Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly 10 by Smart Water Magazine

aqualia.com

The proof that we’re doing well is that you don’t even realize we exist. We are colourless, transparent, almost invisible to your sight. We go unnoticed on a day-to-day basis. And… Why not recognize it? ...discreet in this noisy world. But behind Aqualia there are many professionals, experts and committed, dedicated every day to ensure that the water continues to reach millions of homes and returned to the natural environment in optimal conditions... without you even knowing about it. We are people working for people providing an essential public service.

World Toilet Day

FROM THE EDITOR

ASIA AND PACIFIC, THE NEED TO JOIN FORCES

The significant lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation in Asia and the Pacific, water pollution, increased demand and the effects of climate change generate an annual investment deficit of 114 billion dollars. Although progress in water security in the region has been significant in recent years, we need the political will to increase financing, to ensure the right environment for private investments to flow, and to improve governance and integrated water resources management. In this latest issue of Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly, we look at Asia and the Pacific. We dedicate the cover to Neeta Pokhrel, Chief of the Water Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank, with whom we had the PUBLISHER iAgua Conocimiento, S.L. C/María de Molina, 41. Spaces Builing. 28006. Madrid info@iagua.es MANAGEMENT Alejandro Maceira Rozados David Escobar Gutiérrez EDITOR Alejandro Maceira Rozados

opportunity to talk about the region's problems and the important role of multilateral institutions. Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly 10 is a prime example that we have companies ready to solve the challenges described above. Companies that are managing services, building water treatment plants and developing technology throughout the world with excellent results, such as Acciona, Almar Water Solutions, Aqualia, Miya, Aganova and Indar. Digital transformation is another of the challenges in Asia and the Pacific posed by Pokhrel but which can be extended to the whole world. Antonio Ibañez, Global Water Practice Director at Minsait, Jaime Barba, the CEO of Ídrica, and Amin Abdel Tawab, MEA

EDITORIAL STAFF Águeda García de Durango Caveda Laura Fernández Zarza Paula Sánchez Almendros Olivia Tempest Prados Cristina Novo Pérez

Zone Segment Director at Schneider Electric, agree in pointing to digitalization and innovation as key tools to deepen our knowledge of water resources and increase efficiency in their management, very much needed in a scenario of population growth and climate change. Over the last two years, the COVID pandemic has put to the test a sector that has responded outstandingly and continues to work towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. Over the coming year, we will continue to discuss all these developments with the sector's decision-makers. See you in 2022. David Escobar - Partner at SWM

D @davizescobar - E @DavidEscobariAgua

ART AND GRAPHIC DESIGN Pablo González-Cebrián Esther Martín Muñoz

ADVERTISING Javier de los Reyes PHOTOGRAPHY Pablo González-Cebrián

- MAGAZINE

CONTENTS NUMBER 10 - NOV / DEC 2021

INTERVIEW

FEATURE

OPINION

TOWARDS SDG6 IN ASIA-PACIFIC

COLLABORATING WITH THE COMMUNITY

STATE-OF-THE-ART INTAKE PUMPS

INCREDIBLE SCOPE FOR INNOVATION

Pg. 86 Neeta Pokhrel gives us a glimpse of ADB’s work to drive water security and resiliency in the most disaster-affected region in the world.

Pg. 30 Environmental and social initiatives developed by Aqualia in partnership with NGOs receive funds from IFM Investors’ grant program.

Pg. 44 Environment-friendly submersible pumps by Indar raise the bar of efficiency in Santa Bárbara’s Charles E. Meyer desalination facility.

Pg. 62 Jaime Barba, CEO of Idrica, reflects on the technology and knowledge that will transform water management to achieve sustainability.

- MAGAZINE

WE SAVE WATER SO THE FUTURE IS SUSTAINABLE At ACCIONA we design innovative water treatment solutions to ensure universal water access and to guarantee that this resource is managed sustainably. We look after water as part of our commitment to the fight against the climate emergency.

Discover more at:

- MAGAZINE

CONTENTS NUMBER 10 - NOV / DEC 2021

FEATURE

INTERVIEW

FEATURE

OPINION

HIDROCONTA: CONNECTING SYSTEMS

THE MEANING OF PHYGITAL

DRIVING BETTER WATER MANAGEMENT

OPEN DATA IN THE WATER SECTOR

Pg. 68 Hidroconta explains how their technological solutions for water management companies ensure interoperability and system integration.

Pg. 52 Technology enthusiast, Antonio Ibáñez from Minsait, tells us about the company’s new digital tools and the current state of digitalization.

Pg. 24 Miya looks at how performance-based projects can drive organizational change to improve operational and financial sustainability

Pg. 84 Lisa Commane (Ofwat) examines the possibilities that open data can bring to the water sector, driving efficiency and collaboration.

- MAGAZINE

CONTENTS NUMBER 10 - NOV / DEC 2021 THE MAGAZINE FOR THE KEY PLAYERS OF THE WATER SECTOR FEATURE

KEY PLAYER IN THE WATER INDUSTRY Pg. 14 Almar Water Solutions solidifies its position as service provider in Latin America and Middle East.

INTERVIEW

FROM UNSTRUCTURED DATA TO INSIGHTS Pg. 18 Schneider Electric’s Amin Abdel Tawab discusses the company’s solutions to improve the environmental footprint of the water sector.

INTERVIEW

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEAK DETECTION Pg. 64 Aganova’s CEO reveals how the company has transformed with the intention of becoming a benchmark firm in leak detection tech.

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

COMMUNICATING TO THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS Pg. 102 In this Speakers’ Corner, we hear from Hans Ruijgers, Head of Communications at KWR, on the importance of communicating to youngsters

INTERVIEW

WHAT IS A COMMISSIONING DEPARTMENT? Pg. 38 José Rafael Jorda from ACCIONA walks us through the various functions of a commissioning phase in the complex world of water facilities.

INTERVIEW

WATER SECURITY MORE THAN A BUZZWORD Pg. 72 SWM interviews Bárbara Willaarts, Researcher Scholar at IIASA, on the different aspects of water security.

- MAGAZINE

#SWMB10

SWM RANKING Smart Water Magazine (SWM) uses a Ranking to measure the inﬂuence of organizations and professionals in the water industry. The SWM Ranking is a tool that allows the influence of organizations in the water sector to be measured and ordered according to transparent criteria. The factors considered for the calculation are the page views on the web, the number of SWM Likes and the contents in Smart Water Magazine Bimonthly. The ranking order is established by a unit of measurement created for this purpose: SWM Points. This metric is calculated through a mathematical algorithm that takes into account the content published during the 365 days prior to the calculation date and will be updated every two months, coinciding with the publication of each issue of SWM Bimonthly. The data of the visits to the web are extracted from Google Analytics, while the amount of SWM Likes are directly counted and can be seen in the different contents of the web.

mentioned that particular content can obtain a maximum of 1,000 points. This is done to prevent the distortion of the entire classification in case a specific content goes viral.

How are SWM points earned? Each content published on the web by an entity or blogger gets 1 point for every 10 page views; also, for each SWM Like it gets 2 points, which become 5 in the event that the user who grants it is a verified user. On the other hand, if the content appears in SWM Bimonthly, it gets 250 points. This amount is fixed and corresponds to an estimation of the average audience generated by the bimonthly magazines. It should also be

SWM Likes and Verified Users Registered users of SWM can click on the blue heart of any content on the web that they like. The number of SWM Likes appears beside the blue heart. The number of likes of a content is used for the calculation, having a different value if the user is verified (5 points) or not (2 points). Verified users are easy to distinguish as a white "check" icon appears on their profile next to their name on a blue circle.

Classification categories SWM publishes content of all kinds: by companies, public administrations, international organizations, associations, foundations, etc. In addition, SWM bloggers publish their articles in a personal capacity on a wide variety of topics. For all these reasons, the Ranking has several classifications depending on the category of the entity. The most important ones are: • Companies • Blogs In addition, a general classification can be consulted in which all the participating entities are compared regardless of their type.

How are SWM points earned?

SWM Points

SWM Like

Page views

Verified users

SWM Points

SWM Point

Page views

Non-verified users

SWM Alliances A blog that is linked to an entity will contribute only 50% of its points to that entity

250 SWM Points

50%

*The ranking order is established by a unit of measurement created for this purpose: SWM Points. - MAGAZINE *A specific content piece can obtain a maximum of 1,000 SWM Points. *The maximum number of content pieces in SWM Bimonthly that will be considered for the calculation is 16.

TOP 10 - COMPANIES RANK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

COMPANY

SWM POINTS

1.514 points 1.333 points 1.097 points 1.090 points 1.081 points 1.000 points 860 points 686 points 686 points 662 points

ACCIONA Xylem. Inc. Droople Schneider Electric Hidroconta Tedagua Idrica Isle Utilities Almar Water Solutions Aqualia

TOP 5 - PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS U.S Department of Energy

TOP 5 - BLOGS 297 points

Alain Dedieu

382 points

Atlanta Watershed Management 286 points

Graham Mann

259 points

City West Water

277 points

Jean-Pascal Tricoire

122 points

WRC South Africa

267 points

Zaid Railoun

109 points

PUB Singapore's N. Water Agency 234 points

Madhukar Swayambhu

92 points - MAGAZINE

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

BAHR-AL BAQR

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

Bahr-al Baqr Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is located in Bahr-al Baqr, in northwest Egypt. It is the largest wastewater treatment facility in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. ACCIONA completed the construction of the plant and held the opening ceremony on September 27, which was attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah-el Sisi and Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, among other authorities. The Bahr-al Baqr plant has a capacity of 5.6 million m3/ day. It has four treatment lines with a capacity of 1,250,000 m3/day each, and is equipped with advanced mechanisms for the pumping of raw water, coagulation, flocculation, settling, filtration and disinfection to produce good-quality water for irrigating crops in the surrounding area. The treated water will be used to irrigate 140,000 hectares of cropland along the banks of the Suez Canal and provide a

- MAGAZINE

solution to the risk of pollution due to discharges of municipal wastewater and others from agriculture and industry. ACCIONA has participated in the project as a technological partner in a temporary joint venture consisting of The Arab Contractors and Orascom Construction. The contract was awarded in 2019 following a tender called by the Ministry of Defence of Egypt, with financing from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. As a technological partner, ACCIONA has undertaken the process engineering, the electromechanical equipment, the supervision of assembly operations and the commissioning of the plant, guaranteeing the specified quality and treatment parameters and selecting and supervising the teams and processes in the plant.

BUSINESS

FEATURE

ALMAR WATER SOLUTIONS SOLIDIFIES ITS POSITION AS A SERVICE PROVIDER IN THE WATER INDUSTRY Almar Water Solutions is a global company that develops non-conventional water solutions for both the municipal and industrial sectors. Its services business area is growing swiftly with over 70 contracts in Latin America and North Africa. The services business area (Almar Water Services), which began operating in 2016 and expanded its activity in November 2019 with the acquisition of the Chilean water treatment company Osmoflo SpA, has been consolidating its activity by providing services to both private and industrial clients, as well as to its own assets. It currently has more than 70 contracts for desalination and wastewater treatment plants, in both Latin America and North Africa. After the initial moves to start up the services area, in October 2020 Almar Water Solutions acquired a services company in Egypt, together with its local partner Hassan Alam Utilities. Ridgewood Egypt is a company that designs and builds its own plants, mainly serving clients in industry and tourism. With this new operation, Almar Water Solutions consolidated its strategy

It currently has more than 70 contracts for desalination and wastewater treatment plants, in both Latin America and North Africa 14

- MAGAZINE

of global growth by winning contracts for new projects and purchasing assets, while at the same time strengthening its services area, which would be in charge of the operation and maintenance of the 58 desalination plants owned by the company at that time. Since then, and with the strengthened structure in Egypt, Almar Water Solutions has signed 17 new contracts in North Africa, mainly reverse osmosis desalination plants. Most of the clients in the region are private customers in the industrial and services sectors with large water demands to carry out their activities. The capacity is expected to increase by 25% by 2022. Later, in 2021, Almar Water Solutions increased its focus on Latin America by acquiring 50% of Aguas y Riles S.A., a company that offers customized water treatment and transport solutions for mining and industry, among other sectors. It also provides plant operation and maintenance services, design and construction (BOT) of treatment systems for drinking water, wastewater and liquid industrial waste. It is currently carrying out a project that will enable it to offer its clients a complete cycle of environmental services through the creation of

Reverse osmosis equipment at desalination facility in Egypt

ALMAR WATER SOLUTIONS

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

After the initial moves to start up the services area, in October 2020 Almar Water Solutions acquired a services company in Egypt a new division that will manage solid industrial waste. Almar Water Solutions Services now has two major regions, Latin America and North Africa. However, in its ongoing efforts to offer comprehensive water solutions, Almar Water Solutions is working to open new regions in areas with high water needs and to assist companies and industries in those areas with their water supply and treatment. It is currently working in other areas such as Asia, the United States and Europe. In addition, to address specific, urgent or short-term needs, Almar Water Solutions has a fleet of mobile plants with a range of brackish water and seawater systems, with pre-treatment, post-treatment and demineralization options to provide water that is fit for use. It also provides a range of wastewater treatment solutions including MBR systems, and a highly trained technical team specialized in finding solutions to complex water problems. The operation and optimization of water treatment plants, as well as other associated services, undoubtedly has a significant impact on fixed and variable costs of industries, which makes the possibility of

With a multidisciplinary team, Gonzalo Gómez-Rodulfo is committed to a transparent, efficient and sustainable business model 16

- MAGAZINE

outsourcing the operation to specialized companies an attractive option in many regions. Gonzalo Gómez-Rodulfo, Services Director of Almar Water Solutions, knows both areas very well and has extensive experience leading service and operation and maintenance projects in different countries, with a large number of municipal and industrial clients, and with all types of plants: from desalination and brackish water plants, to water and wastewater treatment, reuse and drinking water treatment plants. After years of hard work to consolidate the services area of Almar Water Solutions, Gonzalo points out that “Although the construction of large-scale projects in the sector requires significant investment, the water needs for these projects are never a minor issue, in terms of both the amount of investment and their critical importance for the industry to function properly, and they represent a very significant cost. The solutions that Almar Water Services offers to its clients not only ensure the operation of their activities, but also reduce the costs associated with water, guaranteeing fixed costs and eliminating potential deviations”. With a multidisciplinary team of more than 700 people, Gonzalo Gómez-Rodulfo is committed to a transparent, efficient and sustainable business model, improving the technological and economic performance of the plants and extending the lifespans of the assets. Concerning the environment, Almar Water Solutions defines environmental plans and actions to preserve and improve the areas in which it operates, adding value to the contracts and clients with whom it works. The introduction of new technologies in the water sector has made it necessary to adapt services continuously in order to continue offering the expected reliability with the lowest possible operating costs, guaranteeing the quantity, quality and continuity of the water supply in accordance with the productivity plans.

