concerns restricting the implementation of seawater desalination plants in the U.S. There have been examples where it has taken a dec-

"There is a trend for more sensors to be installed, with wirelessly connected salinity sensors now available for individual RO elements"

We have undertaken research on increased abrasion resistant polymer UF membranes that led to significantly improved abrasion resistance

ade to get environmental approval for a desalination plant to receive planning approval due to concerns about the impact of seawater desalination plants on marine wildlife.

In the Middle East seawater desalination has also been widely implemented, while in Israel the approach has been to use desalinated water for municipal purposes and to use recycled wastewater for agricultural purposes.

What do you think will be the impact of evolving membrane technologies on the water treatment market in the coming years?

The number of seawater desalination and water recycling plants will continue to increase as water security challenges remain a challenge with continued climate change. Membranes will continue to play a leading role in these processes, with desalinated water being used for agricultural as well as municipal applications. Additionally, water from industrial uses (e.g. mining, process industries) also has the potential to be incorporated into recycled water streams, so membranes with their ability to reliably make high-quality water will enable water from any source to be considered for any application.

Additionally, the water sector is also beginning to focus on opportunities for resource recovery and energy production, and again membranes are likely to play a role in meeting these objectives.

"Membranes that better mitigate silica fouling can enable higher water recoveries and alleviate the need for dangerous cleaning chemicals"

DUPONT CONSOLIDATES ULTRAFILTRATION TECHNOLOGIES UNDER NEW INTEGRATEC™ BRAND

3,000 installations around the world to produce a combined 50 million cubic meters of water every day. With more than 90 years of collective experience in ultrafiltration technologies, IntegraTec™ is underpinned by more than 200 patents, a commitment to continued innovation and a global network of technical support professionals and labs that can assist with the delivery of tailored solutions for customers.

To better serve municipal and industrial customers, DuPont is consolidating and rebranding its diverse portfolio of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes for the sustainable purification, conservation and reuse of water.

The DuPont™ IntegraTec™ portfolio of ultrafiltration technologies and products consolidates several legacy ultrafiltration brands– from Inge®, Memcor®, and DuPont Ultrafiltration – into a singular portfolio available to customers. This new offering makes it easier for DuPont’s customers to harness the benefits of the BestFit ultrafiltration technology, either to be used alone or as a part of a multi-technology water treatment solution, toward the goals of high-filtration performance, high recovery, and energy savings.

With a global network of UF experts, DuPont’s team can help customers nav-

igate the IntegraTec™ portfolio to tailor scalable, sustainable water and wastewater filtration solutions for industrial, municipal, and commercial applications.

“DuPont is proud to offer the broadest and most advanced ultrafiltration portfolio in the industry to help our customers find the Best-Fit ultrafiltration technology solutions to water and wastewater filtration challenges,” said Alan Chan, Global Vice President & General Manager, DuPont Water Solutions. “With a focus on our customers’ goals for sustainability, DuPont will help our customers leverage the wider IntegraTec™ portfolio to meet their goals to increase access to high-quality water through more energy efficient and circular processes.”

The portfolio represents a diverse set of technologies in use at more than

The DuPont™ IntegraTec™ product portfolio features an extensive and diverse range of reliable and durable modules, providing flexibility in system design to meet the specific priorities and needs of individual customers; PVDF, PES and PP membrane chemistries are available, and modules can be configured in either a pressurized or submerged configuration. Integrated ultrafiltration options are also available that combine the screening and UF stages within a single compact vessel to reduce the plant footprint and enhance the robustness of the solution.

In January 2020, DuPont completed the acquisitions of inge GmbH and Memcor®, adding to its own portfolio of water purification and separation technologies, including ultrafiltration. DuPont brought together the three distinct sets of ultrafiltration technologies to meet customers’ current and future challenges, including the increased need to recycle water while reducing the energy requirements to generate clean water.

This offering delivers the best-fit ultrafiltration technology, toward the goals of high performance

ACCIONA RAMPS UP ITS WORLD’S LARGEST DESALINATION PLANT TO FULL PRODUCTION IN SAUDI ARABIA

ACCIONA has achieved a key milestone in the construction of the Al Khobar 2 desalination plant, ramping up production during final testing to a full capacity of 630,000 cubic metres of potable water per day, enough to meet the needs of 3 million people.

The new desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, which is already supplying the water network for Khobar, is one of the largest to be built in the Kingdom and the largest reverse osmosis desalination plant built by ACCIONA worldwide.

The plant is equipped with energy-efficient Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology and is a key project in the modernization of Saudi Arabia’s water sector. The facility has a daily capacity of more than 630,000 cubic metres, making it one of the biggest in the country and the largest RO plant under the EPC scheme awarded in a single shot in KSA.

Javier Nieto, KSA Country Director for the water business, said: “This milestone is the result of good teamwork between the client, our engineers and the

NEW PROPOSAL WILL RESTRICT PFAS MANUFACTURE AND USE IN EUROPE

The landmark proposal contemplates a transition period of 18 months and derogations of up to 12 years for certain uses

The European Union is considering a proposal to ban PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, reports Reuters. Awareness about PFAS contamination has grown in recent years and efforts to address it are underway in many countries. Assessing the hazards of these substances has been complex, including information about their toxicity and their presence in the environment.

Preventing further discharges into the environment is an obvious step to address PFAS pollution; however, they are

widely used in consumer products and industrial applications: phasing them out is controversial, and there are no alternatives in some cases.

Five European countries, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden prepared a PFAS restriction proposal based on the need for EU-wide regulatory measures to address the “uncontrolled risk from the use of PFAS” in Europe. The proposal “aims to reduce PFAS emissions into the environment and make products and processes safer

construction teams. Now that we are entering the final testing and commissioning stages, we will undertake several tests to make sure everything works perfectly”.

The Saudi publicly-owned company Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) awarded ACCIONA and its partner RTCC the construction of the Al Khobar 2 desalination plant in 2020. ACCIONA is a world leader in desalination using reverse osmosis technology, which emits 6.5 times fewer greenhouse gases than thermal desalination.

for people”, according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

The proposal is for a broad group restriction, affecting roughly 10,000 PFAS, and includes a ban of manufacture, placing on the market and use of PFAS as such, as a constituent in other substances or in mixtures, as well as in articles, above a set concentration limit. It contemplates a transition period of 18 months after entry into force, and time-limited derogations for specific uses of up to 12 years, depending on the availability of alternatives.

The Al Khobar 2 reverse osmosis desalination plant will be one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, serving 3 million people

GENERAL MANAGER AT SOUTH COAST WATER DISTRICT, CALIFORNIA

RICK SHINTAKU

completion date of June 2023) and the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project (Project), which will provide a new, reliable, drought-proof, high-quality drinking water and locally controlled emergency water supply for the community, and potentially the region.

The Doheny Ocean Desalination Project was the first desalination plant approved by the California Coastal Commission since more strict regulations were adopted in 2019. It will provide a reliable, local and drought-proof source of drinking water for the South Coast Water District and its customers.

I am a registered Civil Engineer in California with over 30 years of experience in water/wastewater systems and environmental engineering. Before becoming General Manager at SCWD, I was the Assistant General Manager and Chief Engineer, having joined the District in 2015. Prior to joining SCWD, I served as an Engineering Manager for the City of Anaheim Water Division, as an engineer at the State Water Resources Control Board and spent my early career in the private sector working in the environmental engineering field.

I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona and earned a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering (Water Resources) from the University of California, Irvine.

As California continues to endure drought conditions, communities are looking into water supply options that are resilient to climate change and reduce their reliance on imported water. The South Coast Water District (SCWD) provides water and wastewater services to about 35,000 residents and 2 million visitors per year in South Orange Country, California. It will be home to the first desalination facility in the state to be compliant with the California Ocean Plan.

SWM had the chance to interview Rick Shintaku, General Manager at SCWD, about the proposed project and what it entails for the region.

Can you tell us briefly about your career path and your current role at South Coast Water District (SCWD)?

I am the General Manager of the South Coast Water District (SCWD or District). SCWD serves approximately 35,000 residents and 2 million visitors a year in Dana Point, South Laguna Beach, and portions of San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. Under my leadership, SCWD has developed and led the planning and implementation of capital improvement, water resources, and water development programmes and projects, including the $100 million Tunnel Stabilization Revitalization Project (a 5-year project with an estimated

California regulators recently approved the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project, the first desalination that the Coastal Commission has approved since more strict regulations were adopted under the Ocean Plan. What are the keys to this successful approval?

First and foremost, planning and preparation. The feasibility of the Doheny Project has been studied, researched, and tested since the early 2000s. Everything from the long-term effects of our brine discharge on marine organisms to the slant well technology and everything in between. In addition to the research, SCWD is fortunate to have an optimal location for desalination. The District already owns the property where the facility will be built (which happens to be adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant and a two-mile outfall). Furthermore, the regional water transmission pipelines that serve imported

“A diverse portfolio of water supply sources and enhanced water conservation is needed throughout southern California”

"The feasibility of the Doheny Project has been studied since the early 2000s, and SCWD is fortunate to have an optimal location for it"

Z Cristina Novo Pérez

water from the Irvine area to the northern section of San Diego County are located adjacent to the Project property as well, which lends itself to a regional solution to water supply shortages. In addition, the treatment plant property is about 300 m from Doheny State Beach which contains the perfect geology for slant wells. The above benefits also contribute to the cost-effectiveness of the product water.

Can you tell us about the technology that will be used at the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project?

Key technological components of the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project include a subsurface slant well intake system, a seawater desalination plant, and brine disposal through an existing wastewater ocean outfall. Other components of the project include raw ocean water conveyance to the desalination plant site,

solids handling facilities, and potable water storage and conveyance to adjacent distribution infrastructure. The project will also include significant photovoltaic solar panels onsite and potential offsite renewable energy options.

The project will use subsurface slant wells to intake ocean water which eliminates adverse environmental impacts typically associated with open ocean water intakes and serves as a seawater intrusion barrier to protect the basin’s groundwater quality. The slant wells will be fully buried in well vaults at Doheny State Beach and will not breach the surface of the ocean floor.

Reverse osmosis membrane filtration will be used to desalinate ocean water for potable use. Reverse osmosis, also referred to as RO, is a process where salts are removed by pushing water under pressure through a semi-permeable

RO membrane. This process can recover approximately 50% of highly brackish seawater as fresh potable water. The RO process is so effective at removing salts that some remineralization is necessary before it can be distributed as drinking water. The most energy-intensive aspect of a desalination facility is the high-pressure RO pump system. The Doheny Desalination Plant will employ an energy recovery system significantly reducing the overall system energy demand.

"The project will also include significant photovoltaic solar panels onsite and potential offsite renewable energy options"

The brine leaving the plant is essentially twice-concentrated ocean water. The brine will be blended with existing treated wastewater and discharged to the ocean using an existing wastewater ocean outfall that employs diffusers to minimize the shear effects of the discharge plume on ocean life and improve the mixing of the discharge with the surrounding ocean water. The benefits of this approach include avoiding the need for offshore construction of new discharge facilities and blending of the brine and wastewater bringing the salt concentration of the discharge water closer in-line with the ambient ocean water salinity, further improving mixing and minimizing impacts.

New ideas are emerging to mitigate brine disposal that would take advantage of the extraction of minerals for

commercial use. Do you foresee exploring those options in the future?

The current plant design and layout include over 10,000 square feet dedicated to a research and development (R&D) pad and alternative energy pad, where innovative technologies can be tested on actual samples of water entering and exiting the plant (along with the demonstration of alternative energy technologies). I agree that it is prudent to explore technologies for extracting minerals from desalination brine that may be commercially viable, so our design leaves room for future exploration.

How does the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project compare with other water sources or measures to augment the water supply in terms of costs and reliability?