Water for industrial use

ALMAR WATER SOLUTIONS These procedures are: operational plan, maintenance, quality management, environmental management and health and safety management. Predictive, preventive, corrective, legal, energy, environmental and proactive maintenance work is also defined. In order to guarantee the quality of the water produced by the water infrastructure, controls must be carried out in all stages to ensure compliance with the requirements, to replace equipment when necessary and ensure proper operation of plants. Almar Water Solutions prepares short, medium and long-term action plans so that all of these actions are carried out and that clients have a reliable and constant source of water. For all of these reasons, Almar Water Solutions has become an effective partner, not only for the development of large-scale water projects, but also for the management, operation and maintenance of water treatment plants, as well as for water transport and logistics projects. Water is necessary for large populations and for small and medium-sized industries, economic sectors and activities that are fundamental for the supply of goods and services and the work of millions of people around the world. Almar Water Services employees working on mining water projects in Chile

Gonzalo Gómez-Rodulfo, Services Managing Director at Almar Water Solutions

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

AMIN ABDEL

TAWAB

- MAGAZINE

MEA ZONE SEGMENT DIRECTOR, WATER & WASTEWATER AT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“You can find Schneider Electric solutions in more than 50% of desalination plants around the world”

AMIN ABDEL TAWAB

Schneider Electric, leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, is using innovation to unlock efficiency and sustainability for its water & wastewater customers through data-based insights.

Cristina Novo Pérez

Schneider Electric helps water & wastewater facilities decrease energy consumption, increase operational efficiency, and reduce the total cost of ownership. Itself recognised for its corporate sustainability performance – it was this year’s number one company in the Global 100 most sustainable corporations index, by Corporate Knights – its solutions help turn unstructured data into valuable insights, critical to making decisions on business and environmental actions. We hear from Amin Abdel Tawab, water & wastewater segment lead in the Middle East at Schneider Electric about addressing water sector challenges in this region with scarce resources, with a focus on desalination plants and how smart water solutions can enhance their processes and sustainability outcomes. Can you tell us briefly about your career path and your current role at Schneider Electric? I have a bachelor’s degree in electrical power and machines engineering, I have been working for SE for the last 15 years, and before that, I worked in ABB for four

years. During those 19 years, I consider myself fortunate for being able to experience and work in almost every technical and commercial function. I started my career in design engineering, then moved to project management, marketing, sales, and finally business development. My journey with the water industry started in 2010. I was leading the water sales team in SE Egypt; in 2015 I took charge of the water business development in Africa, and early this year I took an extended scope over the Middle East. Currently, I am the water and wastewater Business Development Director for the Middle East and Africa. Could you comment on current trends affecting the global deficit of water? By 2030, if we keep on the same track, we will face a global deficit of 40% of water in an identical climate scenario – or probably worse – than the one we are facing now. And this trend is mainly the combination of three factors – population growth & demographic change, urbanization, and climate change. To put this into context, the world’s total population is estimated to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050. At the same time, water consumption is increasing by 2.5% per year faster than the world’s population growth. The water sector has a double challenge in the face of climate change, providing solutions to adapt to its effects, but also having a role in mitigation by low-

ering its electricity consumption and thus its carbon footprint. How is the water sector tackling these challenges? When it comes to climate change, 25% more natural resources are currently being used than the earth can yield at a sustainable rate. Yes, it’s true that the water sector has a double challenge in the face of climate change. On the one hand, the need to be more efficient by reducing energy consumption and prioritizing the use of clean energies. On the other, encouraging a more efficient use of water both in the agricultural and urban sectors through public awareness campaigns or improved leakage management techniques. At the end of the day, we need to create a resilient and sustainable water supply for people and industries everywhere. Can you tell us about Schneider Electric’s R&D efforts combining the company’s expertise in energy and water solutions? The equation in the long-term security of water services provision is local government + service providers + tech partners. Companies such as Schneider Electric have energy expertise and a range of water solutions, from Internet of things (IoT) technology to software and hardware solutions for monitoring and controlling water and wastewater treatment plants, to water networks and desalination plants. Schneider Electric can provide hardware and software solutions to enable these solutions along with R&D and other core functions. We go beyond, to develop solutions based on our EcoStruxure architecture for water and wastewater management for our clients in over 150 countries. Desalination offers an unconventional source of water to augment the water

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

By 2030, if we keep on the same track, we’ll face a 40% global water deficit in an identical or worse climate scenario than currently

supply in water-scarce regions. Can you tell us about recent innovations to improve the cost and environmental footprint of desalination? The Middle East accounts for more than half of the desalination capacity worldwide. Meanwhile, the region is one of the scarcest in resources and with one of the highest per capita consumptions. The countries used to pay massive bills in fuel supply and subsidies in the legacy inefficient thermal desalination assets. With the evolution of technology, we are clearly seeing a trend of decoupling power from water and relying more on reverse osmosis desalination as opposed to MSF and MED plants. RO is 4-5 times more energy-efficient, which means lower cost and less carbon. The technology providers and research institutes are in a race to improve RO

"The equation in longterm security of water services provision is local government + service providers + tech partners" 20

- MAGAZINE

even further, enhancing efficiency by maximizing the gains of energy recovery devices and finding more sustainable techniques to limit the effect of brine disposal on the marine ecosystem. Integration with renewables is another trend we can detect in the market. Most of the GCC countries have embarked on ambitious programs in renewables to diversify their energy mix. Most newly developed plants are connected to renewables and we expect even further acceleration in this direction. The integration with renewables will cater for greener and more efficient desalination. If we consider all these trends in addition to the innovation in finance and business models, we can understand the rapidly descending tariff rate of desalination Purchase Water Agreements. We are now in the range of $0.4/m3 thanks to the Jubail 3A contract with ACWA Power in Saudi Arabia, and early this year Utico has broken this record in UAE with DEWA in Hassyan IWP to a level below $ 0.3/m3. Smart finance, reliance on RO, lower CAPEX, energy efficiency, and operational excellence are fuelling this competitive landscape backed by innovation and technology.

What kind of solutions can desalination facilities use to maximize their operational value? Operating a desalination plant is about finding the right balance between minimizing the risk of downtime, reducing the cost of O&M, and optimizing the asset performance. Digital technologies can play a major role in helping desalination operators and assets owners maximize their value. To drive a holistic view on their assets, operations, people, and resources, we partner with customers to strategize and deploy a stepwise digital transformation initiative that is small and fit to their current status in terms of digital readiness but with big ambition and line-of-sight on where they should land. In the end, it is about driving better business outcomes of efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. We strongly believe that efficiency is an anchor term here. In our perspective, integration between energy and automation is one of the key enablers to maximize the operational value of a desalination plant. With EcoStruxure for Water and Wastewater, we bring the power of IoT, the process, and power domain expertise to one architecture where the operators can have full control of their assets. The integration between energy and automation can drive up to 20% production efficiency and 30% energy saving. The second dimension to the efficiency in operating desalination plants is lifecycle management. We believe that driving efficiency is better captured from the very early stage of design, engineering, up to construction and commissioning to the operation and maintenance. What is designed with efficiency in-mind can be easily operated as such. Thus, with our independent software partners, we drive efficiency and sustainability across the lifecycle; AVEVA with an extensive portfolio covering the industrial and process assets and a suite of energy management software vendors like ETAP covering the power assets.

AMIN ABDEL TAWAB Our customers typically leverage up to a 20% reduction in TCO and a 30% reduction in maintenance cost thanks to total lifecycle management. The third dimension of efficiency is when we integrate the IoT endpoints to the cloud without compromising cybersecurity. Many of the major utilities in GCC have started to consider the power of the cloud to unlock the potential of Big Data, AI, and analytics. Most of

them are considering a private cloud model but soon this approach will evolve to hyper-scale public and/or hybrid cloud. This integration between endpoint to the cloud is at the core of our EcoStruxure architecture and can drive up to 25% operational efficiency. And the last dimension is about transforming our customers from site-by-site management to integrated company management or what we call “Unified

Operation Centers (UOC)”. Most of our desalination customers, specifically developers or end-users, have a portfolio of desalination assets, and these assets are scattered but most of them are connectable in some way or another. When we connect these plants together, they get a better picture of what they consume, what they produce, where the efficiency gaps are and what should be the right operational matrices and KPIs so that they make better-informed decisions based on data. With this approach, they typically achieve up to 20% improvement in their operational efficiency and a 10% reduction in OPEX. To what extent can desalination operations measure their performance in terms of energy use and production value? With the evolution of IoT, every single device is becoming more and more equipped with adequate intelligence. Each equipment is now playing a dual or triple role. Think about a VFD running a high-pressure pump. It can now tell us much more than the pump status and speed. The VFD is acting as a sensor. We will have full visibility on the energy consumption, the performance point, and even asset management data. The same device generating this huge amount of data is connectable either to the automation system at the edge or even directly to the cloud or both. When we take this approach at scale you start realizing the value of data in better managing the energy. The operators can simulate and design their dynamic energy performance with a very powerful data analytics backbone. That

"We are clearly seeing a trend of decoupling power from water and relying more on RO desalination as opposed to MSF and MED plants"

- MAGAZINE

AMIN ABDEL TAWAB is one of the many outcomes a plant’s digital twin can bring to the operations. It is much more than just measurement that a real-time control system can achieve. It goes up to the level of prediction, simulation, and automation based on multiple parameters. When we correlate the energy data with production conditions like temperature, salinity, demand, and many other factors with the production data we start to see the power of data analytics. It is a key measure of how much energy you consume versus how much m3 you produce but you can scale this view on a digital twin to predict, simulate and run endless what-if scenarios. Could you highlight some key desalination projects Schneider Electric has been involved in? We have partnered with Metito, one of the major EPCs in the region, to deliver the Al Galala desalination plant on the Red Sea coast in Egypt. The plant produces 150,000 m3/day with a very specific nature due to the adjacent mountains where the consumption and tankers are. This project was delivered as a turnkey fully integrated, power and automation, EcoStruxure architecture in 18 months. The hydraulic modelling system we built to manage the performance of the transmission system and pumping station is helping the operators to reduce energy and detect leakage. We are also executing another major desalination plant in Saudi Arabia that will serve a very futuristic city. This plant again has fully integrated power and automation EcoStruxure architecture. The control system of this plant is integrated with a solar panel that will self-supply around 40% of the load during the daytime. The operators will use augmented reality applications to manage their field maintenance activities. The sustainability manager of the plant will have access to plant energy data and CO2 emissions from every-

Most newly developed desalination plants are connected to renewables and we expect even further acceleration in this direction where in correlation to production matrices and operation conditions. You can find our solutions in desalination in more than 50% of desalination plants around the world. These were only two recent examples from the region here. Can you comment on the role of Schneider Electric in contributing to global environmental sustainability through its direct operations, but also developing solutions to help corporate clients and water industry improve water resource management? Our customers have become more aware of the dimensions of sustainability. Sustainability is already the capacity to keep operating your installations and your companies in difficult situations. But it’s also the fact that our businesses have to become carbon neutral, have to trend to net-zero. So, we see sustainability at Schneider as something very holistic. We see that the time is now and that there is a need to take sustainability to the next level. At Schneider, we play on both sides of the equation, leading by example in our own ecosystem while also providing solutions for our customers, helping them on their sustainability journey.

And we want to make sure that we lead in our industry in the field of sustainability. We’ve been recognized in multiple manners for our engagement in sustainability; this benefits our customers. This year, we have been named by Corporate Knights as the World’s most sustainable corporation. At Schneider, we lead by example; we have pledged to net-zero CO2 emissions in our operations by 2030 and we made six long-term sustainability commitments to address climate change, resources, trust culture, equality, generation diversity, and local community empowerment. For our customers, we are the trusted advisor of our customers in the field of sustainability, helping them to digitize, strategize, execute and iterate on their sustainability strategy; helping our customers to become greener. We have committed over the next five years to help our customers save more than 100 million tons of carbon a year to help decarbonize our operation. Particularly in the water industry, sustainability and resilience have to be addressed from a broad perspective involving operations, resources, people, and infrastructure. Putting all these in context is what brings true benefits to the entire business performance.

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE - MIYA WATER

INTRODUCING CHANGE

IN WATER UTILITIES For many water utilities, there exists a fundamental need to break out of the vicious circle of increasing water losses, decreasing operational efficiency, increasing economic and financial losses, deterioration of the infrastructure and steady erosion of service levels.

It is commonly accepted that promoting change in any organization can be a complex task. This is mainly related to the fact that for such change to happen not only is the alignment of different stakeholders around a specific political, economic, and business vision required, but also the ability to transfer such a vision to the organization’s responsibilities, strategy, objectives, and structure, providing adequate resources and achieving the commitment of the Board, management, and general staff towards implementation. Thus, it’s not difficult to foresee all the obstacles that may prevent a successful change: the difficulty to build a common vision, the inability to translate such a vision into an action plan

- MAGAZINE

with measurable objectives, or the lack of commitment of the organization managers to be involved in a time-consuming and risky process. And these are just a few of many examples. Nevertheless, sometimes change is mandatory, and it will happen no matter what, either in the context of proper planning and execution or simply because there is a crisis that can’t be avoided, forcing change in a disruptive and usually painful way. In the specific case of the water sector, fundamental trends are affecting the way we manage water utilities: growing urbanization, water stress, reduced public financing, growing public scrutiny, and the need to comply with Sustainable Development Goals are only

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

Many paths or strategies can be taken to pursue long-term operational and financial sustainability within a water utility some of the trends that are driving water utilities toward better management and better overall efficiency. There are many paths or strategies that can be taken to pursue long-term operational and financial sustainability within a water utility. It is well known that one of such strategies is the introduction of projects with scopes of work that require the alignment of several organisational levels and with the potential to change the company’s organisational model. As an example, this could be the case of the introduction of a Balanced Score Card, a new ERP system or the Kaizen method to promote continuous improvement. In the case of introducing new projects and new technologies, it’s important to understand and consider not only the total cost of implementation of such projects, but also the difficulty to launch and the probability of harvesting the benefits promised. Only top management can read the organization and understand how such projects should be introduced and sequenced. The right balance between cost, scope, benefits, and timing can be a powerful leverage to introduce change and move the organization to a new level of performance.

When introducing new technologies, it’s important to consider not only the cost but also the difficulty to launch and the benefits 26

- MAGAZINE

If the need for change is recognized and the right actions are properly planned and implemented, one project that certainly will change the trend in any water utility is the adoption of Performance Based Projects (PBP) aiming to reduce Non-Revenue Water (NRW). The evaluation of previous implementations of such projects not only revealed many success stories but also disclosed that where these projects fail to meet all initial expectations, water utilities didn’t recognize the need to change or weren’t able to work with the new approach, failing to comply with the necessary organizational adjustments or to meet the required service levels. On the other hand, successful projects emerged whenever water utilities recognized and succeeded in implement-

ing the necessary changes, through new management approaches, work reorganization, revised procedures and methodologies, modernization of IT Systems, among others. All these promoted cultural changes fundamental for long-term (financial and operational) sustainability. In the case of the reduction of NRW through PBP, such projects will not only address the technical problem of reducing NRW but also promote a new approach to how the day-to-day work is carried out, providing a direction to enable the future success of the water utility and establish the initiatives to ensure its long-term sustainability. The design of such projects will be based on sound cost-benefit scenarios, aiming to ensure the water utility’s operational and financial sustainability, for long-term periods of 10 - 15 years,

MIYA WATER

ensuring that all investments are made keeping in mind the increase in the performance of the utility. Due to the magnitude of such a PBP and the resources committed, to ensure the successful buy-in and the involvement of international funding agencies, government entities, or private investment, all these must foresee a change to enable successful delivery of the project. There will not be any takers to invest significant finances in a project where the water utility continues along the same path and a downward slope. The combination of a powerful technical solution to address the complex problem of reducing non-revenue water, a common vision among all relevant stakeholders and the commitment of all involved to implement such a solution, may

well result in a long-term transformation that allows a water utility to unlock all its potential and become a reference for good management practices in the sector. In MIYA we have managed some of the most complex and successful implementations of NRW around the world, demonstrating the relation between such projects and the ability to promote substantial change to ensure the water utility’s long-term sustainability. It is our wish to see more projects realised and financed by multilateral banks. We believe that the multilaterals should aim higher regarding these kind of projects, as they can bring about the necessary change in the sustainability of water utilities. We have over 15 years experience in the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia and Europe, with proven results; over 9

million citizens have benefitted from our expertise, know-how and efficiency. Recognizing the problem of lack of performance is in fact the big step to be taken by the organizations and their shareholders or managers. After that, understanding the current situation and a well-designed project will ensure that strategic objectives are met and financial and operational turnaround happens.

The adoption of Performance Based Projects (PBP) aiming to reduce Non-Revenue Water (NRW) will change the trend in any water utility

- MAGAZINE

OPINION

ANTOINE WALTER SBDM WASTEWATER TREATMENT AT GF PIPING SYSTEMS

IS THIS THE WHITE KNIGHT THAT WILL MIRACULOUSLY SAVE THE WATER INDUSTRY? Venture Capital is the game-changer. We all know the usual Tesla, or Google owe much more to the state than they do to venstatistics of people without access to water or sanitation - and ture capitalists. She also shows how the power of the investor-state they number in billions. Yet, if it weren't for the human lives was leveraged in the energy sector - often considered the water inat stake, one may be tempted to translate this quite literally industry's twin, 15 years ahead. VC didn't drive renewable energy's to what the famous marketing guru Gary Halpert defined as a share in the German mix from 6.3 to 30% in 15 years: the state did. "starving crowd." But if only states can afford and dare to invest in long-term risky Pictured that way, the water industry sits on a marketer's endeavors, I can't help but wonder why it simply doesn't hapdream of potential customers, in no need of the so-called "can- pen in the water industry? Maybe because, again, my statement dy" or "vitamin" solution, but desperately looking for a "pain- is wrong? It's not state versus VC or private versus public. It's all killer" - aka Water and Sanitation for All. about the old African saying: it takes a village to raise a child. If Venture Capital (VC) were to jump in, it would find a couThis all starts with a rallying call. I'd embrace Martijn Wilder ple of hypotheses to solve the issue. Equip a portfolio of startups and Mina Guli's suggestion to adopt "Close the Gap!" in reaction with deep pockets and buy a Titanic-sized market share. They to the progress towards SDG6 running at a quarter of the speed it would then wait for one of these new companies to generate im- should. Then, it continues with picking a couple of hypotheses and pressive profits, pay for the other's going all-in to move the needle. Here failure, and incidentally change the are my suggestions. If 70 per cent of As FB, Uber leveraged Venture World (for the better). the world's population will live in It seems so obvious! So where's cities by 2050, should we not rethink Capital to disrupt the way we our Water Unicorn? Well... It turns the urban water cycle, the water netcommunicate, move; we need out; Water Startups have a surprisworks, and the mix of treatments and ingly high survival rate. This may scale? And if, as Elizabeth Heidrich VC to change the name of the be seen as good news - as fragmentdemonstrated, wastewater theoretiwater game. Or do we? ed as it is, there is a market! Yet, it cally contains seven to ten times the may also indicate that no one dares energy needed to treat it, could we to take a game-changing risk. Worse still, is the Water Industry not turn wastewater treatment plants into resource factories? really sure of what it has to solve? Once we have a north star and a couple of rabbit holes to exWhen planning an investment or innovation strategy, com- plore, it's time to get creative, whether on the technical level, the bining those two caveats inevitably leads to safe bets and incre- scale, placement of treatments, or even business models. mental improvements, or what Henry Ford famously named And then, get the village to work without expecting a provi"Faster Horses." But in light of the challenges ahead - water dential white knight to save the day. scarcity, climate change, increasing population, to name a few – What is GF Piping Systems’ role in this village? We help build don’t we need "cars" if not "rockets"? connections for life. We partner with all the process heroes that Hence my opening statement. As Facebook, Uber, or Google need a solution. We de-risk processes, treatments and infrastrucleveraged Venture Capital to disrupt the way we communicate, ture projects by guaranteeing water will always be conveyed move, or get informed, we need VC to change the name of the where it should, how it should. And we enable the future of water game. Or do we? water management by supporting Process Automation. In her "Entrepreneurial State" book, economist Maria MazzucaWant to learn more or discuss your crazy ideas? Let's dare, to demonstrates how despite the urban legends, the likes of Apple, all together!

- MAGAZINE

Optimize the operational efficiency of wastewater treatment plants Restructuring of plants from activated sludge to granular sludge with the disruptive Oblysis technology

Reducing operating costs, with a shared savings model

Up to

Energy savings

Sludge reduction

Reduction of additives

40%

50%

Improved plant performance in terms of COD and nutrients removed, helping to reduce environmental impact without the need for CAPEX.

FEATURE

Developing social action programs and mechanisms to guarantee universal access to water within a sustainability framework is part of the challenges set by several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the case of Aqualia, the contribution to these goals is supported through direct environmental and social collaboration initiatives in the communities where it provides services. End-to-end water cycle management companies have been working eagerly to achieve the SDGs since the 2030

IFM Investors' grants help investee companies collaborate with community organizations on projects with environmental and social benefits 30

- MAGAZINE

Agenda was set out. As a full member of the Global Compact, Aqualia promotes and integrates the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact into its corporate culture and is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, developing and taking part in projects and actions that contribute to achieving them. International sustainable initiative These projects include two initiatives developed in close collaboration with the NGOs SEO Birdlife in Medina del

Campo (Valladolid, Spain) and Trianon in Ostrava (Czech Republic). Both projects were selected by Global fund manager IFM Investors from more than 20 projects submitted to its Community Grants Program, which it organizes on a global scale among its portfolio companies, including Aqualia. IFM's Community Grants Program aims to support social or environmental initiatives carried out by non-profit organizations/NGOs in partnership with IFM's portfolio companies, such as Aqualia in Spain. These grants seek to support local communities through environmental and social project collaborations. The beneficiary projects must meet the following eligibility criteria to qualify for one of the grants: aim to make communities more inclusive, safe, resilient and/or sustainable; expect

AQUALIA

identifiable and measurable social and/ or environmental outcomes; and be aligned with the corporate strategy and objectives of the company submitting the proposal. The grant amount is up to 40,000 Australian dollars per project (or local currency equivalent - about 25,000 euros) and is awarded directly to the non-profit organization/NGO with which the company is collaborating on the grant project. In 2019, IFM ran a pilot program of these grants among its Australian investee companies and, following its success, in 2020 it was extended to all of its infrastructure portfolio companies globally. Restoration of the Medina del Campo Wetland (Valladolid)

In 2020, the IFM's Community Grants Program awarded through Aqualia a grant to the bird conservation organization SEO Birdlife, to support restoration work in the Medina del Campo Wetland, located around the overflow of the Zapardiel River (Valladolid, Spain). The project aims to improve biodiversity and protect the local fauna through the enhancement of the wetland site. It will also create an environmental education centre for schoolchildren to help disseminate environmental information about the project in the area. The little gull, garganey and whiskered tern are just three of the approximately 120 bird species found in the aquatic habitat and surrounding area of a water treatment wetland system in the Spanish town of Medina del Campo. While some species live there permanently, others use

it as a stopover site during their annual migration. With the help of funds from IFM's grants program, Aqualia, in partnership with SEO Birdlife, will continue to work on the restoration of the wetland ecosystem that already began in 2008 when its wastewater treatment plant next to the wetland system started operations. Aqualia had observed that the treatment ponds had become a recur-

Restoring the wetland system in Medina del Campo supports the sustainable treatment of wastewater and helps protect biodiversity - MAGAZINE

FEATURE Interview with Lauren Owens Senior Associate, Responsible Investment and Grants Program Administrator at IFM Investors.

“Activities that support the wellbeing of the communities in which we invest and operate are an important part of our approach” Global fund manager IFM Investors, owned by a group of Australian pension funds, was established more than 25 years ago with the aim to protect and grow the long-term retirement savings of working people. It seeks to prioritise the interests of investors worldwide by focusing on assets that combine excellent long-term risk/reward characteristics with broad economic

and social benefits to the community. As a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, IFM actively engages on environmental, social and governance issues with the companies in which it invests. In this brief interview, Lauren Owens, administrator of the grant program, describes IFM's Infrastructure Community Grants Program.

ring stopover location for birds during migration. Instead of replacing the old wastewater filtration system, the company chose to protect and maintain it, and launched a sustainable water treatment and reuse project that has increased biodiversity, water quality and water level stability in the wetland ecosystem. The construction of nests on the water surface and in the vegetation surrounding the wetlands has helped create conditions that attract an increasing number of bird species. Each year, SEO Birdlife conducts a census of the bird

Czech association Trianon has received a commercial vehicle that will help further develop its social entrepreneurship programs 32

- MAGAZINE

How did the IFM's Community Grants Program come about? IFM developed its Infrastructure Community Grants Program with the aim of supporting its portfolio companies to collaborate with local community organisations on projects that create mutual benefits. The program was launched globally in March 2020 following a pilot program among Australian portfolio companies. Applications for the 2021 program have closed and the successful grant recipients will be announced before the end of the year.

population and the species diversity in the wetland system. Populations have increased since the project began and, at last count, the annual population amounted to approximately 8,600 individuals. Since November 2020, five new species have been recorded in the area, including the Savi's warbler, in what was the first sighting of this species in the province in five years. An important part of the project involves the creation of an environmental education centre for local schoolchildren that aims to increase environmental awareness and understanding. Cameras have been installed in the wetlands to make virtual tours possible until in-person tours are possible, subject to Covid-19 restrictions. For Aqualia, caring for the environment is an intrinsic part of daily end-toend water cycle management. The partnership with SEO Birdlife to restore the wetland system supports the sustainable treatment of wastewater and, at the same

What aspects stand out in the selected Aqualia proposals? What are the differential points of these candidacies? IFM receives a range of unique project proposals. Successful proposals clearly demonstrate planned collaboration between a portfolio company and community organisation, as well as the expected environmental and/or social impacts of the project. Projects may focus on enhancing the local environment, providing pathways to employment for underrepresented members of the community, or both.

AQUALIA

Successful proposals also demonstrate the project’s alignment to the company’s business strategy or corporate responsibility priorities to support a commercial benefit. How is the IFM's Community Grants Program framed within your sustainability and CSR policy agenda? Activities that support the resilience and wellbeing of the communities in which we invest and operate are an important part of our responsible business approach. One of the ways we contribute to the sustain-

ability of these communities is through our Infrastructure Community Grants Program. We know that strong local communities where we invest and operate are vital if we are to keep delivering on our purpose, which is to protect and grow the longterm retirement savings of working people. What was the total amount devoted to the grants program? Can you provide details about the number of projects submitted and selected? The 2020 program attracted more than 20 applications

from investee companies. Nine projects were selected to receive up to AU$40,000 in grant funding. Grant funding has supported projects across the globe, including a social enterprise employing people with a disability in the Czech Republic, supporting seafarers’ wellbeing at Australian ports, and environmental initiatives to improve water quality in waterways in Spain, the UK and Australia. The 2021 program has attracted 24 project proposals. A final announcement of successful grant recipients will be made before the end of the year.