SCWD believes that a diverse portfolio of water supply sources and enhanced water conservation is needed throughout our region to remedy the droughts and emergency supply needs during water system interruptions. The portfolio planned for the South Orange County region includes brackish groundwater desalination, indirect potable reuse, direct potable reuse, ocean water desalination, and storm flow capture. The region continues to be aggressive in overall water use efficiency

(with significant permanent reductions over the past several drought periods) and continues to be a leader in water system loss control as well.

The Doheny Ocean Desalination Project would provide a new, local, droughtproof supply of drinking water to the region. We completed a comprehensive water supply reliability study in December 2017, building from prior regional water supply reliability studies conducted by SCWD and the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) – a local wholesale water provider and resource planning agency. The report indicated that the Doheny Project ranks well above all other available water supply options for SCWD and is a recommended core strategy for South Orange County (along with IPR and DPR) to meet the water supply and system reliability gaps.

Per the report, the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project also has the following benefits:

J High system and supply reliability benefits due to hydrologic cycle independence and climate change resilience;

J High resiliency to unknowns (climate change; reductions in imported water supply; increased regulations or reduced access to imported water supplies);

J High level of local control over operations and cost; and,

J Moderate implementation risks and moderate cost-effectiveness.

Having a reliable diverse water supply portfolio will provide SCWD and its customers with water security in the face of numerous future water uncertainties. Additionally, as a coastal agency, we have the option to evaluate ocean water desalination as a potential water supply, something many other agencies do not have the opportunity to do.

The SCWD relies on imported water for 90% of the drinking water supply. What is the projected contribution of different water supply sources ten years from now?

"The brine will be blended with existing treated wastewater and discharged to the ocean using an existing wastewater ocean outfall"

Subsurface slant wells will be used to intake ocean water, which eliminates the environmental impacts of open ocean intakes

Our project water supply portfolio in the year 2035 includes:

J 32% - Doheny ocean desalination

J 26% - Metropolitan Water District

imported

J 17% - Recycled

J 15% - Indirect/direct potable reuse

J 10% - Local groundwater

How has public awareness of water scarcity and acceptance of unconventional water sources such as desalination evolved in recent years?

The persistent drought conditions plaguing Southern California, and much of the west, have increased the urgency and acceptance of water districts to seek local and sustainable water supplies, even at a higher unit cost. Both the regulatory and public focus in the past leaned heavily towards conservation and we’re now at a place where both sides are understanding that we cannot conserve our way out of moderate to extreme drought conditions and that it is prudent to seek drought-proof sources.

Could you share the SCWD’s initiatives to increase water efficiency and conservation, and to what extent they have been successful?

Although our initiatives were prompted by legislation and regulations, our staff response and community receptivity have been excellent. We’ve implemented a Drought Response Task Force to regularly discuss drought response; water-use efficiency; progress on minimizing water loss through monitoring top users, leak monitoring and repairs, and strategies the District will take to meet necessary conservation goals.

SCWD has a robust potable water irrigation run-off surveillance programme. Staff are patrolling the District’s service area on an ongoing basis to identify and cite any violations of SCWD’s Water Conservation Ordinance. We work very closely with MWDOC and MWD (i.e., our imported water wholesalers) to provide numerous indoor and outdoor rebates

for customers to implement water conservation devices and technologies, at their homes or place of business. In addition to the rebates, we offer free assessments and inspections to help our customers ascertain which efficiency and conservation devices would be most useful to them. Since our District contains a high number of resorts and golf courses, our Water Conservation team works directly with them to assess and convert, where feasible, their irrigation systems to recycled water. Lastly, we have a robust marketing and communications programme that keeps our community aware and informed of all the water efficiency and conservation

efforts the District has in place. The overall success cannot be attributed to any one programme; more so, it is attributed to the overarching effort and diligence with which our staff works with the community to implement these initiatives.

"The Doheny Project ranks well above all other available supply options for SCWD to meet the water supply and system reliability gaps"

THE FLORIDA KEYS WATER SYSTEM

GETS UPGRADES TO ENSURE RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) provides water and wastewater services to about 80,000 people (nearly double in the winter) living in this chain of islands that extends more than 200 km from the south coast of Florida, home to unique environmentally sensitive areas, including the third largest coral reef in the world.

The water supply in the islands comes primarily from the Biscayne Aquifer, supplemented by a secondary source of groundwater, the Floridan aquifer. The FKAA implemented one of the first low-pressure reverse osmosis treatments in the world to treat the brackish water from the Floridan Aquifer; water is pressurized to approximately 250 pounds per square inch, disinfected and blended with water treated from the Biscayne Aquifer. Water is then pumped over 200 km to

the entire Florida Keys. The FKAA can also use two SWRO desalination plants in emergency situations.

To help ensure access to clean drinking water is uninterrupted by the effects of climate change and aging infrastructure, the FKAA is embarking upon major upgrades. Work planned in Islamorada contemplates the replacement of four miles of the original transmission main that’s approximately 60 years old. Additionally, the mains at the Tea Table Relief and Whale Harbor bridge crossings will be installed underwater to isolate them from high winds and storm surges. After the work is completed in Islamorada, FKAA plans to begin replacing a portion of the Key West transmission line, then Plantation Key, and go from there until the entire 130mile system is upgraded with new steel pipes.

DIGITAL

Knowing the risks before they occur allows operators to make the right decisions at the right time. Whether it is low flow caused by droughts or changing feed water quality caused by floods or bushfires, it’s critical to be able to translate complex science in a way that makes decisionmaking efficient and effective.

Climate change is primarily a water crisis. Extreme weather events are making water more scarce, more unpredictable and more polluted. These impacts throughout the water cycle threaten sustainable development, biodiversity, and access to water and sanitation.

Flooding and rising sea levels can contaminate land and water resources with saltwater or raw sewage, and cause damage to water and wastewater infrastructure.

The impact of climate change is felt through rising sea levels, worsening floods, extreme bushfires and drought exemplified by:

J rising seawater levels threatening wastewater treatment plants and pumping facilities;

J floods bringing large amounts of water into catchments and dams causing major variations in feed water quality;

Flooding and rising sea levels can contaminate land and water resources and cause damage to water and wastewater infrastructure

J bushfires affecting the quality of feedwater to water treatment facilities as catchments become impacted by runoff water; and

J drought conditions causing deterioration of water resources due to changed chemical composition in water supply catchments.

These challenges to the water industry mean that historical information is no longer good enough as regulators, boards of water utilities and communities demand real-time or predictive information on conditions.

The task, therefore, is knowing what will happen as a result of climate change-induced events ahead of time and thus being prepared to plan and manage the associated risks.

Using tools such as jar-testing, that are not real-time, operators have been asked to manage feed water quality parameters they have not seen in the past and risk giving out-of-date advice as the water quality changes.

Furthermore, maintenance planning which normally takes place many weeks in advance and often as part of an annual cycle of maintenance programming is impacted when extreme events occur during maintenance windows. This frequently results in work disruptions and costly, and often hazardous delays.

Knowing the risks before they occur allows operators to make the right decisions at the right time. Whether it is low flow caused by droughts or changing feed water quality caused by floods or bushfires, it’s critical to be able to translate complex science in a way that makes decision-making efficient and effective.

Envirosuite’s Plant Optimiser is digital twin software that interprets complex process information, forecasts treatment plant performance and provides real-time advice to operators and decision-makers to maintain compliance and drive performance improvements.

Plant Optimiser has been designed to work in real-time with data collected at drinking water treatment and desalination plants, allowing operators to create scenarios of feed water quality. Optimiser will provide advice on the optimal dosing strategy to achieve water quality despite fluctuations in feed water quality.

Plant Optimiser sends hourly email advice on business as usual and optimised performance to help operators adjust their dosing hour by hour, without the need of doing regular time and resource consuming jar-testing.

Plant Optimiser reacts to unexpected, unusual and rare changes in feed water

quality, supporting operators through difficult and frequently unfamiliar situations.

The Water Supplies Department of Hong Kong is building a desalination plant at Tseung Kwan O which will produce potable water with an initial capacity of 135 million litres per day to provide a secure freshwater resource.

Envirosuite’s Plant Optimiser is currently being used to simulate scenarios with different feed water quality, such as when equipment is outside of operating guidelines or where water quality or flow conditions could lead to equipment failure. Chemical dosing rates, backwashing intervals for filtration equipment, and RO system flow management are optimised to provide the most efficient and risk-free operation. Plant Optimiser is used for operator training by simulating a range of scenarios for operators to manage so that they are comfortable with extreme events.

In addition to providing real-time solutions around extreme climate change induced weather events, Plant Optimiser outputs deliver compliant and efficient operating solutions by optimising chemical and energy costs, thus providing tangible operating cost benefits and confidence in risk management outcomes.

Learn more about EVS Plant Optimiser here

Plant Optimiser works in real-time with data from drinking water and desalination plants, to create scenarios of feed water quality

Z Contributed by Sabina todd, aPaC regional general Manager & ViCe PreSident at enViroSuite

David Lynch, CEO and Co-Founder of Klir

DAVID LYNCH & NICK ZARZYCKI

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER AT KLIR CONTENT MANAGER AT KLIR

Klir, a Software-as-a-Service platform for water utility management has recently released “Building the Utility of the Future”, a report on the challenges and barriers that water utilities are encountering as they go digital.

David Lynch co-founded Klir in 2018, a company offering water utilities an integrated platform that gathers, monitors and analyses data on regulatory compliance, resulting in efficiency gains and ultimately protecting the environment. They believe that water utilities can use compliance data management as an important step in their digital transformation and build trust with regulators and customers. Their newly released report, “Building the Utility of the Future”, presents case studies from utilities in the United States, Canada and Australia showing how software can improve utility operations. Klir’s CEO David Lynch and Nick Zarzycki, the primary author, tell us in this interview about the findings of the report.

Klir has just released the report “Building the Utility of the Future”. How did the idea of producing the report come about, and what is the target audience?

What inspired the report initially was a desire to tell the bigger story about software in water and why getting digitization right will be an existential necessity for the water sector over the next 20 years.

Utilities will have to work smarter not harder in order to succeed, and that means picking the right digital tools and implementing them correctly. This came out of

countless conversations we have had advising and hearing from the industry’s greatest thought leaders and really this report is for them – namely utility executives like general managers, IT leaders and those responsible for regulatory compliance.

When most technology providers talk about digitization, they immediately default to discussing a specific aspect of the problem: the role software might play in increasing the life of your assets through better leak detection for example, how to build an LSL inventory cheaply and quickly, or how to manage customer information more effectively, for example. We didn’t see anyone speaking about how all of these problems fit together or the bigger picture of software in water.

You interviewed dozens of staff at different water utilities in the US, Canada and Australia. What are their drivers to adopt digital technology, and what barriers are they encountering?

It’s interesting because we found that digitization is inevitable, even for utilities that don’t make an effort to get rid of paper forms or analogue processes. Digital tools are impossible to avoid these days: even small understaffed rural utilities with no IT infrastructure use computers and the internet to get work done today.

The question isn’t whether they’re going to digitise but how, and one big barrier or obstacle we’re seeing right now is uneven digitization. Leadership in water utilities are notoriously slow when it comes to prioritising new technologies, so instead frontline employees will go off and adopt their own solutions manually, which for large organisations can be a big problem.

Different treatment plants or trade shops might end up using different, incompatible asset management solutions. Or two different programs for budgeting or accounting. Or two different LIMS solutions.

Uneven digitization can create a lot of problems, especially at the administrative level and particularly for managers that have to ensure compliance with drinking and wastewater regulations.

Why should utility leaders that don’t work specifically in IT care about data management? How does it connect back to the bigger challenge of running a utility?

Fundamentally, the problems of tomorrow won’t be solved by yesterday’s solutions. The environment we are operating

isn’t whether they’re going to digitise but how, and one barrier or obstacle we’re

right now is uneven digitization"

“Utilities will have to work smarter not harder in order to succeed, picking the right digital tools”

"The question

seeing

Z CriStina noVo Pérez

in is much more complex than it was 30 years ago. The expectations of our customers are also higher. In a world where we have to do more with less, and do it a lot faster, effective integrated data management is critical for continuously delivering safe & secure water services.