"Strong local communities where we invest and operate are vital to protect and grow the long-term retirement savings of working people"

"Successful proposals clearly demonstrate planned collaboration between a portfolio company and community organisation"

time, helps to increase and protect the biodiversity of this local ecosystem. Inclusive employment in the Czech Republic Thanks to IFM's Community Grants Program, the Czech association Trianon received a commercial vehicle adapted for people with disabilities that will help the NGO continue its social entrepreneurship programs in the field of circular economy. The consolidated collaboration with SmVaK, Aqualia's Czech subsidiary that operates in the Moravia-Silesia region and the border regions of Poland, has helped the social and environmental organization to apply for this grant program and obtain it. In addition to these projects driven by the collaboration with Aqualia, the 2020 Community Grants Program has helped fund nine projects around the world, and IFM hopes to continue to support more through its 2021 program.

- MAGAZINE

WATER & NEWS - BUSINESS

GLOBAL WATER UTILITIES COULD CUT GHG EMISSIONS BY 50%, AT LOW TO NO COST New paper “Water Utilities: Moving Fast Toward A Zero-Carbon Future” outlines steps to reduce carbon emissions

Global water utilities account for approximately 2% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – the equivalent of the world’s shipping industry. And this figure is set to spiral as utilities work towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to water and sanitation by 2030. But water utilities could cut their emissions dramatically and quickly, according to a new paper from global water technology company Xylem. The paper outlines the sector’s opportunity to reduce emissions quickly and affordably, with current, high-efficiency technologies. “Water operators have long been stewards of such an essential resource. Water infrastructure is a cornerstone of every community and local economy around the world,” said Patrick Decker, Xylem’s President and CEO. “But today’s

- MAGAZINE

water systems are also major sources of global GHG emissions – which is why a growing number of utility operators are showing leadership by committing to ‘net-zero’ emissions targets.” Xylem’s initial study of wastewater infrastructure, Powering the Wastewater Renaissance, found that 50% of electricity-related emissions from the wastewater sector can be abated with existing technologies, such as intelligent wastewater pumping systems, adaptive mixers with variable speed drives, and real-time decision support systems. About 95% of this impact is achievable at zero or negative cost. Likewise, in clean water, further analysis by Xylem indicates that readily deployable high-efficiency technologies such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) also have a material impact on emissions.

In the UK alone, utilities could save up to 10 million tons of greenhouse gas by reaching net zero in 2030. The paper emphasizes that deploying available high-efficiency technologies is one of several key steps leading utilities are taking as part of their wider strategies to reduce emissions: Make firm commitments to reduce emissions by joining the water sector’s Race to Zero. Led by the UN’s High-Level Climate Champions for Climate Action, the Race to Zero is a global initiative, rallying companies, cities, and regions to take immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier, fairer zero carbon world in time. Deploy affordable, high-efficiency technologies to make meaningful, early progress. For example, intelligent wastewater pumping systems can cut energy use by up to 70% in wastewater pumping by reducing inefficiencies and emergency callouts associated with clogging. On the clean water side, leak detection technologies can eliminate real water losses, saving energy consumed in the treatment and transport or water. Define the supporting processes, policies, and practices to get all the way to net zero. Water UK’s Net Zero 2030 Routemap details the broad range of approaches that are required to deliver on this commitment and provides specific actions to create accountability, reduce the costs and risks of the transition to net zero, and to unlock new benefits.

LANDIS+GYR AWARDED MAJOR SMART WATER CONTRACT BY SOUTH EAST WATER The contract enables South East Water to gain valuable insights into its network assets and to operate its assets more efficiently Landis+Gyr has signed a multi-year contract with South East Water to provide 35,000 smart water meters integrated with the utility’s network leak detection sensor, Sotto. This enables the innovative utility to operate its assets more efficiently while helping its customers to sustainably monitor and manage their water use daily. South East Water, an early adopter and market leader of digital technology, has been trialing smart water meters across metropolitan Melbourne to detect both

network and customer leaks early before they turn into bursts. There are already 5,000 of Landis+Gyr’s W350 ultrasonic and NB-IoT meters, integrated with leak detection sensors, installed across South East Water’s network as part of its digital utility program. The preliminary results have been promising in locating leaks unknown to the network operators and customers. The smart water meters have also prevented customer disruption and led to a more efficient, reliable service that can lead to lower customer bills.

Landis+Gyr’s W350 ultrasonic and NBIoT water meter integrated with network leak detection sensor, provide high accuracy throughout the meter life and near real-time data to help utilities optimize their network assets efficiently - while ensuring reliable service to customers. Combined with embedded NB-IoT communications, known for its low power consumption with wide coverage and reliability in underground locations and high-rise buildings, W350 increases the overall value of the business case for utilities.

PUB AWARDS CONTRACT TO INSTALL WORLD'S LARGEST CERAMIC MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR FACILITY Facility will treat industrial used water at a treatment capacity of 75,000 m3 per day – the equivalent of 30 Olympic-sized pools PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, has appointed Koh Brothers Building & Civil Engineering Contractor to install the mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls and automation equipment for the 1st of Tuas Water Reclamation Plant's 2 Industrial Liquids Modules to treat industrial used water. The contract, valued at S$200.7 m (US$148 m), includes process equipment and a ceramic membrane bioreactor. When completed, Singapore's Tuas WRP will house the world's largest ce-

ramic MBR facility, with a capacity of 75,000 m3 daily. To assess the feasibility of deploying ceramic MBR technology, PUB operated a demonstration plant with a daily treatment capacity of 4,550 m3 at Jurong WRP since 2014. The system proved to be resilient against chemical damage and able to treat high-strength industrial used water effectively to produce high quality treated effluent. In addition, ceramic membranes are projected to have a longer lifespan (10-15

years) as compared to polymeric membranes (5-7 years). Koh Brothers' bid for the ILM1 contract was one of nine offers that PUB received from an open tender. Works are scheduled to start in November 2021. The DTSS2 is a S$6.5 bn (US$4.8 bn) project to enhance Singapore's water sustainability by boosting PUB's capability to reclaim and recycle water in an endless cycle. Upon completion in 2025, it will convey used water via deep tunnels from western Singapore to Tuas WRP for treatment.

- MAGAZINE

OPINION

KATE BAYLISS RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT SOAS AND SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

WATER PRIVATISATION: A COSTLY POLICY DISTRACTION Water privatisation became mainstream policy in the 1980s. First, a focus on private investment risks that the needs of inWhile England and Wales went to the extreme of transferring vestors will dominate sector policy. Attracting private investownership of water utilities to private shareholders, elsewhere ment is costly for governments, and efforts to shape water sysprivatisation took the form of concession and lease contracts. tems in ways that are palatable to global finance risk increasing These were common across Europe and Latin America and fragmentation. Establishing ‘bankable’ projects leads governoften featured in the World Bank country programmes. ments to separate potential segments which can be ring-fenced Privatisation was intended to stimulate efficiency in water to ensure secure returns for investors. systems and raise finance for investment, but the results were Second, the expectations of private sector engagement disappointing. Contracts were difficult to achieve and sustain. continue to be far-reaching and unrealistic. Private finance Some countries struggled to get privatisation off the ground. is seen as vital to achieving the SDGs in water despite the Once signed, contracts were often quickly renegotiated. And persistent lack of empirical evidence regarding superior many contracts were cancelled including some high-profile efficiency or revenue raising. There is excessive optimism failures such as in Cochabamba, Buenos Aires and Dar es Sa- regarding the outcomes of market-based solutions to devellaam. Empirically there was little clear-cut evidence of effi- opment challenges. ciency gains and the private sector Third, privatisation in England failed to address intractable issues led to large increases in water comThe failures of privatisation led such as reducing unaccounted-for pany debt alongside high dividends water and expanding access. Privafor shareholders. to greater efforts to make tisation failed to raise finance on Finally, public and private fiwater investments attractive; anything like the scale anticipated. nance are not substitutes. The priAs a result, private sector invate sector does not bring finance there are some concerns volvement in water has stagnated but rather invests with a view to with this approach in much of the world (apart from recouping the initial outlay with China) but new trends are emerga profit. In the long term, invesing. The focus of private sector operations has shifted towards tor returns are financed by tax payers and consumers such as transactions that are smaller in value and less complex for ex- households as they meet their basic needs. Water privatisation ample with stand-alone BOT projects such as water treatment therefore perpetuates and exacerbates structures of inequality. or desalination plants. These are lower risk for investors than Despite 30 years of policy focus, the private sector has failed long term concession contracts to provide water services. In to lead to significant improvements in the equitable and susaddition, there has been an expansion of donor-sponsored tainable supply of water. Still one in four of the world’s popsupport for creating ‘bankable’ projects for infrastructure ulation lacks access to safe supplies. Diverting public funds to investors such as with the G20 Global Infrastructure Facili- attract investors rather than directly investing in infrastructy, and numerous private databases such as Preqin.com have ture is a risky and potentially costly strategy for governments. emerged that link global finance with infrastructure projects. In numerous cities, privatised water has reverted to public Thus, the failures of privatisation have led not to a com- control. Rather than constantly changing the tools and techmitment to strengthen public services but to greater efforts to nicalities to try and shoehorn private capital into water, atmake water investments attractive to investors. There are some tention needs to be redirected towards building equitable and concerns with this approach to providing water services: sustainable public water services for all.

- MAGAZINE

WATER TREATMENT

INTERVIEW

JOSÉ RAFAEL JORDA DIRECTOR OF THE COMMISSIONING DEPARTMENT AT ACCIONA

“The Commissioning Department checks that the construction phase of the plant has been well executed” In the complex world of water plants and facilities, the commissioning phase is essential to ensure their correct construction and operation. At ACCIONA, José Rafael Jorda heads this department, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of professionals.

Z Águeda García de Durango - G

González-Cebrián

First, can you tell us about your career path and how did you get involved in the water industry? I studied Environmental Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and

before joining ACCIONA in 1998 I had already worked in the field of water and wastewater treatment. At ACCIONA Agua I have performed different functions, in the R&D&I Department, as Plant Manager in different areas of Spain and also in the department in charge of operation and wastewater treatment bids. Subsequently, I was appointed Manager of Wastewater Treatment Processes in the Assembly and Commissioning Department and from there I went on to manage first the conventional commissioning department and later, conventional and desalination, a position that I have combined for the last 4 years with that of process manager at the North Shore plant in Vancouver, Canada.

To put it simply, we check that the construction phase of the plant has been well executed and then ensure the treatment plants work and deliver the water quality intended in the design. We often are also in charge of plant operations during the warranty period, which can last from one month to two years.

"At the Commissioning Department we do a little bit of everything. We are a multipurpose department, with different professional profiles"

Currently, you head the Commissioning Department at ACCIONA. What are the objectives of this department? At the Commissioning Department, we do a little bit of everything. We are a multi-purpose department, with very different professional profiles that cover many disciplines but are also highly specialised in specific areas.

What type of professional profiles are part of this department? And how is the department's team organised? We are a team of approximately 30 people, plus local teams for each of the projects, which can have between 10 and 50 people per project. I directly coordinate the two branches (conventional and desalination); each of

In this interview, we talk about the functions of this area of work within ACCIONA. José Rafael Jorda explains that this department, multi-purpose in nature, is made up of professionals from different fields, and focuses on checking that the construction phase has been well executed and on ensuring that the treatment plants work and provide the water quality intended in the design. In the last two years, their usual activities have had to be adapted to the restrictions resulting from COVID-19, emphasizing the significance of Commissioning.

- MAGAZINE

Christian Albuerne Conventional Plant Commissioning Manager at ACCIONA

them in turn has a manager who directly supports and coordinates the desalination and conventional commissioning teams. In addition, we have an office support team that provides document support for the different projects and also supports other departments such as Commercial, Bids, Engineering, Construction and O&M. Regarding the profile of the people who work there, I would say that it is difficult to find a "typical" profile because we have mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control engineers, chemists, biologists, etc. In the end, it is about having a team of people who can solve all kinds of problems in a short period of time. They are generally very proactive professionals

José Rafael Jorda Director of the Commissioning Department at ACCIONA

who could come in during any phase of a project, bringing a lot of value due to their experience. And in fact, this is often the case, the commissioning team collaborates in the engineering, construction and operation phases. A few years ago, the projects were mainly national, in Spain, and the profile of the commissioning personnel could be a retired seafarer who travelled around Spain returning home on weekends to be with his family. Today, this has changed substantially. The projects are international and balancing work and family life is not always easy. They require a high level of training and languages to deal with very demanding international customers.