Because it’s unavoidable. You need data to make evidence-based decisions, and an increasingly large portion of that data lives in digital systems. Becoming fluent in how those systems work and what those systems can do for the organisation is going to become increasingly important.

It’s difficult to find a function at a water utility that doesn’t need the right data to operate, but I’ll just use compliance as one example. Drinking water utilities need to know that the water they’re delivering is safe and compliant with drinking water regulations, not just assume it. And the only way they can do that is if they’re confident in their drinking water data. You can’t really have that confidence without airtight data management: until you have that, you’re always just assuming.

The importance of compliance comes up again and again in this report — why is that? Why should utility leaders care about compliance?

There is so much that a water utility does on a daily basis — thinking about how to digitise all of it can be overwhelming. We beat the compliance drum because we think it’s the ideal starting or entry point for utilities that want to get serious about digitising and managing their data properly. And the reason for that is that compliance touches virtually every aspect of what a water utility does.

Whether it’s cross-connection control, drinking water regulations, lead service line replacement or construction permits, most processes at a utility are regulated and generate massive amounts of administrative work. We have noticed that digitising, organising and automating that work is the greatest predictor for success when building the utility of the future.

Pinning hopes on knowledge platform projects or “everything as a work order” rollouts tend to fail because the system has specific uses and, for teams they are not applicable to, the chasm is too much to cross to get benefit from it.

There are quite a few software solutions that are broadly aimed at utilities. Are there any software-related challenges that are specific to the water sector? While it’s true that there are some broad similarities between how utilities operate, the fact that water utilities deal with drinking and wastewater makes their work pretty unique on both a micro and macro level. Let’s take the compliance and environmental angle as an example: water utilities must constantly collect samples throughout their system, send them to a lab, and then report the results to a regula-

tor. The data you collect and the processes you have to follow in that kind of environment are pretty unique — you’d have a tough time managing all of them using software that isn’t purpose-built.

We can look to other sectors for learning in this space. A decade ago finance and tech companies were buying a variety of software tools for almost every business process they could find. Now they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to rationalise & consolidate these down. In software, we broadly look at these periods and say, this is a “roll up” decade or this is an “app for everything” decade. A great example is when personal computers came out first, the word processor was one program and the number-crunching spreadsheet generator another. Microsoft came along and bundled this into the “office” pack-

age which resulted in even digitisation of the new modern workforce.

The same is happening in water. Those utilities that buy dozens of different apps for all their regulatory programmes (like backflow or reclaimed water) will be left having wasted a lot of money when they see that platforms like Klir exist and all of this can be done in one system for most of their needs.

Each utility has different priorities and specific needs. How can they know which digital solutions are best suited for them?

There are so many different solutions and providers out there these days. Besides recommending Klir, I’d focus on finding a provider that wants to understand your problems and is providing a tool that is purpose built to solve it.

I think it’s really important to look at a solution that suits your business. A laboratory system built for pharmaceuticals but patched for water might seem like a good idea but the fundamentals are different. The same goes for solutions from the energy sector. Water is unique as the people who work in it know, and they should expect the same from their providers.

For a long time, water utilities were neglected by the software industry and had to make do with tools purpose-built for power utilities, for example. Finding someone who cares about and understands the unique challenges in water should be the number one priority.

How can utilities assess the success of digitalisation efforts, and what metrics can be used to track progress?

ROI is an obvious one: at the current rate, how long will it take for the software solution you’ve onboarded to start paying for itself through efficiencies or increased revenue? How many hours per week is the solution saving your administrators?

But the more nuanced way is thinking of this like an insurance policy. When something goes wrong, you don’t want to find out you are not covered – this can be a compliance violation or a cyber security attack. The public is entrusting their water providers to manage this task responsibly, and claiming this is being achieved with paper stacks & various spreadsheets just doesn’t cut it anymore. A breach in public trust can cost you severely, not just when it comes to discussing rate increases but in terms of public health & liability too.

Remember to also factor in what you’re now able to do with the hours you’ve saved. When compliance managers don’t have to sort through stacks of permits, for example, does that mean they now have more time to serve internal customers with new permit applications? Are they now able to help with applying for more infrastructure funding and accelerating important projects in the pipeline?

What risks do utilities have when going digital, and how can they be addressed?

This fundamentally comes down to the problem-solution fit. Because the water vendor community is solution-led, providers often talk about the solution first and then look for the problem to solve. It sounds simple, but listening to the actual problem is rare and is further compounded by providers thinking a generic problem is the same across different industries.

A great example again is laboratory systems. The FDA might need significant documentation when reviewing drug approvals, but water is different. The job of the utility is not to create as much documentation as possible, but to efficiently and effectively evaluate if the water services they are providing are safe and secure. They are different things. When a solution provider truly understands what the users are trying to achieve, then they can make the software work for them rather than the other way around. When software is a job that detracts from a user’s day-to-day, that is when software does not stick and you run into problems.

"Compliance is the ideal starting point for utilities that want to get serious about digitising and managing their data properly"

"We have to do more with less and faster, so effective integrated data management is critical for delivering safe & secure water services"

Nick Zarzycki, Content Manager at Klir.

In the face of water scarcity and climate change, the digitalisation of the water cycle contributes by preserving resources through more efficient management and helping to reduce the carbon footprint and greenhouse gases generated by water cycle management activities. Spain is positioning itself as a world reference in the digitalisation of the integrated water cycle, after already being a leader in engineering, construction, and operation of large infrastructure.

Although there have been different industrial revolutions, none of them can be compared to the so-called Industrial Revolution 4.0, which entails a profound digital transformation of companies. It is not only about technological changes, but also about changes in the culture of the company, in the way we communicate, in the agility of organizations and even in the different strategies to be carried out.

And in a world where some 2 billion people live in water-stressed countries, the digital transformation of the water cycle has a major role to play.

The water sector cannot remain oblivious to the current digital transformation processes and the concrete benefits they bring, from greater efficiency in water and energy management at all levels (both in drinking water and sanitation systems and in terms of water resources with their multiple uses), to improved service quality and customer satisfaction, reduced carbon footprint and process sustainability.

Thanks to the use of technologies such as 5G, Big Data and Blockchain, which offer more and better information in real time, it is now possible to measure, understand and better control treatment, distribution and purification processes.

Faced with water scarcity and climate change, the digitalisation of the water cycle contributes in two ways: on the one hand, by preserving resources through more efficient management, and on the other hand, by helping to reduce the carbon footprint and greenhouse gases generated by water cycle management activities.

Z Araceli Iniesta. Environment & Climate Change Department Manager. ICEX Trade and Investment. Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Z Virginia Villanueva. Water Sector Manager. ICEX Trade and Investment. Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism

In this regard, Jorge Helmbrecht, Business Development Manager at Idrica, said at the UPM Water Digital Meeting at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, held at the end of October last year: “Digitalisation is key to the conservation of water resources, to help decision-making and to improve demand management”.

Digitalization in the water sector has been implemented for a long time, but the technological revolution of the last few years has led to digital tools with lower costs and increased computing power.

The water sector cannot remain oblivious to the current digital transformation processes and the concrete benefits they bring

Challenges such as rising customer expectations, evolving technologies, increasing competition, increasing regulatory pressures and ageing infrastructure are driving water providers to become digital organizations.

Business Opportunities

In this context, the digital transformation in the water sector has enormous potential, both in Spain and globally. Business opportunities in the digitalisation of the water cycle are emerging in areas such as: remote reading, IoT, connectivity, platforms, digital twins, artificial intelligence, monitoring and efficiency of water networks, Metaverse, cybersecurity, smart asset management, geographic information systems, etc., and both in countries with low technological maturity as well as in technologically advanced countries.

Spanish companies, world leaders in the water sector, are not oblivious to

these challenges, aware that the sector has enormous potential, both in Spain and globally, due to the challenges we face in terms of sustainability, extreme phenomena, and climate change.

Digital transformation in Spain

One of the greatest opportunities that exist in this path towards the digital transformation of the water sector in Spain and the increase of the capacity of Spanish companies is the approval of the policies for economic recovery and transformation (PERTE NEXT Generation European Funds).

The main objective of this project is to promote the use of new information technologies in the integrated water cycle, and it is expected to mobilize 3,060

One of the greatest opportunities are the policies for economic recovery and trasformation (PERTE NEXT Generation European Funds)

The technological revolution of the last few years has led to digital tools with lower costs and increased computing power

million euros in public and private investment over the coming years, supported by European recovery funds.

In addition to promoting the implementation of digital solutions by utilities, the PERTE will certainly encourage the growth of the existing large ecosystem of companies, including utilities, technology companies, equipment companies, hardware manufacturers (meters, sensors, etc.), telecommunications companies, etc.

All the technology, experience and knowledge acquired over the years in more advanced sectors in terms of digitalisation or in the water sector itself and, above all, the combination of both capacities is enabling Spanish companies to position themselves in this sector.

In this context, Spanish companies are driving the sector forward, adapting the whole range of solutions to market demands.

Spain has now some of the largest companies operating worldwide and many technological SMEs, and is positioning itself as a world reference in the digitalisation of the integrated water cycle, after already being a leader in engineering, construction and operation of large infrastructure.

Moreover, Spain has a proven track record in international R&D&I projects, such as H2020. In this sense, bringing together science, technology and innovation, and increasing the exchange of knowledge between corporations, academia, and companies to accelerate the implementation of tech-

nological solutions is key to making the most of synergies.

Undoubtedly, Spain has great potential to accelerate the process of digital transformation in the water sector worldwide, and successful results are already being observed not only in Spain but in many other parts of the world.

Business opportunities are emerging both in countries with low technological maturity as well as in technologically advanced countries

ANDY HAMMOND

MD, FLEXIM INSTRUMENTS UK LTD

CLAMP-ON ULTRASONIC TECHNOLOGY IS KEEPING DRINKING WATER FLOWING SAFELY

With an increased focus on the use of technology in the water sector, non-invasive clamp-on flowmeters are proving to be an innovative and cost-effective way to measure flow and reduce leakage. It’s becoming clear that better use of data is needed to drive improvements through efficiency and innovation, and ultrasonic metering allows the precise real-time data required to deliver effective water management without service disruption.

Safely and robustly secured, measurement is undertaken from the outside of the pipe, meaning there is no risk of costly and disruptive pipe damage due to the invasive techniques involved in the installation of conventional wetted flowmeters.

With two measuring channels, which in reflect mode provide four paths through the flow profile, or even four measuring channels, producing eight paths through the fluid in reflect mode, the flowmeter is able to reliably average the result of two or four planes.

Working under even the most challenging conditions and finely tuned to low flow velocities, ultrasonic flowmeters offer an incredibly accurate and versatile measurement solution for the water industry.

How accurate is ultrasonic, clamp-on measurement?

While doppler measurement is frequently recommended for wastewater flow measurement, as performance is stated as having an accuracy of ±2% of readings on liquids with entrained particles, or gases of 100 microns or larger and minimum concentrations of 75 ppm, this is rarely the case in practise. Despite specification claims, with constantly varying percentages of entrained air or suspended solids, doppler installed accuracy hardly ever exceeds 10%.

Ultrasonic transit time measurement, on the other hand, uses transducers that typically operate in the 0.2-2 MHz frequencies, and works by sending two ultrasonic pulses through the medium – one in the direction of flow, and a second one against it. The transducers are alternately working as a trans-

mitter and a receiver; ultrasound sent with the flow direction speeds up, whilst against the flow slows down, and the time difference, Dt, is directly proportionate to the flow rate.

Flow measurement at a dam

Supplying the city of Wuppertal in northwestern Germany with drinking water, the Kerspe dam has a capacity of 14.9 million m³. It is essential that all water quantities withdrawn from the dam are measured, so that when the measuring transmitter of one of the previously installed magmeters failed, the operators needed a quick and simple flow measurement alternative, as replacement parts for the decades-old device were no longer available.

Replacing the old magmeter was out of the question, as the cost would simply be too high, along with the downtime needed to carry out the enormous amount of work involved in such a procedure just not being an option. Having had previous experience of the benefits of clamp-on flowmeters, the system technicians tasked FLEXIM with installing a non-invasive solution.

Accurate measurement without disruption

A key advantage of non-invasive technology is that it can be rigorously checked for its suitability without affecting the system’s operation. Apart from the valves and the two magmeters, the bottom outlets of the Kerspe Dam consisted of a plastic-coated steel pipe, so plant technicians needed to be assured that clampon ultrasonic metering would work through the plastic coating, as well as needing to check measurement accuracy. Following a successful test measurement with a portable flowmeter, dam technicians made the decision to equip both bottom outlets with identical clamp-on ultrasonic measuring systems. The old magmeters were taken out of operation, but there was no need to invest time and money in their permanent removal, and the operators now have complete system availability at all times.

Working under the most challenging conditions, ultrasonic flowmeters offer accurate and versatile measuring for the water industry

SHEILLA DE CARVALHO

DIRECTOR AT H2i

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE: THE URGENT NEED FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE WATER SECTOR

If we all agree that water is critical for life, growth, and prosperity, then we need a new approach to ensure enough water for all (people, planet, and profit). Climate change, natural disasters, population growth, urbanisation, and human-driven events like pandemics, war, and social instability have accelerated the water crisis. A crisis underpinned by poor water management, inadequate and outdated infrastructure, insufficient investments, and struggling water utilities. This has resulted in inefficient water services across many cities worldwide, albeit to varying degrees.

The water crisis is no longer “looming” — it is here. According to UNICEF, four billion people — almost two-thirds of the world’s population — experience severe water scarcity over certain periods. The factors driving water scarcity are undoubtedly many and complex; however, bolder, more urgent action is needed to introduce and scale what works well, reduce or eliminate what doesn’t, and pursue new and more innovative solutions. One such solution is digitalisation.

The why, what, and how of water digitalisation

agement is no longer adequate or acceptable. We cannot rely on what worked in the past when dealing with radical changes in the world and an uncertain future.

So, what do we need to do?

In my view, there are three things we need to start doing. First, we need to start thinking differently about how we preserve, use, and reuse water. We need to better align on issues and priorities and adopt a broader national and global agenda – from policies to planning to budgeting. Second, we need to share our collective experiences, best practices, and expertise, especially around digital solutions. Finally, we need to engage all because the water crisis impacts all: the public sector, which is often tasked with water management; the private sector, which commands extensive resources and can foster and drive digitalisation at a much faster pace; academia and research institutions, which bring a wealth of knowledge and are a prime source of innovation and invention, and civil society, which has a vested interest in the sector’s success.

We need to act – we cannot rely on what worked in the past when dealing with radical changes in the world and an uncertain future

We already know why we’re doing this: We need water to survive. We already know how to do this: we have the technologies and digital solutions, access to a global knowledge pool, and the ever-increasing availability of vast amounts of data and data processing capacity. And we know what we need to do.

There are many examples and experiences to draw from, including: predictive software adoption to automate and control water systems across the Netherlands; real-time incident reporting and handling digital systems in Uganda; smart asset management systems for improved operations and maintenance of water infrastructure in Brazil; wastewater network optimisation tooling to avoid flooding in the USA, to name a few.

Now, we need to act. It starts with a shift in mindset and an acceptance that the “business as usual” approach to water man-

Unlocking a new era of water abundance

Digital technologies and solutions such as digital twins, IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and BIM (Better Information Management) offer unlimited potential to transform the water sector for the better. The benefits are numerous, and the value undeniable, namely: enhanced operational efficiency and optimisation resulting in increased affordability, greater transparency, enhanced social and economic (water) security and resilience, and improved environmental protection and sustainability.

The digitalisation of the water sector is by no means a quick, all-encompassing fix to the water crisis. Although there can be almost immediate impacts, the true, long-lasting results/ benefits will take a while to realise. But they will become apparent in the form of cost savings, resource optimisation, and healthier systems, cities, and societies.

MANAGING

THE BENEFITS OF MACHINE LEARNING AND DETERMINISTIC MODELLING

Envirosuite’s Plant Optimiser outputs deliver compliant and efficient operating solutions by optimising chemical and energy costs

The limitations of jar testing can be overcome by incorporating machine learning and process modelling using raw water quality and process control parameters (coagulant dose) as inputs and outputs.

The use of data-driven artificial neural networks (ANNs) has proven to be an effective and efficient solution to predict the required dosing for the desired treated water quality.

Envirosuite’s Plant Optimiser incorporates machine learning and deterministic models based on a sample and real-time data to make predictions that allow operators to better respond to variations of water quality during normal and abnormal operating conditions.

Traditionally, the optimum coagulant dose is determined by jar testing which has multiple limitations; they are overcome by incorporating machine learning and process modelling using raw water quality and process control parameters.

Coagulation is a critical component of water treatment. In order to meet drinking water quality criteria, suspended and dissolved impurities such as silt, algae and organic matter must be removed. This is usually achieved by processes such as clarification, where colloidal particles are settled, and removed by sedimentation or filtration. Clarification requires a coagulation and flocculation process to allow small, suspended particles to floc together thus becoming larger, and settling more rapidly.

Determining the optimal coagulant dose is critical, as insufficient dosing

results in poor-quality treated water while too high dosing rates mean higher chemical costs and potential health risks. This is particularly true where alum is used as the coagulant as it can potentially lead to high levels of residual aluminium.

Traditionally, the optimum coagulant dose is determined by jar testing, a technique simulating coagulation and flocculation processes in the laboratory, with the optimum chemical dose identified then applied to the actual plant. It is a time and cost-intensive process which requires testing various amounts of chemicals experimentally. The process does not consider the rapid changes in the plant conditions and cannot provide an appropriate response to changes in raw water quality in real-time, making it difficult to use for real-time control.

The digital twin software interprets complex process information, forecasts treatment plant performance and provides real-time advice to operators and decision-makers to maintain compliance and drive performance improvements.

Using deterministic modelling methods, Plant Optimiser speeds up the setup time to a few weeks, while machine learning delivers simultaneous forecasting of alternative operating scenarios that can be used to identify operational savings.

Machine learning-based forecasts also flag potential deviation in advance of the occurrence, enabling preventative action to take place. Over time, the repetitive neural network responds and improves, thus ensuring that forecasts remain accurate and useful for decision-making, even as the water quality changes.

VEOLIA AND OLI SYSTEMS TO ACCELERATE DIGITALIZATION FOR THE OIL & GAS SECTOR WITH WATER CHEMISTRY INSIGHTS

Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions has announced a collaboration with OLI Systems, a leader in water chemistry-based process simulation and electrolyte thermodynamics, to optimize operating performance in the refining and petrochemical industries through the use of OLI’s innovative cloud platform that delivers actionable insights to operations teams.

OLI’s deep understanding of electrolyte-intensive applications in refining, like crude distillation units, FCC, Hydroprocessing, Sour Water Stripping, and HF

Alkylation, is informed by a comprehensive chemistry property database, rigorous thermodynamic models, and a team of water chemistry professionals.

With the new collaboration, OLI will work with Veolia to bring these leading capabilities to Veolia field engineers and experts in refining and petrochemicals to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of chemical treatment programs.

“Veolia has a broad portfolio of solutions for the refining industry, and this collaboration with OLI will allow us to

DEWA IS THE FIRST UTILITY IN THE WORLD TO ENRICH ITS SERVICES WITH CHATGPT TECHNOLOGY

provide our customers with a consultative offering to provide enhanced diagnostics, system optimization, and alternative treatments”, said Martin Willis, Global Executive Energy & Chemicals, Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions.

Veolia’s field engineers with continuous access to chemical corrosion insights during operation from OLI Cloud Apps can analyse asset performance more effectively, diagnose root causes rapidly, proactively manage asset integrity, and minimize unplanned downtime.

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced that DEWA is working to enrich its services with ChatGPT technology supported by Microsoft. This will make DEWA the first utility globally and the first UAE government entity to use this new technology. This is part of DEWA’s continuous efforts to promote its leadership locally and globally.

The announcement was made as HE Saeed Al Tayer received Naim Yazbeck, General Manager of Microsoft UAE. The

move underlines DEWA’s pioneering successes in all digital areas and is a continuation of its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which started in 2017 by developing an AI roadmap. DEWA has already launched various services and initiatives that use AI to enrich the experiences of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

DEWA intends to provide ChatGPT technology through Moro Hub (Data Hub Integrated Solutions LLC), a subsidiary of Digital DEWA. The aim is to provide services supported by this

technology and employ it in serving customers and employees. This will ensure providing integrated and advanced services that enhance productivity and meet current and future needs.

ChatGPT, which uses AI and smart algorithms, has the ability to interact with users through dialogue, in addition to the ability to learn and understand their needs and enquiries. It is also capable of writing programming codes and solving coding problems, and can create different scenarios.

The collaboration will enable improved efficiency of refinery and petrochemical operations and will lower the costs of operations

The move underlines DEWA’s pioneering successes in all digital areas and is a continuation of its use of Artificial Intelligence

WATER SECURITY

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AND RESEARCH FELLOW AT THE PPIC WATER POLICY CENTER

CAITLIN PETERSON

The report begins by laying out the facts about what our changing climate means for water and water users in California. The short story is: Californians are going to have to learn how to get by with less water. In fact, if done right, California can continue to thrive — even though we expect to see a reduction in total water supplies going forward. That’s going to involve some

Californians are going to have to learn how to get by with less water

Established in 1994, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) is a nonprofit and independent think tank dedicated to enhancing public policy in California through independent and objective research. Z oliVia teMPeSt

California is battling a long and hard fight against drought. Some experts even suggest that this phenomenon must be seen as a historical turning point as the state is on the verge of an abyss, faced with rising heat, an accelerated rate of groundwater depletion and growing water shortages on the Colorado River, where Southern California gets its external source of water. At the end of last year, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a report highlighting the current state of water in California and what is expected in the near future. To learn a little more about the conclusions of this research, we spoke with Caitlin Peterson, associate director and research fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center.

Can you tell us briefly about your career path and your current role at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)?

I am an agroecologist by training, and my research has included topics such as climate-smart agriculture, soil health, diversified cropping systems, and inte-

grated crop-livestock systems. I worked abroad for a few years doing agricultural research for development organizations before coming to UC Davis to do my graduate work. My PhD research was on applying theories of ecological resilience to agriculture, so I spent some time in Brazil researching commercial soybean and beef grazing systems there and attempting to draw connections with agricultural systems in California. After that, I spent a few years as a consultant working in the regenerative agriculture space, and this included researching ecosystem services from agricultural and natural land covers in California’s Central Valley. This background has informed a lot of the research that I am currently doing at PPIC, which so far has focused on groundwater sustainability and agricultural land use transitions in the San Joaquin Valley.

PPIC released a report in November titled ‘Priorities for California’s Water: Thriving with less.’ What are the main conclusions of the report?

tough decisions and a lot of hard work, but some important groundwork has already been laid.

How is climate change affecting California’s water supply, and what should we expect in the near future?

California’s climate has always been cyclical, and we’re used to seeing dry periods followed by periods of heavy rainfall and flooding. However, with climate change these cycles are becoming more intense — the dries are dryer and often longer, and the wet periods are infrequent but extreme. That creates a lot of challenges for managing the state’s water resources. The general warming trend means that when we do get precipitation, more of it falls as rain rather than snow. Snowpack is one of the main ways that the state stores water — snow means water available later into the hot, dry summer periods — but we’re losing that snowpack storage. That rain also tends to come as big “gulps.” It’s very difficult to capture and use huge amounts of water when it’s only available for relatively short periods. The general “thirstiness” of the atmosphere is also increasing, which is also going to impact our water supplies. Drier, hotter air pulls more moisture from plants, water bodies, and the soil, leav-

ing less available for us to use. In turn, stressed vegetation feeds back into the drought cycle and makes droughts more intense.