Jesús Fernandez Meseguer Desalination Commissioning Manager at ACCIONA

Within the process involved in water treatment facilities, at what stage does the commissioning department come into play, and what are its functions? We usually come in during the final stages of construction, when the equipment assembly has been completed, collaborating with the assembly team

"In all projects, the plant must be operated continuously for a period of time, complying with the expected effluent quality"

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW and planning all commissioning tests with the client. Among other things, we check that the equipment is correctly installed according to the design, that it operates correctly under load and according to the manufacturer's specifications, and that it is ready to start the next phase. This phase is known as pre-commissioning. We then carry out operational tests to verify that the equipment systems work correctly with the operating control system and that they can operate in automatic mode, that is, the so-called commissioning itself. And finally, we perform the final performance and reliability tests, which demonstrate the quality of the treated water according to the design guarantees. In all projects, the plant must be operated continuously for a period of time that has been agreed with the client, complying with the expected effluent quality. If this is achieved, the plant acceptance certificate is obtained, and the warranty operation period begins; the duration of this period varies depending on the contract. What are the main challenges you face in your area of work? Anyone could think of technical, electrical or mechanical difficulties, but if we think about it, the commissioning personnel always work under pressure to finish on time and make up for any delays from previous stages of construction. This entails, especially during testing periods, working very long hours day after day. For example, in the last two months, there have been managers working more than 30 hours at a time. All of

"The commissioning personnel always work under pressure to finish on time and make up for any delays from previous stages" 40

- MAGAZINE

them deserve a special recognition that I would like to give them from here. The commissioning of desalination and water treatment infrastructure are two of the most important areas under your management, in ACCIONA's water division. What are the differences and similarities between these two areas of work? The big difference between desalination plants and other water treatment plants is the reverse osmosis process. In desalination, RO membranes are used and in drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment, they generally aren't. Desalination plants also typically have many

more signals and instrumentation than conventional water treatment plants. This means that the workload and resources required for commissioning are higher than in other plants of similar size. This also makes plant automation more complex and demanding. In addition to reverse osmosis, another difference between the two is found in the sludge line. In desalination, it is practically reduced to brine discharge, while in conventional plants there is a whole sludge treatment process (thickening, flotation, dehydration, etc.) prior to final discharge from the plant. On the other hand, how does the digital and technological transformation

ACCIONA

The increasingly common use of sludge and water for agricultural purposes reduces the use of fertilizers and thus the carbon footprint

influence the processes involved in these plants? These last two years in particular have been especially difficult because of the pandemic and the travelling restrictions resulting from COVID-19, forcing us to look for new alternatives. For instance, in the middle of last year, we began remote testing and commissioning of the control system for the Al Khobar 1 desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. A secure remote connection to the plant's control system was established for this purpose. Thanks to it, a team of experts distributed in several locations in Spain was able to remotely start testing the control and process adjustment

system. We were thus able to start up the first reverse osmosis racks and begin sending drinking water to the distribution system despite the travelling restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Finally, does ACCIONA have any initiative underway to reduce the environmental footprint of desalination and water treatment plants? Currently, ACCIONA has an ambitious 2025 SUSTAINABILITY MASTER PLAN that was launched in 2020, which of course includes numerous actions aimed to reduce our carbon footprint. Its main transformation levers and objectives are:

J Investment of more than 90% of the CAPEX in environmentally sustainable economic activities according to the EU taxonomy. J Identification of zero carbon alternatives in all purchasing categories. J Use of renewable energies in 100% of the projects where available. J Apply nature-based solutions (NBS) equal or equivalent to planting and monitoring the growth of 1 million trees in 5 years, capable of neutralizing ACCIONA's carbon footprint by 2025. J Double the consumption of renewable and recycled resources and halve the amount of waste going to landfill. J Water positive projects in 100% of the projects in water-stressed areas. At the ACCIONA Group level, the list of actions is huge. In fact, ACCIONA managed to avoid 70 million tonnes of CO2e between 2016 and 2020, through Efficient Building, Mobility Services, Circular Economy and Urban Ecosystems. In the WATER line, we have some examples such as the Jebel Ali desalination plant in Dubai, recently launched as part of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint to become the smallest in the world by that year. Generically, in sewage treatment plants, the increasingly common use of sludge and water for agricultura reduces the use of fertilizers and thus the carbon footprint. In our offices and projects, Paperless is an initiative focused on reducing paper use in all our processes. As you can see, at ACCIONA we are very committed to the environment: we have it in mind in everything we do.

"ACCIONA’s ambitious 2025 Sustainability Master Plan includes numerous actions aimed to reducing our carbon footprint" - MAGAZINE

OPINION

ERIC CHANAL GENERAL MANAGER OF THE SYNDICAT INTERCOMMUNAL POUR L'AMÉNAGEMENT HYDRAULIQUE DES VALLÉES DU CROULT ET DU PETIT ROSNE

THE HUMAN FACTOR AS A SUCCESS FACTOR IN WETLAND RESTORATION PROJECTS Projects for the restoration of rivers and the creation of wet- in the field, for the attention of elected officials, associations lands are now increasingly naturally calling for multidiscipli- of residents, and green spaces services of municipalities: all the nary engineering: hydraulics, civil engineering, ecological engi- actors involved on site and likely to relay the discourses of good neering, ecology, etc. practices vis-à-vis ecological issues and uses. This SIAH comHowever, experience shows that while difficulties may exist munication is based on all the ecological scientific monitoring in the emergence, design and implementation of such projects, carried out thanks to its internal resources and partnerships the management phase of these sites is the most complex part with public bodies (Regional Agency for Biodiversity of Ile de to manage for the public contracting authority. France), naturalist associations or design offices specialized in Particularly in urban areas, the perception of nature in the ecology. city is very diverse and each user, each inhabitant, has his own The education of children, with the development of educaconception of what a wetland should be, of what is "beautiful" tional programmes for children (8-11 years-old), as set up by and it is often complex to reconcile the general interest of the the SIAH in 2020-2021, is also part of this desired involvement river with this diversity of points of view. of all actors. In order for the completed project to be able to live on the Because the life of the river is, for sure, everyone's business! long term with and for its users, it Waste management, the control must therefore be... Got it. This of uses, require a presence on the Many projects in France have necessarily leads project owners to ground as strong as possible. Moquestion their culture of project tocross, quads, squatters, like waste, shown that it is possible or management, which has long often are all phenomena that can negaeven desirable to co-construct considered working with locals to tively affect in a few months the imbe a waste of time for the project. age of a natural space vis-à-vis users! certain aspects of the project In fact, NO, quite the contrary. The solutions seem simple but with the inhabitants The time taken during the study are often complex to implement phase to explain the river to future because of the convergence of sousers, how it lives and indeed how it should be managed, cial, public safety and environmental policies of the competent is essential. communities. Thus, promoting at all costs the maintenance of Many projects in France have shown that it is possible or human presence (shared gardens, agriculture, walking, cycling, even desirable to co-construct certain aspects of the project etc.) is one of the means to try to preserve these beautiful spaces. with the inhabitants (educational path, choice of tree or shrub And, in terms of public safety, not lighting these sites, conspecies) within the framework of collaborative approaches su- trary to some preconceived ideas, generally does not increase pervised by experts. real violence, while promoting the implantation of nocturnal It can also go through site visits, with the elected represent- species (birds, bats) that have a major role on the species at the atives of the territory and with their fellow citizens. Nothing top of this entire food chain: the Human! beats a two-hour visit to a showcase site to convince a local deIntroducing nature in the city, as simple as it may seem, is cision maker that such a project is feasible in his municipality. however a complex and permanent search for balance, conThis specific communication with the future actors and us- sensus, and management of people's feelings, but many exers of these sites can even, and must go, as far as training. The periences, in France and elsewhere, show that it is possible to SIAH experimented with this in 2021, by organizing training succeed, together!

- MAGAZINE

Water and energy efficiency

Experts in digital transformation for the water industry

Resilience and process automation

Asset management and renewal

Idrica is an international company that specializes in providing services and solutions for utilities. Our GoAigua technological solution optimizes processes and improves efficiency in asset management, water use and energy consumption.

Holistic overview and cybersecurity

FEATURE

PACIFIC WATER ON TAP WITH INDAR: CITY OF SANTA BARBARA - CHARLES E. MEYER DESALINATION PLANT INTAKE RETROFIT Desalination, used in areas where fresh water is scarce, turns salt water into fresh water. Seawater desalination facilities require an intake system capable of providing a reliable quantity of clean seawater with a minimum ecological impact. This article explains the retrofitting works in the Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant intake with a customized Indar, Ingeteam Group, Submersible Volute Pump. Z María Elena Rodríguez Hernández. Indar, Ingeteam Group (Spain) City of Santa Barbara Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant On July 21, 2015, in response to exceptional drought conditions, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to reactivate the Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant. The plant uses state-of-the-art technology and design practices to reduce electricity demand and environmental impacts while providing a critical water supply for the city. City Council awarded IDE Americas, Inc. a design-build-operate contract to re-commission the desalination plant. The plant began supplying water in May 2017 with a production of nearly three million gallons per day. This is equivalent to 3,125 acre-feet of water (4.63 million of m3) annually or about 30 percent of the city’s demand; that means about 100,000 inhabitants (including the Montecito community with whom Santa Barbara has a supply agreement). The desalination plant

Our customer support services teams deliver fast, reliable and comprehensive innovative solutions during the life cycle of the equipment 44

- MAGAZINE

is an important part of the city’s water supply portfolio, which also includes surface water from Cachuma and Gibraltar reservoirs, groundwater, State water, purchased water, recycled water, and conservation. The capital costs to reactivate the plant are $72 million financed over 20 years with a

INDAR low 1.6 percent interest rate loan, which equates to $4.2 million per year in debt service. Annual operating costs are estimated to be about $4.1 million at full production and about $1.5 million in non-operation or standby mode. The plant could be put in standby mode during rainy periods to reduce operating costs. City of Santa Barbara Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant: how #DESAL works Seawater enters the city’s desalination plant from 2,500 feet (763 m) offshore passing through the wedge wire screens at velocities of less than 0.5 feet per sec-

Source: City of Santa Barbara

ond (1.524 m/s) which is less than typical ocean currents (open ocean intake). Once on shore, the seawater passes through a series of filters that remove sediment, bacteria, viruses, and minerals (including salt), to produce ultra-pure water. The city’s desalination plant uses reverse osmosis to remove salt from seawater. Before the finished water is ready to be pumped into the water system and distributed to customers, natural minerals are reintroduced into the water to make it compatible with the city’s other water supplies.

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

Desalination is an important part of the city’s supply, also including surface water, groundwater, recycled water, and other sources

- MAGAZINE

The waste product from the desalination process is referred to as brine and is about twice as salty as normal seawater. The brine is blended with the city’s treated wastewater and is discharged into the ocean over a mile and a half offshore. Discharge flow rates of brine and treated wastewater leaving the city’s outfall pipe are controlled to protect sea life and comply with current regulations.

Reliable pumping solution: the retrofit By 2020, IDE technologies, according to the actual operating points over the last three years, updated the technical requirements for the intake pumps. A more adjusted hydraulic selection, tailored for the project’s needs, was chosen for the retrofit of one of the two intake pumps, as the pump was not operating at its best with the current desalination

INDAR intake needs in terms of flows, heads and material selection. By the end of 2021, the intake chamber will be retrofitted, replacing one of the original two pumps with a highly efficient Indar, Ingeteam Group, submersible volute pump BF-30-29-B2 + MF355-4/130. The pump, manufactured in duplex material, will drive a total flow of 4740 US gpm (299 l/s).

The intake chamber will be retrofitted, replacing one of the original two pumps with a highly efficient Indar submersible volute pump The customized submersible pump with mixed flow, single stage and single inlet has an enclosed multi-channel impeller with a big free ball passage. Being projected with a volute diffuser the equipment has been adapted to fit the original layout (intake and discharge) of the intake sump. The material selection with duplex stainless steel increases corrosion resistance for the equipment taking into account the marine environment for the installation; this fact is crucial to guarantee the optimal operation of the equipment and minimize maintenance stops. Indar’s value proposition for desalination: new program for the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant Indar’s submersible pump sets for desalination water intake projects, open ocean and subsurface (slant or not), are a technically and environmentally friendly alternative due to the efficient use of water. Backed by our proven in-house technology, we offer stiff, high performance and almost maintenance free solutions. Products are important and so are our services and our commitment to customers’ needs and projects. Our worldwide available customer support services teams raise the service to the highest level; they deliver fast, reliable and compre-

hensive innovative solutions during the total life cycle of the equipment. By mid-2021, Indar, Ingeteam Group, has signed a three-year Life Extension Program with POSEIDON WATER LLC for the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant – Dilution Pumps. This program includes a spare parts logistic solution, training, on-site periodic inspections, data analysis and a warranty extension of the supplied equipment for the desalination plant: three Indar high-tech customized fish-friendly submersible pumps: H1800-1697 +S-450-X/8 manufactured in super duplex material and operated with variable frequency drives to accommodate any potential demands in the plant. With this new project in Santa Barbara and the contract with POSEIDON WATER LLC, Indar, Ingeteam Group, offers its know-how and expertise in integrated water management to raise our environmental value proposition for our customers.

Indar’s submersible pump sets for desalination water intake projects are a technically and environmentally friendly alternative

- MAGAZINE

WATER & NEWS - WATER TREATMENT

PANI SECURES $8 MILLION TO SCALE UP AI SOLUTION IN WATER TREATMENT FACILITIES The Canadian company Pani has completed an oversubscribed CAD 8 million capital raise to scale up artificial intelligent solutions

Funds raised to accelerate the adoption of Pani's software in the global water treatment market to improve clean water yield and reduce cost, risk, and emissions. Pani, a Canadian software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, completed an oversubscribed CAD 8 million capital raise. Funds include a seed equity round co-led by Blue Bear Capital and Blue Coast along with participation from Mazarine Ventures and Humanitas, as well as contributions from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and other government agencies. Blue Bear Capital, a California firm that invests in high-growth AI technology companies across energy, infrastructure, and climate industries, also joins Pani's board as part of the financing.

- MAGAZINE

"Water treatment is a multitrillion-dollar industry, and one of the most important drivers of sustainable development, yet it has been slow to see effective AI solutions," says Ernst Sack, founder and partner at Blue Bear Capital. "Pani's team combines practical AI development expertise with deep understanding of the water industry – including all of the complex process engineering, chemistry, and energy management required. This allows Pani's software to deliver substantial improvements to not only the bottom-line for treatment facilities, but also their energy and environmental footprint. We at Blue Bear are excited to help Pani scale their impact globally." Since 2017, Pani has been developing a proprietary data driven platform that helps water treatment facilities improve

yield and reduce energy and materials costs while using only a plant's existing systems and existing sensor data. With a simple integration, Pani is able to implement digital twin simulations and employ advanced analytics to achieve significant efficiency gains covering filtration, chemical treatment, maintenance programs, and more. Quickly growing to become a market leader in this space, Pani's unique, hardware-free and CAPEX-free solution provides real-time operational insights and forecasting on how to improve water and energy use in plants, as well as predict optimal times to perform maintenance. "We've had an incredible year, and we've been able to demonstrate to several players in the global water treatment market that our solution can easily realize production improvement and efficiency gains in this industry," said CEO Devesh Bharadwaj. "With this new funding round, we are able to scale up our reach in order to help thousands of treatment facilities become more efficient, ultimately reducing their operational expenses, reducing downtime, decreasing energy requirements, and reducing overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the entire industry." Pani is currently offering the platform as a multi-tiered subscription model, and is applicable to treatment facilities at all levels of digital maturity. Funding will help Pani to globally scale direct sales reach as well as help attract distribution partners in the water industry.

NEW SURVEYS REVEAL THAT SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE OF WATER REUSE ISN’T THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE Cranfield University surveys seek views on water in the circular economy: up to 75% of respondents support water reuse for drinking A new set of European surveys have revealed that the perceived “yuck factor” typically predicted as a public reaction to wastewater recycling may not be as bad as we think. An anticipated negative perception of water recycling, or wastewater reuse, is frequently cited as a stumbling block when delivering large-scale water recycling projects. However, the surveys have revealed that the public is more open to wastewater recycling than the water sector has historically believed. Issued by Cranfield University to

over 2500 participants in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands, the surveys focused on recycled water for drinking purposes and recovered nutrients to grow food. They intended to find up-to-date views on the state of acceptance of wastewater recycling (direct potable reuse), especially with more projects coming online. Headline results showed that in the Netherlands, 75% of respondents supported or strongly supported the use of recycled water for drinking, compared to 67% in the UK and 73% in Spain.

Interestingly, there was also a higher support for consuming food grown using recovered nutrients from wastewater than drinking recycled water in all three countries (75% in the Netherlands, 74% in the UK, and 85% in Spain). Jos Frijns, resilience management & governance team leader at KWR, the coordinating organisation behind NextGen, said that acceptance varies depending on a utility’s established trust. “An element in the acceptability of wastewater recycling relates to trust.”

THE IMPACTS OF HUMAN WASTEWATER IN COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS UC Santa Barbara has investigated how the inputs of nitrogen and pathogens from wastewater are impacting global coastal ecosystems The tendency for most of us when it comes to human wastewater is out of sight, out of mind. Rarely do we consider what happens after we flush that toilet or turn off that tap. However, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have turned their attention and considerable computational power to the subject and its impacts on global coastal ecosystems. “The motivation behind this research was a desire to have a fine-grain understanding of how wastewater is impacting coastal waters worldwide,” said Cascade

Tuholske. While research on terrestrial threats to coastal marine ecosystems often focuses on agricultural runoff and what happens when fertilizer and livestock waste winds up in the ocean, he said, few studies investigate what happens when human sewage does the same. “This isn’t the first study to produce a global wastewater model, but it is the first study to map the inputs of nitrogen and pathogens from wastewater across 130,000 watersheds across the planet,” Tuholske said. “And this is important be-

cause there are trade-offs in the intervention space.” Information from this model, he added, could make those trade-offs clearer and management decisions easier to make. The majority of human wastewater is discharged into the ocean around the world in a variety of treated and untreated states from sewage, septic and direct input sources. Not surprisingly, major human wastewater sources are also places with dense human populations, which tend to aggregate around major watersheds.

- MAGAZINE

WATER & NEWS - WATER TREATMENT

HOW TO CREATE CLEAN WATER USING PULVERIZED COAL Researchers are developing a solution that can produce freshwater for a fraction of the cost of current solar desalination technologies Compressed blocks of pulverized coal can be used as the basis of sunlight-powered off-grid water purification. Dark-colored materials that strongly soak up sunlight to drive seawater desalination are a research interest of KAUST's Andrea Fratalocchi. While reading about the economic challenges of ending coal’s use for power generation, Fratalocchi was struck by a novel possible use for coal. “Why don’t we use coal for a new economy in water desalination?” Fratalocchi recalls. Fratalocchi and his team began to explore blocks of carbonized compressed powder (CCP), a microporous material produced by forcing powdered coal together under pressure. To assist water flow into and through the CCP, the team incorporated cotton fibers through the material.

- MAGAZINE

The team placed a block of this material over a saltwater-filled container so that the cotton fibers touched the water. When the CCP was warmed by sunlight, water was drawn up through the device and evaporated from its hot surface. A condenser over the device captured the freshwater. The salt left behind in the CCP can be washed off with seawater. “CCP is abundant in nature and low cost, as well as lightweight, versatile and highly scalable from a fabrication point of view,” says Marcella Bonifazi. “The device produced fresh water for around one-third the cost of current state-ofthe-art solar desalination technologies. The device could provide fresh water to the 1.6 billion people around the globe facing economic water shortages,” adds Valerio Mazzone.

SUSTAINABLE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM INSPIRED BY NATURE Monash scientists develop a sustainable system to clean wastewater Students from Monash Chemical Engineering have used the natural water treatment cycle found in nature as inspiration to develop a sustainable, standalone water treatment system that removes persistent organic pollutants from industrial wastewater. The unique Stand Alone Sunflow System (SASS) uses easily accessible and affordable materials to provide a stand-alone and sustainable water treatment option that requires less labour and maintenance compared to traditional systems and will treat persistent organic contaminants in wastewater from small and medium industries. Untreated wastewater from industrial sites can contain heavy metals, toxins and petroleum hydrocarbons which can affect aquatic ecosystems and impact food resources and the water supply. Appropriate management practices are needed to minimise the risk that industrial waste can have on the environment. The main motivation for developing the SASS technology was to curb the global impact of industrial wastewater. The SASS design avoids using fossil fuel-based energy sources or chemicals that pose a hazard to human or environmental health. The system also uses a cellulose/ zinc oxide catalyst activated by sunlight to break down organic pollutants in water circulated through a treatment tank. The pilot prototype takes advantage of sunlight and mounted UV lights powered by solar panels are activated when insufficient sunlight is available, while a microcontroller manages the flow of water through the system.

DIGITAL

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

ANTONIO IBÁÑEZ GLOBAL WATER PRACTICE DIRECTOR AT MINSAIT

“Phygital means leading an ecosystem of partners that drives innovation and development in the sector” Z

David Escobar Gutiérrez -

Juanma Guzmán

Digitalization is an undeniable fact in our lives. The digital transformation has reached cruising speed and is changing the way in which, among other things, we manage water resources. This unstoppable trend has fortunately brought new players to the water sector who, years ago, played a minor role but are now leading players. Minsait is one of the most obvious examples.

Indra, one of the most internationally recognized Spanish multinational companies, encompassing multiple strategic sectors, has a growing presence with Minsait. Its activity in the water sector has grown exponentially in recent years. Now, with Phygital, it takes a step forward in the company's commitment to the integrated management of all the company’s expertise in the physical world. Antonio Ibáñez is a technology enthusiast who, in a meteoric career dedicated to the digital transformation of utility companies, has been leading Minsait's global water segment for the last three years. Ibáñez welcomes us to Minsait's office at a time when the digital transformation has reached breakneck speed and more than ever needs professionals with clear ideas and a passion for what they do. Professionals like him.

be linked to the digital world and all decisions in my career have been in that line. Eleven years ago, I joined the Energy&Utilities practice at Indra, now Minsait, the company that brings together Indra's digital transformation and information technology businesses, where I started as a project manager for Aqualia. Three years ago, I was fortunate to be able to start managing the global water market. In this last period, together with my team, we have put a lot of energy into consolidating existing water-specific products and adding new ones to the portfolio. Last year we pushed our Onesait Smart Metering product very hard and we are currently very focused on new products for water quality management in river basins, smart irrigation manage-

Could you tell us about your career path and how did you come into the world of water? I am passionate about technology, it’s my calling; since I was twelve years old, when I started programming with a ZX Spectrum, I was sure that my life would

"Phygital is a commitment to the future: we seek to manage in an integrated manner the company's knowhow of the physical world"

ment and operational efficiency in wastewater treatment plants. Can you tell us about your current role? Well, I continue to enjoy the world of water more and more every day, and now the novelty is that I am doing so within a new division of Minsait called Phygital as the Director of Sustainability, a position from which, in addition to heading the water practice, I am also involved in energy efficiency, business sustainability and circular economy practices. I am very excited to be able to expand the scope of my work in something as important as sustainability. We are growing and consolidating a very powerful offer in this field, which I hope our clients will like very much. You mentioned Phygital. What does it mean for Minsait? For us at Minsait, Phygital is a great commitment to the future with which we seek to manage in an integrated manner the company's know-how of the physical world, meaning all types of sensors and equipment capable of sending or receiving data, the Internet of things (IoT) or Industrial IoT, and the digital world,

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

"There is still a lot to do; it is important to have a structured vision and a solid digital strategy to plan activities" where we need to use intelligence, with digital platforms and tools, to turn hundreds of thousands of signals and data into insights. The goal is always to have end-to-end projects, ranging from the identification of a business opportunity or improvement, to its implementation and subsequent support and maintenance. We seek solutions that add value to our clients and that are ground-breaking and sustainable. Phygital also means leading an ecosystem of partners that drives innovation and development in the sector. These partners can be equipment manufacturers, owners of niche digital solutions or hyperscalers with cloud platforms such as Google, Amazon or Microsoft. In addition, they support us in the implementation of certain niche technologies or in certain geographies, and may even be regular competitors with whom we can work together to provide better solutions. The digital transformation of the water sector is here to stay. What is the state of the art at the moment? It is a sector with very different degrees of maturity. The first differences are geographical; we are a global company that is in 140 countries and we are doing projects simultaneously in different continents. Right now, in the water market, for example, we are carrying out projects in Gambia, Bahrain, the Philippines, Peru, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, among other countries. In each geography, the projects deal with very different themes, and this indicates a very different degree of maturity within the same sector. In

- MAGAZINE

Africa, we carry out projects dealing with core processes, where we provide a whole country with tools to manage customers as well as the network. On the other hand, in Brazil or the United States, we are already at a completely different level of maturity; here we are more focused on smart metering, leak detection using radar images obtained through remote sensing, or big data platforms for operational intelligence of infrastructure. It is important to have a structured vision and a solid digital strategy to plan activities; technology should not be implemented only according to the latest market fad or putting out fires because decisions to upgrade were not made on time. There is a lot to talk about concerning how to approach a digitalization plan nowadays and the tools to choose from. What are the biggest challenges of this transformation for water utilities? I'm sure I'm leaving some out, but the main lines of work we see are as follows: Non-revenue water, either through commercial losses or physical losses. New commercial systems are needed to integrate the commercial cycle with network management and use advanced analytics to detect anomalous situations, fraud and losses. Energy efficiency in plants and facilities, with state-of-the-art devices that enable savings in plant operations, rely on data monitoring and intelligence, and facilitate the detection of usage patterns and anomalous operating situations in equipment. By acting on them, savings can be achieved in a simple way. Asset management and maintenance is another major challenge; assets must be fitted with sensors, monitored and automated to be able to take advantage of this information and have decision-making and improvement elements in the network. Quality and alert management issues, whether in watersheds or distribution networks, are a trend. There is a great demand for new control equipment to improve traditional sensors and, with new

communication technologies, to improve the management of scarce water resources through the use of alarms and advanced analytics. This automation is also needed to help irrigation associations move towards smart irrigation systems. Several companies work with integrated water cycle managers in the digital transformation process. What are the differentiating features of Minsait? Minsait is not just consultancy services. There is the entire Indra hardware and electronic equipment manufacturing side, which serves as the basis for many projects. On the other hand, we have in the group, an engineering company like Prointec, the largest European cybersecurity company SIA, a telecontrol company

ANTONIO IBÁÑEZ like ACS, DIVE artificial intelligence or Paradigma, the digital company par excellence. There are few companies in the world that can offer the integrated offering that Indra and Minsait do. Another key element is our talent and strategy to create our own products. Onesait is Minsait's product brand; Onesait Platform, Onesait Customers, Onesait Grid, Onesait Metering, Onesait Efficiency, are part of an extensive range of products for utilities, industry and financial services. Is investing in digitalization cost-effective? Digitalization makes it possible to reduce operating costs and optimize any company's processes, making it more competi-

tive, something that becomes even more relevant in a crisis environment like the current one. I believe that managers who are not committed to digitalization and do not manage their digital transformation well are putting their company at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who do. And from an economic point of view, in times of crisis, it is also important to develop projects that have a clear return, that is the key. So, it seems simple, but how many useless projects are carried out or how many projects that were necessary never become productive because of poor execution and in particular because of poor change management? We must take care of all aspects, including training and communication in organizations; people are key.

As part of the digital transformation process, we are seeing the development and implementation of different technologies. Which ones are they, and which ones do you think are having the greatest impact? I would start with the basics. Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the platform concept; I think that the technical architecture of the systems is very important, the present and the future are already phygital and you cannot continue with classic architectures; every day there is more equipment connected to the network, there are hundreds of thousands of signals sent, providing information that is difficult to process. Today the intelligence of systems is distributed: there is equipment with in-

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

telligence in the network, in the Edge; these can make decisions autonomously and only send to the cloud the relevant information, which has to be collected very efficiently given its volume and then has to be stored in databases that are different from the traditional ones. They are more distributed to enable scaling; they must be able to store data and time se-

"Digitalization makes it possible to reduce operating costs and optimize company’s processes, making it more competitive" 56

- MAGAZINE

ries-data, and that leads to being able to process quickly that information. In addition, these new architectures must facilitate and have processing tools using algorithms and be available through dashboards that users can create autonomously. There are platforms provided by hyperscalers (Google, Amazon or Microsoft) and there are open platforms such as the one we use at Minsait – Onesait Platform – where we are developing all our new products and vertical solutions and creating new versions of older ones. On the other hand, there are technologies that are more focused on the physical part being applied in the water industry and which are quite diverse, from fiber optics to identify leaks in pipes with a certain flow rate, to radar images that

make it possible to identify leaks up to ten meters belowground by measuring the dielectric constant of the ground, equipment that improves energy efficiency in plants, meters with increasingly durable batteries and ultrasonic leak detectors. The world of water quality sensors is evolving. At Minsait we seek to be a technology hub where we work with our partners to provide our customers with the most innovative technologies. I invite all partners with unique solutions to contact us to expand our ecosystem of solutions. Non-Revenue Water is another of the major challenges faced by urban water cycle managers. What is Minsait's approach to tackling this problem?