What strategies does the PPIC recommend for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change on California’s water supply?

More investments in water supply reliability are going to be needed - things like diversifying water sources, improving our ability to store water above and belowground, and making sure we have an adequate conveyance to take advantage of wet years. Smart demand management is also going to be critical. That means improving the capacity to store

"More investments in water supply reliability are going to be needed, making sure we have an adequate conveyance to take advantage of wet years"

"California’s climate has always been cyclical, and we’re used to seeing dry periods followed by periods of heavy rainfall and flooding"

and trade water in transparent and accountable ways; capturing storm runoff; and continuing to promote increases in water use efficiency. Agriculture is a key industry for California, but it’s also a big water user. We’ll likely see a reduced footprint for agriculture in the most water-stressed areas of the state — which also happen to be the epicenters for agricultural production. What that means is it’s going to be important to manage land use transitions in a coordinated and thoughtful way that minimizes undesir-

able impacts on agriculture, the environment, and communities.

Scientists have recently discovered groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically. How should groundwater be further protected?

In an ideal world, groundwater should serve as the state’s drought reserve. In fact, groundwater pumping does tend to increase dramatically in drought years, when surface supplies are scarce. We’ve had a very dry 10-year stretch, so it’s no surprise that our aquifers are suffering. That said, the aquifer depletion we’re seeing in the Central Valley is the product of decades of mismanagement of groundwater resources. It was not until recently, with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014, that state and local governments had any way of regulating groundwater

withdrawals at all. SGMA was a landmark piece of legislation, and while it’s far from perfect, it’s the best tool we have to start to bring our groundwater use back into balance with replenishment. And it’s not just quantity that needs to be considered, but quality as well. In theory, moving towards sustainable levels of groundwater use should improve some of the salinity issues we’ve been seeing in some basins. But care will need to be taken with some methods of recharging groundwater basins — for example, spreading floodwaters on agricultural lands — to ensure that sites with heavy nitrate or chemical loads are not being used for that purpose.

How is the PPIC engaging with policymakers and other stakeholders to address climate change and water challenges in the state?

PPIC’s mission is to be the unbiased source of information that policymak-

"The Public Policy Institute of California’s mission is to be the unbiased source of information that policymakers and stakeholders turn to"

ers and stakeholders turn to. We engage regularly with folks in the water world, whether they be urban water agencies, farmers, conservation groups, or state agencies. This helps us understand what questions people have and where the public discourse is focused. Then we do the research to help fill the knowledge gaps. The main goal is to facilitate a healthy discourse on water issues in the state — one that’s informed by the data.

What recommendations does the PPIC propose for increasing California’s water efficiency and conservation?

In our cities and communities, conservation and efficiency are becoming a way of life. In fact, urban areas are using about the same amount of water as they did in the 1980s, despite continuing population growth. This is due in large part to retrofitting appliances and indoor fixtures, along with better leak detection. While these measures are important, there is room for more savings, especially in water used outdoors for landscaping. And it’s important to note that it’s not enough to rely on conservation to meet all our water demands. Cities and communities also need to do a good job of finding new sources of supplies and increasing the reliability of those supplies.

When it comes to agriculture, the industry is in a bind because it completely depends on irrigation to be as productive as it is. However, that same demand for irrigation water is threatening the continued viability of California’s agriculture industry and the security of the state’s groundwater resources in the long term. Achieving sustainability is going to require both demand reduction and supply augmentation. But even with new supply investments, we’ll likely see at least 500,000 acres of cropland come out of intensively irrigated production. This will undoubtedly be a blow to agriculture, but with careful planning and coordination some of the

worst downsides can be avoided — and even some new opportunities created.

What are the potential impacts of sea level rise on California’s coastal communities and infrastructure?

Sea level rise is a significant threat to coastal communities. A large part of the threat comes from erosion and flooding caused by large waves, very high tides, and storm surges. Even modest storms could create massive damages that will be expensive and disruptive for millions of people. Rising seas will also impact the state’s water systems. Coastal flooding may grow worse as runoff from intense storms meets extra-high tides in coastal creeks. Wastewater treatment facilities are vulnerable to damage from rising seas and heavy storms. Many coastal water systems are facing seawater intrusion into their aquifers, and saltwater could be pushed farther and farther upstream in the critically important Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.

What research has the PPIC conducted on California’s water quality and water pollution? And how will climate change affect the state’s quality of water?

Water quality issues often go hand-inhand with water quantity issues. Un-

safe drinking water is a chronic issue for some water systems, including tribal systems and small, rural systems in the San Joaquin Valley. As many as a million Californians have been exposed to unsafe drinking water. And increasing water scarcity, driven by climate change, will only make this worse as contaminants become more concentrated. The state is making a strong effort to improve water supply quality and reliability, particularly for the most at-risk rural communities.  This involves grants to improve these systems, including new water treatment facilities, deeper wells, new sources of cleaner and more reliable water, or consolidating small water systems into larger systems to improve resilience. There has been a lot of progress on this — spurred on by the last two droughts — but the state has a very long way to go.

Cities and communities also need to do a good job of finding new sources of supplies and increasing the reliability of those supplies

"The state is making a strong effort to improve water supply quality and reliability, particularly for the most atrisk rural communities"

RICKESH MIYANGAR

DIRECTOR, RAMBOLL

WATER

Much like we are supporting clients in decarbonizing their current and proposed developments, there is an ever-growing need to provide strategic advice to clients to bolster their planning applications to demonstrate the steps required to achieve water neutrality.

What is water neutrality?

Water neutrality is defined as development that takes place which does not increase the rate of water abstraction for drinking water supplies above existing levels. The concept of water neutrality is ambitious and raises several key points of consideration. For example, which measures are required to ensure a site is water efficient, and how water neutrality can be evaluated on projects of different scales. As we continue to experience hotter summers, these assessments will have more influence than ever.

How the use of water in a site can affect wildlife, especially if the water being extracted is potable water, is another key concern. Additionally, in cases when an area is supplied with potable water via the local trunk mains, there are potential consequences of connecting larger developments to the existing infrastructure.

How can we accomplish water neutrality?

A range of methods and techniques can be used to improve the water efficiency of a development site; installing measures such as smart meters, low-flush toilets, flow restrictors, and trigger-style hose guns can all help to reduce water usage in a site. However, alone, these measures are not enough. In addition to these techniques, developers can make use of reclaimed water technologies in a bid to further reduce consumption. For example, the collecting of rainwater for practical uses such as flushing toilets and irrigation, or reclaiming greywater left behind in washbasins, showers and baths to be filtered and treated before then passing into a clear water storage tank.

How can offsetting support water neutrality?

Offsetting must be in place before the water demand is generated, for instance before new houses are occupied. If it is not possible to provide sufficient offsetting, either because it cannot be delivered fast enough, or there is not enough available offsetting to meet demand, this could potentially restrict the amount of possible growth.

Planning authorities recommend several current measures to achieve offsetting, including retrofitting a reclaimed water system, or water-efficient devices/fittings, into existing buildings. Water authorities and local councils could use offsetting credits to define a cost for offsetting, which could in theory be a cost used to calculate a developer’s contribution to achieving water neutrality, something that could in the future be charged and collected via schemes S106 agreement in the UK. Additionally, water efficiency programmes in schools could yield a benefit by increasing awareness of the need to save water. The actual offsetting measures will vary scheme by scheme based on scale and the local and national assessment criteria.

Nutrient neutrality and water neutrality

The construction of buildings has the potential to negatively impact ecosystems through the discharge of additional nutrients, which pollute water bodies and cause eutrophication and algal blooms. This can be through agricultural activities, the occupation of buildings where untreated sewage and wastewater enter rivers over and above the limits that water companies’ permits allow, and through surface water run-off. Water neutrality differs from nutrient neutrality in that it is concerned with the amount of water which is being used by developments, rather than its quality.

Overall, many obstacles must be overcome if we are to reduce water use and improve efficiency, but by capitalising on the range of techniques and technologies at our disposal, and with greater legislative support, there is a solution to the issue within sight.

Water neutrality raises key points, such as which measures are required to ensure a site is water efficient, and how to evaluate it

NEUTRALITY: YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT FOSSIL FUELS, YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT WATER

ROSARIO SANCHEZ

SHARED BORDERS AND THE PARADIGM SHIFT

Borders, fences, limits. The parameters that govern our conception of security and the long-term prevalence of the world as we know it, or at least, as we imagine it is. If we open the door too much for too long, our status quo changes, anxiety takes over and blaming of outsiders, whatever the outsider might be, occurs. Climate, water, and our environment are testing our very cherished paradigms of security. It is established in our mindsets that borders put a line between differences, qualities of life, freedoms and values. Borders have historically built walls between peace and war, black from white, good from bad. This paradigm might have been true at some points in history, but I doubt it is useful anymore. Climate, water and the environment, the most important threats to the world in modern history, could care less about our diminished conceptions of security: borders. I am inclined to say that the biggest threat we are facing is not climate change, not even water scarcity, but the destruction of our paradigm of power security driven by the establishment of imaginary lines. This is not to say that this change is dangerous, on the contrary, I think the shift is necessary; however, there is a cost associated with it.

World discussions over current environmental threats and how little has been accomplished by countries tend to concentrate on issues associated with financing, the inclusion of stakeholders, building social capital, commitment, and leadership. Very few or none address the issue of the potential shift of paradigm towards the “sharing” of risks and opportunities, which is really what keeps countries from commitments that transcend their borders. How should countries understand now that borders do not play a role anymore in preserving our security, and if fact, seem to be an obstacle for addressing our most pressing world challenges? What should be now and how do we establish those imaginary limits that provide us with security to avoid social anxiety coming from external threats? What does

external mean now? Is there anything in the natural system not connected to itself that sooner or later will have an impact to some degree on every place on the planet? These are the questions that countries find difficult to address because the priority now seems to relay outside their constrained realm of influence, power, and decision-making. We have all become outsiders. Environmental, and particularly, shared water systems, have restrained our capacity to set limits, preferences, and even priorities. We have lost power. We have lost control. And this is the biggest unsaid threat facing the current power and international relations paradigm: power balance is shifting, shrinking towards …what? Individuals? Communities? Transborder regions? Planet? Not sure. What priorities should we focus on now? How do we define “domestic threats” when we all know they are not domestic anymore? Moreover, how do we execute our decision-making power effectively if the risk transcends our borders?

Europe has shown some success in adapting to sort of porous borderlines with more “shared” commitment to the “union”. However, it took them at least 1,500 years and two world wars to understand the need for an “outside” perspective rather than a limited countrywide perspective driven by borderlines. This has not been the case nor the history of the Americas, Asia and Africa. The environment is not only testing the resilience capacity of our natural systems and human systems, but our own conception of power security among countries, and most of all, among ourselves. The test is evaluating our true commitment to an overall well-being without guarantees that the overall well-being will be good enough to justify investments in lieu of other domestic priorities. The paradigm will shift, the question is how long it will take for the international community to adapt to a world where its greatest threat cannot be constrained by our traditional delineated comfort zones.

Environmental, and particularly, shared water systems, have restrained our capacity to set limits, preferences, and even priorities

SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT TEXAS WATER RESOURCES INSTITUTE

PROFESSOR AT INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS

DR THALAPPIL PRADEEP

Poor water quality affects millions of people worldwide. Prof. Pradeep, a renowned Indian chemistry researcher, has developed filtration technologies based on affordable and sustainable nanomaterials to purify drinking water, improving water security across India.

The VinFuture annual prizes reward breakthrough scientific research and technological innovations; in 2022, Professor Thalappil Pradeep received the Special Prize for Innovators from Developing Countries, for his development of a low-cost filtration system to remove arsenic and other metals from groundwater, helping millions of people get access to clean water. Dr Pradeep is a Professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Professor-in-charge of the International Centre for Clean Water. SWM had the opportunity of interviewing him about his research and the impact of the technology solutions he has developed.