ANTONIO IBÁÑEZ

Concerning digitalization, the degree of digital maturity varies from one country to the next, but the challenges are the same

Most companies in the water sector have integrated information technologies as a key element in their strategic plans and have made significant progress in the adoption of these technologies. However, the process of remote data acquisition is one of the critical processes of water utilities, which still has a long way to go. In this area, the adoption of smart devices and smart meters, whose deployment has increased considerably in recent years, is the main enabler for the digitalization of data acquisition processes in the field. On the other hand, the information provided by a network of smart meters is a key element to quantify the volume of unaccounted-for water, as well as its causes (leaks, unauthorized consumption, metering errors, etc.) and their location.

However, the deployment of a network of smart meters and the large volume of information obtained from them is not valuable enough without the ability to manage and make use of this information. At Minsait we are aware of the importance of data management and, based on this premise, we have developed Onesait Metering, a solution capable of managing the information from the network of sensors and IoT devices deployed in the field. Through the Onesait platform, Minsait integrates advanced tools that facilitate, among other things, the control of commercial and non-commercial losses in distribution networks. This platform is integrated with the Onesait Sensing solution for the detection of leaks and threats in real time. It includes an automatic system based on the use of DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensor) technology that uses standard communications fiber optics and monitors transmission and distribution networks by transforming optical signals into alarms with a user-friendly and functional user interface. Among all the solutions that Minsait has for the water industry, which one would you highlight as the most innovative? The Oblysis technology is a revolutionary solution in the field of wastewater treatment. This solution improves plant operations, saving up to 40% of energy,

reducing the volume of sludge by around 35%-40%, while also reducing the consumption of reagents and transforming the plants from active sludge to granular sludge. It is something unique and revolutionary that allows efficient operations while at the same time contributing to reducing the environmental impact, improving the quality of the discharge. We work together with operators, identifying the savings to be achieved, which are shared with them, therefore without the need for any investment on their part. To conclude the interview, how would you like water to be managed in twenty years’ time? I would like to see our efforts and those of our partners generating a real impact on our customers and that this is noticed: I would like to see an increasingly efficient and sustainable water industry thanks to us and what we do. We hope that water will become more accessible to everyone, that it will reach citizens with ever higher quality and that we will be able to make it drinkable again with little effort, through increasingly efficient distribution networks, without losses, and with modern and efficient wastewater treatment. The challenge in twenty years' time is for the planet to be sustainable, and efficient water management is key to achieving this.

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE Part 1: understanding the landscape Digital technologies have transformed society and businesses across healthcare, transportation, healthcare and beyond in ways that we could not have imagined just a few years ago. These sectors provide valuable lessons for the digital transformation of water. While water issues are local, digital technologies provide widespread benefits to all stakeholders engaged in solving them. While there is increasing interest and adoption of digital water technologies, the realities of this transformation can be challenging. Issues may arise such as workforce “readiness” with regards to training and understanding the culture of innovation, or lack thereof.

trate the challenges and opportunities confronting corporate professionals leading digital technology transformation. Opportunities and challenges While operational excellence in resource use and assets is an important value of adopting digital water technologies, the value proposition is more robust. Technologies such as AI provide greater support to the workforce, decrease business disruption, and contribute to more sus-

tainable and resilient operations. Digital water technologies can tangibly contribute to achieving corporate sustainability and water stewardship commitments. Quantifiable improvements in water stewardship can provide necessary proof points for external ESG reporting which is important to investors and the rating and ranking agencies (e.g., CDP Water). The challenges in adopting digital water technologies center on the availability of data, capabilities of the workforce,

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PLAYBOOK: A 3-PART ROADMAP TO NAVIGATE AI IMPLEMENTATION

Current trends There are several trends driving digital transformation for water within industrial sectors including: J The need to be more efficient and effective with water use within operations due to scarcity. J Increased scrutiny of corporate water use by stakeholders. J Increasing need for sustainable and resilient business operations and increasing demand for ESG reporting. The adoption of digital water technologies in industrial sectors was well underway prior to the COVID pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated the adoption across industrial companies given the need to operate facilities with fewer (and in some cases remote) workforces and to increase business continuity when confronted with physical, regulatory, and reputational risks. These risk dimensions can be more effectively or proactively managed through digital water technologies such as artificial intelligence. We will focus on the application of AI in the food and beverage sector to illus-

- MAGAZINE

This whitepaper provides a practical guide for the application of AI solutions in the food and beverage sector to increase operational performance, achieve sustainability goals and facilitate environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

Will Sarni, Founder and CEO, Water Foundry -

Prateek Joshi, Founder and CEO, Plutoshift

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION the culture of innovation, and company commitment and investment. These challenges can be overcome by acknowledging what it takes for a company to have a transformational digital water strategy. Water technology innovation Corporate water stewardship programs are often framed as an investment to mitigate water-related risks and/or as a Corporate Social Responsibility. When viewed in this narrow manner, it leaves business value “on the table,” making stewardship an incomplete value proposition. Existing efforts tend to focus on risk management as opposed to creating business and societal value (as outlined in Water Strategy: Moving from Risk to Value Creation by Will Sarni and Hugh Share). Water stewardship is stuck because actions are mostly transactional in nature rather than transformative. A corporate water strategy is an opportunity to contribute to business growth while also mitigating risks and improving the well-being of communities and the environment.

A transformative corporate water strategy would identify and invest in activities that create brand value, drive innovation and digital transformation, strengthen water governance, advance funding and financing mechanisms, and establish higher impact partnerships and business models. This approach would generate greater societal value and would position a company as part of the solution to our 21st-century water challenges. We are now seeing corporations building upon their water stewardship strategy and actively integrating innovation in water technologies. PepsiCo, for example, has created PepsiCo Labs where selected startups work with PepsiCo experts to test and scale their ideas within the business units. Microsoft and AB InBev have leading water stewardship strategies and have launched investment funds (e.g., Microsoft Climate Fund and Emerald Venture Fund) and sustainability accelerators which include water technologies (e.g., 100 + Accelerator). The 2021 100 + Accelerator program now includes Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company and Colgate Palmolive in addition to AB InBev, the founder of the accelerator program. It is clear that corporations are embracing water technology innovation with an interest in how they can identify and scale digital water technologies to deliver business value in addition to having a positive environmental and social impact. As other companies begin to adopt digital technologies for water stewardship and other ESG initiatives, the question often remains: How can we achieve success in this arena? One part of the solution involves the use of AI as a strategic enabler to achieving real digital transformation results. Part 2: AI value creation Industrial companies have long grappled with AI. Business leaders are often faced with figuring out how to implement AI in a practical way that creates value.

While water issues are local, digital technologies provide benefits to all stakeholders engaged in solving wicked water problems For any new technology to work within an organization, it must start with a well-defined scope. This enables us to prove that it works. These success templates can then be used to drive enterprise-wide adoption. The playbook to create value with AI has several components: Use cases Start with a use case. Before launching an AI initiative, ask yourself whether or not there’s a burning need today. A need is “burning” if it has a large impact on your business. If this need is addressed, it can directly increase revenue and/or margins for the company. We need to describe this burning need in the form of a use case. These use cases are actually very simple to describe: “We’re using too much electricity to make our beverage product”, “We’re taking too long to fix our pumps” or “We’re spending too much money on chemicals to clean our water”. Data Next, identify what specific data is needed to support the use case. If you try to process all the available data, it leads to chaos and confusion. It will also give you a false sense of progress because people seem to be working all the time on data wrangling. Be disciplined on what data you need. It will drive focus on the outcomes and ensure that the deployment is manageable. Then figure out what amount of historical data is needed to build a use case. A good rule of thumb is to make sure there are at least six months of historical data.

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

A corporate water strategy can be an opportunity to contribute to business growth while simultaneously mitigating business risks Automating workflows Once you figure out what data you need, figure out the data workflow. This is a series of steps needed to transform raw data into useful information. Building a data workflow allows you to understand what it takes to get something working. This is the essence of Operation-Specific Digital Transformation for which we conducted a survey of 500 professionals and found that 78% felt supported by their team leaders when they embarked on this approach. The full report is titled Instruments of Change: Professionals Achieving Success Through Operation-Specific Digital Transformation. Benefits scorecard The primary reason to deploy AI is to drive a specific outcome that is measurable and has a direct impact on the business. Include all stakeholders in creating a benefits scorecard. The people implementing the AI solution should hold themselves accountable for this scorecard. The time to realize those benefits should be short (think: 90 days). People To create value with AI, people must use the tools and take actions on time. Behavior change is an important aspect of AI value creation. Successful teams are proactive and data savvy when it comes to embracing change. Modern operators rely on tools to automate the monitoring work. They understand that brute force is not going to achieve meaningful progress and prioritize their work using tools and automation.

- MAGAZINE

These tools arm them with information that’s needed to get the work done and limit the number of manual hours needed to put the data together. This is a powerful way for modern teams to keep an eye on their infrastructure. Nuts and bolts to scale Once you successfully execute an AI initiative, you should be able to replicate it with more use cases across the company. There’s no point in doing a Proof of Concept (POC) if the approach is not scalable. Make sure you have a data platform that supports deploying a wide range of use cases. The nuts and bolts of the platform should enable you to compose many workflows with ease. Nuts and bolts include automating all the work related to data -- checking data quality, processing it, transforming, storing, retrieving and visualizing the data, keeping it API-ready, and validating its integrity. Architecture Creating enterprise-grade AI software is a huge undertaking. The software must work across thousands of employees and a variety of use cases. Building every component from scratch in-house would be a multi-million dollar project and would face ongoing maintenance costs. Successful companies are integrators of software tools. They don’t create every piece of software from scratch. They bring together the right software into their architecture to drive their business forward. For a company whose primary product is not cloud-based software, you’ll position yourself for success if you invest in understanding how to choose the right building blocks of software versus focusing on building from scratch. Competitive advantage Successful companies focus on their core product to the exclusion of everything else. For everything else, they get other tools and firms to do the work. AI software shouldn’t be looked upon as an asset that

is external to the business and something that can generate returns that are independent of your core business. AI software delivers a competitive advantage that will have a direct impact on your core business. Once AI is integrated into your digital transformation roadmap, it’s imperative to focus on the most critical enabler of this roadmap: people. Part 3: implementation & risk management A key hurdle in championing a new technology or service inside an organization is the ability to explain the business case. One could go in many directions when laying out the costs, risks, advantages and disadvantages. Start with the end in mind. Here, we’ll guide you through some of the inevitable realities that may be encountered by those considering the use of digital technologies such as AI and machine learning to enhance manufacturing processes, enhance sustainable operations, and achieve ESG goals. While it’s important to understand your exact audience and their precon-

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ceived notions surrounding your company-specific initiatives, it’s valuable to learn from others’ experiences in similar areas. We’ll provide advice and lessons learned from the practical application of leading the digital revolution of current manufacturing operations. 1. Don’t make it all about water. Do include other KPIs, such as production and quality Water is important for the food and beverage industry. However, for decision-makers to realize the full potential of applying AI and other digital solutions, the initial business case cannot simply focus on the economics of water. It will be seen as too minimal for such a major resource investment. In reality, water is only a fraction of the overall digital transformation needed to optimize operations. The KPI to include at the forefront alongside water is production - specifically, how much water is used in relation to the amount of production. You can’t digitize your process related to water without fully adopting other digitization efforts, such as factory au-

tomation. Without digitalization for the production side as well, your ROI will fall flat. A major driver for the business case should be the quality of the product, which can be positively or negatively influenced by the overall operational strategy. Companies cannot afford to sacrifice product or performance quality at the expense of digital transformation efforts. Ensure all the parts affected by digital transformation cohesively work together in a manner that allows for the biggest return on investment and the most sustainable operations. 2. Don’t oversell the short-term value of real time data. Do focus on the need for a long-term execution strategy Getting information on a visual dashboard initially drives engagement for the end-user. But this “curbside appeal” does not last long. Once the excitement wears off, so do the actions needed to follow through on building the dream home for your data. It is ultimately the action of the people that drives results.

Proactively avoid this misstep by highlighting the actual use case and the user experience. Clearly outlining the journey from end-to-end involves a great deal of planning and understanding, especially around the design thinking process which is not readily known in industrial-type settings. When you begin to ask yourself, “How do we get insightful information at the right time to the right people?” you will start to shift your focus from the shortto the long term. 3. Don’t underestimate the amount of work required. Do account for factors such as culture and skills Turnkey solutions are common in certain industries, and for good reason – you can’t be everything and do everything well. If the company can bolt on an existing solution instead of building a new toolbox, then so be it. Manufacturers, for example, can be inclined to look for external sources for digital support since this is outside the core business. However, if the company is approaching digital transformation or sustainability initiatives from a turnkey mindset, there will likely be a disappointment. The amount of culture change needed to embrace these technologies is significant. The new ways of working with data and maintaining data/sensors require different skills. It is much more than just learning how another machine runs. Conclusion The realities of operational transformation can be challenging, even with the increasing interest in practical solutions such as digital water technologies. In order for AI to work within an organization, it must start with a specific desired outcome that is measurable and quickly shows a direct impact on the business. This, along with a well-defined scope that also considers issues such as workforce readiness, is imperative to successfully achieve long-term sustainability and economic goals.