Can you tell us briefly about your career path and how you became involved in water research?

I grew up in a village, where we first got electricity when I was 21 years old. We lived with kerosene lamps, and I walked four kilometres one way to school through

paddy fields, barefoot, splashing water in the puddles all through the way. We were children of school teachers and had a life better than many in the village. Yet, we knew that much more had to be done to make life better for everyone. In the early days, I wanted to be a writer. I interacted with many great writers of the local language who were all neighbours, and it was them that I wanted to follow. I came to science as I got older and gradually came to realise that I enjoyed science as the writers I knew enjoyed poetry. I have come to think today that these two are the same. I was exploring fundamental science for a long time and my science to a large extent still revolves around such topics. However, in the early 2000s, the issue of pesticides in soft drinks made me think about whether nanoparticles could help in solving the problem. That led to the discovery of pesticide degradation by nanoparticles and that was developed into a technology which was incorporated into water purifiers. That was my first patent and first technology license.

“My roots are the reason why I work in water, directing my discoveries towards those whose struggles were my own”

Z CriStina noVo Pérez

Soon, that research got expanded to many areas of clean water.

In India, we have been aware of arsenic in water for over 40 years, and it is one of the most important cases of mass poisoning in history. The problem of how to build an affordable and sustainable solution has presented me with an opportunity to direct my research into something truly meaningful. Clean water is the most important basic necessity, and it touches upon every part of life, health, and well-being.

What does it mean for you to receive the VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators from Developing Countries?

I am so glad that my work has been recognised by the VinFuture Foundation, and it was an honour to travel to Vietnam and receive the prize alongside esteemed innovators from across the world. It is very significant that this Prize makes a point to celebrate innovators from the

developing world, whose science makes an impact. I firmly believe that, as a scientist, it is important to remember the roots, where you began in life.

My roots are the reason why I work in water, they are what made me work in India, made me work for the good of ordinary people, and made me direct my discoveries towards those whose struggles were my own some years ago. It was a great honour to be recognised as a scientist from a developing country, working to improve the lives of people from communities similar to mine. Today, my arsenic solution delivers 70 million litres of water daily in different parts of the country. It delivers water to about 1.3 million people in various states every day.

The International Centre for Clean Water at IIT Madras Institute was established in 2018. What is your assessment of what has been achieved in its first few years, and what are your expectations for the future?

The International Centre for Clean Water (ICCW) was established to provide an opportunity for anyone to innovate in the area of clean water. Our knowledge in technology development and translation can be used by anyone to build technologies of relevance in any society. We believe in the following objective: come with an idea and walk out with a product

or a technology. ICCW has worked with many individuals and institutions to implement solutions in the field. It has created an environment in the country to appreciate issues of clean water. We have helped dozens of start-ups to expand their activities, new products to be tested in the field and several nations to link with India in the space of water. A few start-ups have been incubated as well. There is so much more to do to create an ecosystem to innovate in the space of clean water. As water connects with every area of society, the sky is the limit for our work. We are open to everyone.

Can you tell us about nanomaterials-based AMRIT technology and how does it differ from other water filtration solutions?

AMRIT technology is an adsorption-based solution to remove arsenic and other impurities from water. Arsenic principally exists as two different ionic forms, namely arsenite and arsenate. Often water containing these ions also contains iron. The AMRIT technology removes all these ions and delivers clean water, conforming to USEPA or WHO norms at an insignificant cost of 2.5 paise ($0.0003) per litre of clean water, with all the costs (capital, consumables and maintenance) put together. The difference this technology offers is the nearly equal efficiency for both arsenate and arsenite as well as the capacity to remove soluble iron by adsorption, all at the cost mentioned. The arsenic-laden waste is safe for disposal in the field as it does not leach arsenic beyond the background levels in the field conditions. It also addresses other contaminants in water such as manganese and uranium, which are also causing issues in affected regions.

Where is AMRIT technology being used? Are there any plans to expand its use?

AMRIT is used across India. It has been approved by the nation. It has been tried in Cambodia. It has been tested in the waters

"It was a great honour to be recognised as a scientist from a developing country, working to improve the lives of communities like mine"

In India, we have been aware of arsenic in water for over 40 years; it is one of the most important cases of mass poisoning in history

of Argentina and Australia. Water quality is widely different in various parts of India, often separated by 2,000 kilometres. From such studies, we know that AMRIT can be applied in any region across the world. The technology can be expanded to any region and we are sure that it can address metal contamination anywhere.

Can you comment on other water technology solutions that your research group is working on?

We have been working on making such solutions even more sustainable. We have discovered several new materials in this context. Expanding the list of contaminants is another direction. The possibility of recovering metals from waste is another activity. We are of late interested in noble metal extraction through sustainable means. In addition, our work on contaminants has taken us to new ways of detecting them at ultra-low levels in the field us-

ing advanced materials. Besides, we work on capacitive deionisation, membrane filtration and humidity harvesting.

What do you think are some of the most pressing research needs in relation to water contamination and general water security?

The next ‘big idea’ in water contamination research is reducing the carbon footprint of clean water. Essentially, we are trying to make every form of water purification run on renewable power, and have zero impact on the environment while making clean water affordable. Every material we use should contribute to the circular economy. Every waste we recover from water should become a resource for the future. Solar desalination and sustainable water harvesting from the air will become affordable very soon.

Another innovative area of water research is the application of data. To -

morrow’s water purifiers will become devices with predictability. Water itself is becoming data. When we supply water of particular quality, we can learn how this impacts individuals and communities over a period of time. Water data can be used to predict the health of people. Water purifiers will become intelligent devices over the course of time.

Water security will happen only with appropriate education. Society has to become water literate.

"The International Centre for Clean Water was established to provide an opportunity for anyone to innovate in the area of clean water"

MANILA WATER INAUGURATES NEW AQUEDUCT TO REINFORCE WATER SECURITY

to avert any impending disaster should any one of these ageing aqueducts be compromised; hence, Manila Water embarked on the project of building a 4th aqueduct.

Manila Water recently inaugurated one of its flagship projects that seeks to boost water security and service reliability for its more than 7.4 million customers in eastern Metro Manila and Rizal Province.

The P5.6-B Novaliches-Balara Aqueduct 4 or NBAQ4 project consists of laying a 7.3-kilometre, 3.1-diameter aqueduct underneath Commonwealth Avenue via a tunnel boring machine, a first in an urban setting the country. Other components of the project include the construction of an intake facility at the La Mesa Reservoir, an outlet structure at the Balara Treatment Plant 2, and the downstream network system. An aqueduct is a pipe, a tunnel or any form of structure constructed to convey water from a source to a distant distribution point.

Currently, there are 3 aqueducts connecting the La Mesa Reservoir to the Balara Treatment Plants (BTP) 1 and 2. Aqueducts 1, 2 and 3 were laid in 1929, 1956, and 1968 respectively, and have been carrying up to 1,600 million litres of raw water per day (MLD) to Manila Water’s water treatment plants which is the entire allocation for the East Zone. This, in turn, does not leave any opportunity to assess the continued viability of the existing concrete aqueducts, with the oldest now nearing its century-old mark. The service life for concrete structures such as these aqueducts is normally pegged at 50 years.

The risk of ageing infrastructure and the rising demand for water supply in relation to continued increase in population continues to accentuate the critical need for another conveyance system

The urgency of completing the NBAQ4 necessitated addressing major construction challenges such as the presence of informal settlers along and within the aqueduct alignment and the planned facilities as well as the monstrous traffic that may be caused if construction will adopt the conventional open excavation method along the busy Commonwealth. Avenue. As an innovative solution, the Manila Water project team opted to use a machine to create a tunnel underneath the major thoroughfare. The construction consortium Novaliches-Balara Joint Venture (NovaBala JV) formed by contractors CMC Di Ravenna, First Balfour Phils, and Chun Wo Construction brought in the tunnel boring machine (TBM). By January 28, 2020, the TBM, christened “Dalisay”, a Filipino word meaning pure and refined, was officially launched. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the Philippines just a couple of months after the start of the NBAQ4’s construction, “Dalisay” finally completed its work on August 14, 2021.

Manila Water considers the NBAQ4 as one of its biggest milestones in its 25 years in service, as the Company relies highly on the 3 old aqueducts in providing 24/7 water supply to its customers in the East Zone of Metro Manila and Rizal.

Manila Water inaugurates one of the firm’s flagship projects to boost water security and service reliability for 7.4 million customers

SDGs

GUILLAUME BAGGIO

WATER AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT

In 2015, United Nations Member States adopted an unprecedented global agenda for sustainable development. This agenda, which was set to be achieved by all countries by 2030, introduced several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address many interrelated development priorities, such as ending poverty and hunger, improving access to education and healthcare, promoting equal work opportunities for all, and achieving a long overdue milestone – universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation. In the same year, countries agreed to take urgent action to mitigate climate change by adopting Paris Agreement targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. At the time, these global commitments provided countries with a language to translate their renewed development pledges and the hope for a sustainable future.

However, a few years later, the global context of sustainable development could not be more challenging. The multiple global crises faced by countries, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, environmental deterioration, armed conflicts, and forced human displacement, have threatened the viability of advancing sustainable development. According to the latest assessment of SDGs, for instance, progress against poverty has been wiped out by the effects of the pandemic, with significant implications for health, education, and gender equality goals, while the number of people suffering from hunger has been on the rise after many years of decline. Progress in water-related SDGs has also been staggeringly slow. In 2020, about 2 billion people were still relying on unsafe drinking water services while 2.8 billion people were living without safely managed sanitation services and 2.3 billion people lacked basic handwashing facilities. Access to drinking water and sanitation in hospitals and schools is also lagging in many developing countries, with 288 million children simply

lacking access to drinking water at their schools and 1.7 billion people without access to drinking water at their healthcare facilities in 2021 Furthermore, climate change is already altering hydrological regimes, with potential impacts on the integrity of freshwater ecosystems that support biodiversity, economies, and livelihoods.

The conditions for achieving the SDGs have also deteriorated worldwide. With the pandemic pushing public spending and budgetary amendments to address eminent health risks and introduce social protection measures, many developing countries were left with limited fiscal space to support sustainable development in addition to reduced economic activities to carry investments in critical infrastructure. Even with a relative rebound in global foreign direct investment and development assistance in the last year, funds from development agencies and donor countries are still insufficient to tackle global sustainable development challenges. As a result of these compounding effects, the financing gap to achieve SDGs in developing countries reached USD 3.9 trillion in 2020, according to OECD estimates.

In this context, sustainable development in the water and sanitation sectors has also been significantly impacted. Although overall development assistance to developing countries has increased over the last few years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, assistance for drinking water and sanitation has decreased. This trend likely contributed to delays and disruptions in the execution of projects, including large drinking water and sanitation infrastructure projects and critical improvements in local services to vulnerable communities. Ruptures in supply chains and increases in the prices of water and sanitation infrastructure, as well as reduced operational capacity due to health concerns, also impacted drinking water and sanitation providers globally, potentially leading to a decline in the quantity and quality of services. While well-in-

Despite a bleak outlook, ambitious progress toward achieving the SDGs is still possible. This is particularly true for water-related SDGs

tentioned, free-water initiatives introduced at the beginning of the pandemic to ease some of the financial burdens also led to decreasing funding streams. Some assessments even indicate that these initiatives may have deepened inequalities, as many urban slums and rural communities in developing countries did not benefit from free drinking water services due to institutional and infrastructure barriers. Growing poverty and job losses also contributed to a deterioration of funding streams for the water and sanitation sectors, further exacerbating the need for more funds. In addition, floods and droughts with the potential to disrupt water and sanitation systems and drastically impact freshwater ecosystems, such as the extreme rainfall and flooding in Pakistan, Germany, and Canada, and severe droughts in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya in the last few years, have become a global reality.

Despite this bleak outlook, ambitious progress toward achieving the SDGs is still possible. This is particularly true for water-related SDGs due to their critical reinforcement effect among other SDGs – after all, access to freshwater resources is a key component of poverty eradication, healthful livelihoods, food production, gender equality, and economic growth. To harness this potential, countries can explore two development approaches.

First, countries must support policy coherence to address multiple development priorities simultaneously. One strategy for achieving policy coherence is to focus on the reinforcement potential of strongly interlinked SDGs. This is particularly important for countries where insufficient financial resources and inadequate institutional capacity are solicited to address a wide range of sustainable development and climate change issues. Examples of this potential are observed in many cases –for instance, Colombia and Chile showed that post-pandemic economic growth plans can support sustainable development with investments in climate-resilient water and sanitation

systems. Ethiopia has also innovated with its ONEWASH National Programme to bring many national agencies, development banks, and international donors together under the same budget to address policy and resource fragmentation and accelerate progress in the water and sanitation sectors. The programme includes climate-related risk management through water resource planning and has contributed to one of Africa’s fastest improvements in access to drinking water.

Second, countries must reshape their focus by prioritizing the most vulnerable in the post-pandemic context with actions that support equitable outcomes. As the SDGs seek to leave no one behind, this development pledge can only be achieved if countries focus on bringing sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation to the most vulnerable communities and sectors, including women and girls, migrants and refugees, schools, and hospitals. However, leaving no one behind will also require overcoming the lack of mechanisms to identify and target the needs of vulnerable communities. These barriers can obstruct the effective capacity of sustainable development policies to address inequalities, as evidenced by the failure of some free-water initiatives to reach the most vulnerable populations during the pandemic.

Ultimately, these two approaches reinforce the need for coordinated social, economic, and environmental action. Countries must not abandon their commitments to sustainable development in the context of climate change and uncharted economic and geopolitical territories. In fact, the post-pandemic period is a critical time to shape the direction of progress toward the achievement of water-related SDGs. To this end, a combination of policy coherence and focus on the most vulnerable is essential to accelerate progress. Put simply, building a more sustainable future is still possible in this seemingly dire global context.

The post-pandemic period is a critical time to shape the direction of progress toward the achievement of water-related SDGs

“The UN 2023 Water Conference in March must result in a bold Water Action Agenda that gives our world’s lifeblood the commitment it deserves” – António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.

Setting the scene

The first UN conference on water in close to 50 years – the last one was held in 1977 in Mar de Plata, Argentina – is a unique opportunity to accelerate action for water and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. It aims to generate concrete actions and commitments to advance the global water agenda and secure transformative changes at all levels.

The UN 2023 Water Conference will be held from 22 to 24 March in New York, convened by the UN General Assembly, and with the Netherlands and Tajikistan as co-hosts. Formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028), it has been called by the UN “the most important water event in a generation”.

Back in December 2017, the United Nations committed to focusing on water for the decade 2018-2028. The goal of the Water Action Decade is to accelerate

efforts towards meeting water-related challenges, namely access to water and sanitation, increased pressures on water resources, as well as drought and flood risks. To do so, the action plan for the Decade identified four work streams:

J Facilitating access to knowledge and the exchange of good practices;

J Improving knowledge generation and dissemination, including new information relevant to water-related SDGs;

J Pursuing advocacy, networking and promoting partnerships and action;

J Strengthening communication actions for implementation of the water-related goals.

As we move into the second half of the Water Action Decade and the second half of the 2030 Agenda, there is widespread recognition that the world is off track to meet SDG 6. The UN 2023 Water Conference aims to catalyse action for water security, setting a clear agenda for the second half of the Decade and beyond.

Although there is no negotiated outcome document foreseen for the conference, one main outcome will be the Water Action Agenda, launched by the co-hosts in June 2022 to turn the political momentum created by the Conference into tangible and ambitious action.

Water is everyone’s business

The Conference co-hosts would like it to be a forum where the water sector and especially other sectors will show water as the catalyst for sustainable development. Water is crosscutting and supports the

The United Nations 2023 Water Conference aims to generate concrete actions and commitments to advance the global water agenda

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achievement of many SDGs, so it presents a great opportunity, a leverage point for a green economy, climate resilience and a more sustainable and inclusive world.

The five themes of the conference, and related goals and targets, are as follows:

J Water for Health: access to WASH, including the human rights to safe drink-

ing water and sanitation (SDG 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 17).

J Water for Sustainable Development: valuing water, water-energy-food nexus and

sustainable economic and urban development (SDG 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and SDGs 2, 8, 9, 11, 12).

J Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: source to sea, biodiversity, climate, resilience and disaster risk reduction (SDGs 6.5, 6.6, 7, 11.5, 13, 14, 15).

J Water for Cooperation: transboundary and international water cooperation, cross-sectoral cooperation, including scientific cooperation, and water across the 2030 Agenda (SDG 6.5, 6.b and SDGs 16, 17).

J Water Action Decade: accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade, including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan.

At the Conference, there will also be several informal high-level special events on different topics. One of them, “The economics of water: transforming governance to secure a sustainable, just and prosperous future”, will be an open dialogue of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), an independent group of policymakers and researchers that bring novel perspectives to water economics and governance, to align the global economy with sustainable water resource management. Launched in May 2022 with a two-year mandate, the Commission will publish a

first report to coincide with the Conference, assessing the way we manage and value water and the role of water towards a more sustainable future. The open dialogue will start a consultative process that will contribute to the final report of the GCEW in 2024.

Another report expected at the Conference will be the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR), UN-Water’s flagship publication on water and sanitation, to be launched on World Water Day, March 22. The theme of the 2023 edition will be Partnerships and Cooperation for Water. It is expected to address how the water and sanitation community can overcome competing needs and expectations.

Expected outcomes: the Water Action Agenda

The Water Action Agenda will express the political ambition to address the global water challenges: tangible action to deliver and track results. It will include water-related commitments – voluntary – to accelerate progress on the Water Action Decade 2018-2028 and the 2030 Agenda. Commitments have already been gathered in the preparatory process for the Conference, and will continue to be added during the Conference itself and even after, until the end of the

Water Action Decade 2018-2028 and the 2030 Agenda.

The commitments can be undertaken by governments, the United Nations system, other intergovernmental organizations, international and regional financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations, academic and research institutions, the scientific community, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and other actors - individually or in partnership. They can be small in scale, size and reach but meaningful at the level of the commitment, for example from schools, communities and individuals, to large-scale, transformative commitments from governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, and commitments

As we move into the second half of the Water Action Decade, there is widespread recognition that the world is off track to meet SDG 6

by coalitions of partners with long-term plans to realize systems change. Every drop counts.

Three main categories of commitments are envisioned: foundational, institutional, and game changers. Foundational commitments would be small in scale, size and reach; they are expected mostly through the awareness-raising campaigns linked to the conference such as World Water Day and World Toilet Day. Institutional commitments are made by governments, civil society, private sector, academia, coalitions etc.; with a large-scale impact, they can be scaled up and replicated. They are expected mostly through the Water Action Agenda dedicated online platform. Finally, game changers would be made by coalitions of partners

that lead to systems change; they are expected to emerge from the institutional and foundational commitments.

There are already many commitments compiled in the Water Action Agenda online platform, very diverse in terms of the proponents, the scale and the activities proposed. They range from specific local commitments, such as reducing water demand by 15% in Monterrey’s Metropolitan area by pressure management, to a “ Wastewater Zero” initiative to encourage multinational companies to implement actions to meet SDG 6.3 in their own facilities and supply chains, by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), to broad UN system efforts, such as the UNEP-WMO-UNESCO systems ap-

UN 2023 WATER CONFERENCE

proach to accelerate ambient water quality action through improved interoperability of water quality data.

Voluntary commitments are expected to lead to progress on SDG 6 indicators, advancing implementation towards nationally set water and sanitation-related goals and targets.

“A watershed moment”

The hopes are high for the Conference to be “a watershed moment”, as expressed in its vision statement: a turning point that will lead to action with speed and priority to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.

On February 13, Csaba Kőrösi, President of the United Nations General Assembly, spoke to the Interparliamentary Union, the global organization of national parliaments, and urged the world’s governments to send their top representatives to the UN 2023 Water Conference, and bring concrete proposals for action and transformation.

“Of the 17 Goals, perhaps none are more urgent than SDG 6 on water”, he said, noting that unless we get the global water crisis under control, we will not be able to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Mr. Kőrösi stressed that we have the science, the technology, and even the finances, and what we need is political will and action.

The hopes are high and the stakes are high as well. The importance of water and its role in tackling global challenges cannot be overstated, and the world is realising we must take water more seriously.

Water presents a great opportunity, a leverage point for a green economy, climate resilience and a more sustainable and inclusive world

PETER BLEZARD

FOUNDER OF ENGAGE CROP SOLUTIONS

The growing global water crisis is well documented and agriculture’s role in the consumption of our dwindling resources is the topic of hot debate, not just in arid countries but across the world. However, the conversation must move away from the looming threat of our water running out and, instead, start to focus on the solutions and what we must do to preserve our precious water resources while continuing to feed a hungry world. Engage Crop Solutions has spent the last ten years trying to find solutions to this potential crisis, focusing on how we can help agriculture to cut water use while still seeing profitable yields from crops.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of all global water usage. In the Middle East, the figure is far higher, with agriculture accounting for up to 92% of all freshwater usage in some regions. Currently, consumption is only predicted to get higher, with global agricultural water use expected to rise to 89% by 2050. The problem is even more acute in the Middle East, with the region now expecting to run out of water completely if they don’t take urgent action. Indeed, water has been dubbed the new “blue gold” in the region.

accounts for around 85% of water use in the Middle East, Aqualatus™ could save as much as 76 billion litres of freshwater a year alone. This adds up to a potential financial saving of $135 billion for agricultural businesses.

However, this is not just about the arid regions of the world where this technology has global potential. The war in Ukraine has cast the spotlight on the importance of food security and Aqualatus™ can ensure growers and governments can continue to feed their people, while still protecting our water supply.

Engage Crop Solutions is dedicated to finding solutions to help agriculture to cut water use while still seeing profitable yields from crops

Around 40% of global food is produced in artificially irrigated areas and these irrigated farms can use 300% more water than the crop needs. This is where we have focussed our attention and have worked to develop innovative new crop technologies to tackle this waste. We have developed a transformational water technology called Aqualatus™ that allows growers to cut water use by half while still maintaining crop quality. When you consider agriculture is consuming 2.8 trillion cubic metres of water a year – that’s 7.6 bn cubic metres of water a day – the potential savings with Aqualatus™ are huge.

Looking again at the Middle East, where the problem is greatest, experts predict the region will run out of water in less than 50 years at the current rate of use. As agriculture

After ten years of trials across the world, Aqualatus™ has proved to cut water usage by 50% while maintaining or even improving plant health and crop yields. Aqualatus™ is applied to irrigation systems and is a sophisticated blend of liquid polymers which contain billions of microscopic structures that adhere to soil particles and slow the gravitational movement of water and promotes lateral movement, thereby increasing the moisture-holding capacity of the soil. Surface runoff and evaporation are almost completely eradicated and gravitational movement is dramatically slowed. Reducing this natural water loss allows for irrigation volumes to be much lower and timings to be shorter as the soil is more retentive. By using this technology, growers can also significantly cut the risk of leaching, thereby helping to protect our watercourses from any contamination.

Aqualatus™ is not just a wetter, which breaks down water surface tension. It is a unique technology that has been designed and developed to specifically move and save water in the soil. No other product is as well tested or trialled and, critically, it is completely environmentally safe in the soil, unlike many other products that aim to do something similar. By using Aqualatus™, growers can confidently cut their irrigation cycles by half and still see exceptional results without any loss of crop development, yield and quality. The technology also ensures farmers and growers can realise savings in fertiliser

and energy costs too, with a reduction in irrigation cycles and helping to improve the soil quality.

A leading agricultural strategist that works across 14 countries in the Middle East, Adnan Zurba, has used Aqualatus™ on a range of crops. He says: “We are in the red zone. This region faces a lot of stresses, from the heat to the soil quality but, the greatest challenge for agriculture in the Middle East is the water shortage. Aqualatus™ helps solve the problem and could be a critical part of the solution needed for this region”, adding also that “for the Middle East, Aqualatus™ could be transformational in delivering water security while also ensuring food security through crop quality, cost savings and profit growth for the growers.”

Rula Alatiyat is a Jordanian civil engineer from Dubai who first discovered Aqualatus™ in 2017 and has trialled it in multiple locations across the Middle East and North Africa. She says: “There’s nothing else like Aqualatus™ that can deliver the same successful results. We are suffering from a severe lack of water here and Aqualatus™ has a big potential for this region”. Ms Alatiyat explained that they have run a series of trials across the region and all of them have been very successful with growers using between 50-60% less water and still getting better crops. “People in this region need to know about Aqualatus™, we need to get it out there and help everyone save water as it is such a precious resource here”, she noted, adding that “the high price of water, the shortages and the types of water available to agriculture are all very challenging. Aqualatus™ can change all that for growers.”

I’ve mentioned the multiple trials we have run around the world but in one example, we worked with the Municipality of Dubai which can spend as much as $844,000 dollars (3.1 m dirhams) a day on water during the summer to maintain the landscaped areas of the city. When Aqualatus™ was applied in a year-long trial at the Al Warqa Park, it demonstrated

the municipality could reduce water usage by 50% while still maintaining its green and vibrant landscapes. It cut daily water usage in the park from 87,000 litres a day to just 43,500 litres and moisture levels remained consistently high in the root zone throughout. When applied across the city, Aqualatus™ will save the Municipality of Dubai $152 m dollars (506 m dirhams) a year and, crucially, provide much-needed water security.

Looking ahead, the debate around water and agriculture will inevitably rage on. Our global population is predicted to continue to grow for some time yet and will peak somewhere around 10 billion people in the next 50 years or so. That population will still need feeding and that is why food security is such a priority for every government around the globe.

Growers must continue to grow and that brings me back to my original statement about us all needing to work together to find a solution. There is no value in focusing on the crisis itself and who is to blame. Aqualatus™ is a valuable solution for growers around the world, enabling them to reduce water use by half with an environmentally-sound technology that will deliver vibrant crops and, crucially, deliver a return 10 to 20 times greater than the investment. We have to find ways to save water and I believe Aqualatus™ will be transformational in helping us to achieve that goal together. Collaboration on issues of this magnitude is key and we’re keen to find industry partners to work with who can help us to bring this solution to key markets and help tackle the water crisis.

I Peter Blezard is an award-winning, international biological technology entrepreneur. Throughout his career, he has grown and developed a number of global businesses that have pioneered a range of cutting-edge technologies to enhance crop yields and food quality, while also tackling some of the biggest challenges facing agriculture. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce.

When Aqualatus™ was applied in a year-long trial at the Al Warqa Park, it showed the municipality could reduce water usage by 50%

PUBLIC CONCERN ABOUT WATER SAFETY DRIVEN MORE BY SEVERE WEATHER THAN CLIMATE CHANGE, FINDS POLL

environmental threats, we should draw links to extreme weather.”

Previous studies on water safety risk perceptions have mostly been conducted in single-country contexts, limiting researchers’ ability to make comparisons across countries. The new analysis includes responses from 142 countries, including 21 low-income and 34 lower-middle-income countries.

Participants reported their concern that drinking water and severe weather could cause them serious harm, and the extent to which they perceived climate change as a serious threat to the people in their country in the next 20 years.

Climate change and worsening severe weather events pose increasing threats to global water safety, with limited access to safe water projected to impact approximately 5 billion people worldwide by the year 2050, according to the United Nations.

But researchers have found that people don’t always see the links between climate change and water safety, which may undermine efforts to implement behaviours that improve water safety.

In a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology , researchers with the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and WaterKeeper Alliance assessed the extent to which people’s concern for severe weather and cli -

mate change predict their concern for water safety, which refers to the quality of drinking water.

Using survey data from the 2019 Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, they found severe weather concern was significantly more predictive of concern for water safety than climate change concern, although both resulted in positive associations.

“It’s easier for people to see that their water is being threatened by extreme weather than by the abstract notion of climate change,” said the corresponding author, Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology and Behavioral Science at the USC Price School and the USC Dornsife Department of Psychology. “Our study suggests if we want to warn people about water safety and other

“If we want to do a better job of informing people about the risks to water safety from climate change with the ultimate goal of changing their attitudes and behaviours, we need to make it more personal for them,” said study co-author Dr Joe Árvai, the Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and director of the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at the USC Dornsife College. “As our study shows, that’s why talking about the important and real connections between local weather, climate and water is so important.”

“Communications need to make environmental issues concrete and personally relevant,” said Joshua Inwald, who is a USC Psychology Ph.D. student and first author of the study. “Scientists and policy makers will be more effective if they keep this in mind.”

Researchers at USC made a poll and found that people don’t always see the links between climate change and water safety

ENSURING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION MEANS HUGE BENEFITS FOR TANZANIA

Providing universal access to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) could reduce Tanzania’s economic losses by $1.9 billion per year by 2030, and the country could potentially generate more than $2.4 billion each year in savings on excess medical costs and lost productivity due to inadequate access, according to a new World Bank report.

The just published 18th edition of the Tanzania Economic Update: Clean Water, Bright Future: The Transformative Impact of Investing in WASH shows

that while the country has made significant progress in recent years in improving access to WASH services, only 61 percent of households have access to basic water supply, 32 percent to basic sanitation, and 48 percent to basic hygiene (per the SDGs’ definitions). More than nine percent of the population continues to practice open defecation which entails serious health risks.

To achieve and sustain universal WASH access, the report recommends a combination of policy measures, institutional

XYLEM AND MANCHESTER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB BRING CLEAN WATER ACCESS TO GHANA

Xylem has launched two new water filtration towers in Cape Coast, Ghana, supporting the Dehia community and Oguaa Football for Hope Centre. Under the guidance of Planet Water Foundation, Xylem employee volunteers joined forces with Manchester City fans, Club legend and ambassador Joleon Lescott and young leaders from Play Soccer Ghana to build the towers on the 1st and 2nd of February 2023. Local leaders and representatives from each of the partners unveiled the new

towers, part of a collaboration to solve water issues across Africa.

The event formed part of Xylem Water Heroes Academy, a unique collaboration between Xylem and Manchester City’s global foundation, empowering young leaders in 10 cities around the world to solve local water challenges using the power of football. The two new towers contain water filtration systems which will help provide for the daily drinking needs of 1,800 people, reduce the burden of collecting water, and counter water-borne

capacity building, and new financial arrangements at the national, subnational, and community levels. It calls for prioritizing the cross-cutting impact of WASH on the government’s larger policy agenda.

The report highlights that strengthening the country’s’ capacity to build resilience, supporting productivity-enhancing private sector-led inclusive growth, attracting new foreign and domestic investment, and expanding fiscal space while maintaining debt sustainability remain key priority reforms.

diseases, keeping children healthier and in school. Before the towers’ arrival, collecting water required a lot of time. Across the world, women and children spend 200 million hours daily carrying water.

Yet today, young people in the community can reinvest the time saved into their education and local activities such as football training provided by Play Soccer Ghana as part of the Water Heroes Academy programme. During the week, young leaders delivered a football and water education festival for 100 local children.

To achieve WASH access, a combination of policy measures, institutional capacity building, and new financial systems is recommended

The Xylem and Manchester City Football Club collaboration combined the love of football, water and community for a better future

How do you think communication in the water sector has evolved in recent years?

In general, water communication and the debate around water are evolving to recognize that there is not a single way to tackle water challenges. Expertise developed in one context cannot be copy-pasted to another context. The importance of local knowledge, including that developed by indigenous and other marginalized groups, is increasingly being recognized. There are now more efforts to include many different voices that reflect a diversity of views.

The Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 6, is bringing welcome attention to water and sanitation as prerequisites for development. Still, water discussions are too often limited – they mostly involve those who are already aware of urgent water challenges. There is a lot of talk about reaching other sectors, but fewer examples of this in action.

Why do you think it is important to communicate about water?

Communication is key to raising awareness about the pressure facing the world’s water resources due to the growing global human population, economic development and the effects of climate change. Everyone needs to be aware of the water crisis, and know what they can do to help resolve it.

What are the most challenging aspects of communicating about the work of the water sector?

My scientific colleagues are indepth experts in their fields. As all communicators working with scientists, I and my colleagues work hard to translate their achievements into material that makes it possible for a wider audience to understand their impact and importance. This is a challenge, but a fun one: being able to ask topnotch scientists question after question until I understand is a privilege!

Another challenge is choosing what to focus on. We don’t have unlimited communication resources, and there’s so much interesting

science, so many fascinating people and so many compelling stories at the Institute. A recent example was working with colleagues on a film that highlights the dire situation of coastal areas in light of climate change.

Could you highlight one of your organisation’s communication success stories?

The IHE Delft MSc programme was recently revamped. A one-year MSc in Water and Sustainable Development and a two-year Research MSc replaced our earlier 18-month MSc programmes. The new approach involves a lot of flexibility for students, who can choose tracks and profiles to suit their interests.

To make this big change successful, we had to attract the right applicants already in the first crucial year. How do these bright women and men find us? Through our communication and marketing.

Our efforts included a social media campaign that appealed to our applicants’ core motivation – they want to help create

a better water world. We created videos to explain the programme, and we held webinars in which potential applicants learned about and discussed the new programme with those who designed it. We also highlighted the new MSc at international water events and online education fairs. Our active alumni community and other Institute allies helped us spread the news. All in all, the efforts paid off – we attracted more than 1,200 applicants, about 140 of whom are now studying here in Delft.

Who or what organisation inspires you when it comes to ways of communicating?

As a former journalist, I consume a lot of media and find inspiration in this. I love the way the New York Times reports on science, and how The Guardian covers development matters – both are key topics at IHE Delft.

Among the organizations I follow, I often find myself immersed in content created by UNHCR. It highlights really tough topics in a way that is engaging rather than depressing.

The IHE Delft Institute for Water Education conducts research and supports capacity development to address the world’s water challenges. Key to their mission is communicating the relevance of their work to a wider audience; we hear from Susanna Lööf about this role.

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Susanna Lööf, Communication Manager, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

“EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE AWARE OF THE WATER CRISIS, AND KNOW WHAT THEY CAN DO TO HELP RESOLVE IT”

SOMETHING TO READ...

THE WATER BOOK

“The strangest chemical in the universe”

Water was essential for the beginning of life on Earth, and is essential to our survival. In this book, science journalist Alok Jha takes us on an expedition to Antarctica to witness the importance of water, as well as on a scientific journey to the origins of the universe. As we read, we learn to look at this ordinary substance as something connecting us to everything and everyone in the universe.

SOMETHING TO ENJOY...

RAIN ON ME

Exploring resilience

This song by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande is from Gaga’s sixth studio album, Chromatica, released in May 2020, and is considered one of the best songs of 2020 by many critics. It talks about perseverance in the face of hardship. According to the multifaceted artist, the rain in the lyrics means that though it may seem that crying makes you weak, every tear makes you stronger as rain turns into a storm.

BY: SWM TEAM

SOMETHING TO WATCH...

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER Filled with wonder

The highly anticipated sequel takes us back to Pandora to witness another attempt at colonisation by humans, where the spiritual connection of the Na’vi to the sea and its creatures carries great weight. We can thank the technology used to shoot the motion capture scenes under the water for an immersive and extraordinary experience: a visual delight.

Plant Optimiser

Empowering evidence-based decision making

Plant Optimiser is designed to work real-time with data collected at drinking water treatment and desalination plants, allowing operators to create scenarios of feed water quality. Plant Optimiser provides predictive, daily advice on the optimal dosing strategy to achieve water quality despite fluctuations in feed water quality, while reducing costs and extending asset life.