- MAGAZINE

OPINION

JAIME BARBA CEO OF IDRICA

Our responsibility in the water industry is to ensure that tures and water sources. This can be done by analyzing the future generations will have access to clean drinking water color and infrared frequencies of the images captured by and proper sanitation. For this to happen, the digital trans- satellites, drones, robots and radars. formation of processes must take into account the changes Other types of sensor analyses, related to noise and preswe will be seeing in the next few years. sure, will also play an important role in decision-making. In order to use water intelligently, one of the first criti- Improving their precision, especially in the case of pressure cal steps is to monitor and ascertain what is happening in sensors, will provide us with data to run models and apply infrastructures and assets. Over ten years ago, we were for- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. tunate to start a pioneering project with the utility Global These must always be accompanied by a business vision to Omnium to include technology in its processes and infra- guide the data experts in order to make the process work. structures. People suggested improvements that could be In my opinion, one of the most important developments applied in their daily lives, and this led to a positive change in the industry in the future is likely to be the separation that revolutionized the entire culture of the organization. of customer management, network and infrastructure manWe took all the knowledge from the operations team and agement, and ownership. For this reason, utilities impletransferred that know-how to menting technology that conthe information systems. nects them with their customers Image processing will Today, other leading utilities will lead the market. For example, are also applying technological blockchain will be used to certify help us make decisions, solutions to the processes they communications and transactions for instance, about the evolution manage across the entire water with customers and contractors. cycle, from the basins to returnFurthermore, competitive waand state of infrastructures ing water to the environment. ter utilities will offer customers and water sources Over the last few years, we new additional services, such as have seen how sensor technoloefficient energy consumption gy, mathematical modeling and decision-making systems tools and ways to sell their energy. In this sense, progress are attracting more and more investment worldwide. Wa- will be made in providing services in homes through the ter utilities are very interested in determining the best way world of water, in which customers will be able to solve forward. For example, they want to know when to open a incidents through technology. pump or when there is a damaged infrastructure that needs We know that industries are more and more concerned to be repaired. This is only possible thanks to innovation. about their water footprint, and society is beginning to deThese information systems concentrate all the knowl- mand a reduction in the environmental impact of manuedge accumulated in the company over decades, and ensure facturing. For example, the production of a pair of jeans that it is maintained, even if the people in the organization can use up to 10,000 liters of water. Therefore, industrial change. They guarantee that the experience of the people technologies that can make water use more efficient will be who set up the water networks stays with the utility forever. in demand. In relation to future technologies, image processing is This also applies to water purification and reuse. Our reone of the tools that will help us make different decisions, sponsibility is to help reduce environmental impact, and for instance, about the evolution and state of infrastruc- there is still a long way to go in terms of water, carbon and

- MAGAZINE

energy footprint certification. At the moment, we have no In the light of climate change, utilities in the United States standard to tell us which company is more sustainable. Yet, are introducing predictive analytics, real-time modelling this is a growing need. and virtual stress testing in their processes. As a response Water is also a key element in smart cities, where there to external threats, sensors and data analysis are set to be are almost unlimited use cases for technologies. Local au- implemented, contributing to resiliency. thorities are already looking for solutions to help them reAnd on the other side of the planet, in India and China, duce the impact of tourism, reduce their water footprint technology is already in place. However, utilities there are and improve their energy management. looking for expert knowledge to make the most of it. For In a world where regional conflicts over water will be- example, they want to extract value out of smart metering come more and more frequent, satellite technology can and digital twins. help us solve them by providing us with information and Conversely, public companies and most private-sector transparency about the origin and status of water sources. firms in Europe are early adopters of technology. As a matter Water is essential for life. That is why technologies that of fact, all the medium-sized utilities are investing in R&D improve access to water in underdeveloped countries, in processes to improve customer relationship and asset manageline with the Sustainable Dement, and operational efficiency. velopment Goals, are going to All over the world, there is inWe have to help reduce concentrate a large part of the credible scope for innovation. investment in the planet. Unlike a machine, people can environmental impact, and In Africa, utilities helped by combine all these technologies there is a long way to go in multilateral banks have been inand knowledge to transform wavesting in infrastructure, but imter management. We have the terms of water, carbon and proving maintenance and water opportunity to build a more energy footprint certification quality is still a pending issue. In sustainable world. Join us on this region, digital analysis can the journey to unlocking value help to optimize network investments to cater for a grow- through digital transformation. ing population. What’s the situation like in Latin America? Although Jaime Barba is the Global CEO of Idrica, one of the world's management is more advanced, there are still some per- leading smart water technology companies. He has a degree sistent issues regarding access to water. Utilities are starting in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad to focus on digitally transforming the billing cycle, measur- Politécnica de Valencia (Spain). He has over 20 years of experiing consumption, reducing non-revenue water and improv- ence in the water industry and has become one of the most releing water service and quality. vant figures in the sector, spearheading digital transformation. In contrast, the Middle East is making considerable efHe has held several positions of responsibility for over a deforts into real-time monitoring via sensors and IoT solu- cade, including CEO of GoHub, the open innovation hub for tions. They have accelerated the introduction of digital deep tech, industry 4.0 and smart cities and Chief Digital and components in the infrastructure to get a better picture Disruptive Officer and CTO at Global Omnium, a 130 yearof what is happening and have allocated large amounts of old utility that is responsible for water management in 400 money to this task. Spanish municipalities.

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

AGUSTÍN RAMÍREZ CEO OF AGANOVA

“We want to partner with our clients to reduce their water losses” Z

Águeda García de Durango Caveda

The Nautilus system together with the NEMO platform is Aganova’s flagship, a company whose main objective is to reduce losses in large-diameter water networks.

In just a few years, Aganova has managed to position itself at the forefront of water leak detection technology. Thanks to the Nautilus system and the NEMO platform, the company has experienced growth that has allowed it to expand internationally. Leading Aganova is CEO Agustín Ramírez, who is committed to continuing to innovate so Aganova can become a benchmark firm in this field. We spoke to him about the company's trajectory and next steps. First off, we would like to briefly know about your professional career. In the water sector, I started as a leak detection technician at our local company EMASA, and later I worked in the sales department of the multinational firm SEWERIN, but it is true that I have

"Aganova’s milestone was evolving from a services company with existing technology to one that develops new technologies" 64

- MAGAZINE

always had a strong interest in the business. For this reason, while I worked, I trained in different areas focusing on technological entrepreneurship. Hence, shortly thereafter, and considering the shortage of companies specialising in leak detection systems, I set out to create my own company, offering services first locally, and then Spain-wide. But Aganova's main milestone was evolving from a company that simply offered services with existing technologies to a company that developed new technologies. And this milestone marked the beginning of the development of the Nautilus system. What are the main activities carried out by the company, and what is Aganova's key mission? Our company focuses on developing and offering solutions both domestically and internationally to reduce losses in large-diameter water networks. Our mission is to provide cost-effective, efficient and effective technologies under a recurrent use model that help minimise non-revenue water (NRW) across the world, and that can offer our clients valuable information for decision making. To this end, we want the Nautilus System to become the stand-

ard solution to assess and detect leaks in large diameter networks, the same as loggers, correlators and geophones are for distribution networks. As a young entrepreneur of a technology-based company in the water sector, what, in your opinion, are the challenges the sector faces, and how does Aganova contribute to addressing them? From my point of view, one of the great challenges of the sector is reducing water losses due to leaks in the networks. Our industry must increasingly focus on and take responsibility for the high NRW that is still lost in the pipes. We cannot normalise this situation any longer. In many countries we still see a corrective management approach. In the case of leaks, solutions are sought, at best, after the management company has verified considerable flow losses. At Aganova, we want to promote a preventive approach to water management that, in addition to avoiding problems and minimising losses due to leaks, helps to understand the evolution and deterioration of infrastructure so essential to the population and so valuable to our clients. That is why we strive to offer systems that favour recurring pipeline checks. The Nautilus system is Aganova’s flagship technology. What does this technology consist of, and what are its advantages over similar devices? Nautilus is a system patented in 68 countries and designed for the detection of leaks in large diameter pipes, greater than 250 mm. It is a system that works inside the pipe, with the advantages that this entails, and consists in introducing a sphere in the network without interrupting the service at any time. The sphere travels freely

AGUSTÍN RAMÍREZ

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

"We are developing algorithms to help us understand the evolution of leaks and anomalies, based on data from different environments" pushed by the flow, recording the acoustic information along the entire network inspected. On extraction, we analyse the information and can identify any leaks starting at 0.005 litres per second, air pockets, anomalies and their exact location. One of the main advantages of Nautilus, in addition to the fact that it can be used in pipes of any type of material and depth, is its neutral buoyancy. In other words, its ability to keep navigating through the centre of the pipe, which gives us many advantages, including clearing any type of obstacle, navigating vertically, working at very low flow rates, covering any type of route and inspecting up to 35 km in a single journey. I would also like to highlight that our work methodology for the positioning of the leaks is based on synchronisation: the data obtained during the inspection is analysed in detail in our R&D laboratory, and this allows us to study and collate all the data obtained in the inspection and refine the precision of the results. Lastly, I would like to comment that in 2020 we have developed a platform called NEMO, which provides a working environment where clients can obtain information at any time about the inspections taking place in their networks, the results and anomalies found and, subsequently, can track their evolution. All this always bearing in mind the mission that I have mentioned previously: our technology is affordable, and its application is cost-effective. In this regard, what success stories would you highlight in which the Nautilus system has been applied?

- MAGAZINE

Since 2015, the year Nautilus went on the market, it has travelled through hundreds of kilometres of pipeline. We have many success stories; every centimetre travelled has been a success, because it has allowed us to learn to adapt to any situation and environment and improve hand in hand with our clients. To give you a relevant example, we are carrying out a project to review a thousand kilometres of pipes in the Middle East. Right now, we are right in the middle phase, but we have already been able to help the client reduce their losses by more than 1,300 m³ of water per analysed kilometre, which would mean an approximate cost of 650,000 euros per year. To the savings in water losses that preventive management brings, we must add other much higher indirect costs, and I want to note, for example, the fact that controlled, planned and programmed pipe repairs are much cheaper than urgent interventions due to damage to the network since emergency repairs entail very high additional costs and the consequent damage to end clients. What role does innovation play at Aganova, and what are the next steps for the company in this regard? Innovation is the foundation of our company; it is our engine. We have an important R&D team and facilities that allow us, in our test bench, not only to make improvements to the Nautilus system, but also to advance in the development of new technologies that we can offer to our clients. We have different lines of work at the moment. First, we are working on the development of algorithms to help us understand the evolution of leaks and anomalies. To do this, we rely on the comparison of the data obtained throughout our recurring inspections within the same network, but also in different environments and situations. On the other hand, in our R&D department we want to fully exploit the ability to

capture information that our technology offers us from within the network. That is why we are developing new sensors to adapt them to Nautilus, and to broaden the spectrum of valuable information that we can offer to our clients for their own decision making. Finally, and from a field operations standpoint, insertion and extraction systems are being redesigned so that this can be performed more autonomously by our clients and partners. Today, our technicians travel to perform services around the world. The objective is to minimise these trips so that our partners can do the fieldwork, and thus reduce execution times. All this is aimed at promoting periodic and systematic inspections by clients.

AGUSTÍN RAMÍREZ In which markets are Aganova solutions already present? At this time, we have a network of international partners and distributors in more than sixty countries around the world. This network allows us to provide a swift response to all our clients, but logically we would like to continue growing. This year, our main development is taking place in the Middle East and the United States, and our challenge is to achieve greater implementation in Asia and Europe. What are the company's future plans? As I’ve mentioned, all of our plans are aimed at turning Nautilus into a standard tool for recurrent use in large diame-

ter networks and our growth focuses on achieving this goal. From a business model point of view, we are focused on strengthening and expanding our network of international partners. Indeed, at a time like the one we are living in now, due to COVID-19 and the current travel difficulties, the support of our partners is essential for the execution of present and future projects. And, in this sense, improving autonomy in the insertion and extraction of Nautilus is key, because it also reduces the amount of personnel needed in the field for delivering a service. Our strategy is to partner with our clients to reduce their water losses and extend the life of their infrastructure as

much as possible through assessments and maintenance. What is your vision of the digital transformation process in the water sector? Although the sector must reflect continuously so as not to lose sight of its main mission, I believe that it is on the right track. We have managed to create solid awareness of the need for this transformation to ensure improvements in the use of water resources through digitalization. And, in fact, at Aganova the development of NEMO aligns us with the general objective of the sector in terms of digital transformation, since our platform can be linked to any platform used by clients, so that it can be integrated into their work environment.

- MAGAZINE

ENSURING INTE FEATURE

SYSTEM INTEGRATION Karim Mouidine, Export Area Manager at Hidroconta

The main objective of implementing a remote management system in an irrigated area is to improve the management of collective irrigation, taking into account the requirements of localised irrigation, thus allowing the use of irrigation water to mitigate the scarcity of water resources more efficiently and sustainably. Remote management systems apply to any water service management process. These systems allow knowing in real time the evolution and status of the different system parameters and allow operating and obtaining information from different elements such as meters, valves, etc..., installed in the network. Hidroconta has developed its own remote management DEMETER system, which is able to control remotely the opening and closing of any electrovalve as well as meter reading at any time, regardless of the brand; as a requirement the meters must be equipped with a pulse emitter.

The data analysis allows adopting measures to assess water use based on the efficiency and effectiveness of the irrigation network 68

- MAGAZINE

ROPERABILITY,

HIDROCONTA

The digitalisation of water systems involves obtaining large amounts of data, and sometimes this information comes from different systems; for the data collected to be operational and effective, they must be integrated into a single platform that facilitates further analysis and study. At Hidroconta we have developed a data integration API in order to perform a comprehensive study of the data.

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

The system must be able to process different data sources independently of the manufacturer or the technologies being used

The ensuing data analysis allows adopting correct measures to assess water consumption based on a calculation of the efficiency and effectiveness of the irrigation network. Some of the most outstanding features of the DEMETER remote management system are: J GPRS or radio communication with the data server. J Simple architecture, reducing the number of elements involved in communications. J Suitable for extreme climatic conditions of temperature and humidity. J Remote firmware configuration. J Easy maintenance. J Alarm configuration: The Demeter system can record and report abnormal situations or situations requiring immediate attention employing alarms reported in the menu. The allowed alarms are classified as follows: J Terminal: Low battery, battery replacement, communications failure. J Hydrant: Flow detected with valve closed, no flow detected with valve open, maximum flow rate, minimum flow rate, quota exceeded. J Analog input: When a maximum or minimum value threshold is exceeded, such as the pressure in the network. J Digital Input: Due to a change of state. J Irrigation programming from the web platform. The remote "PCB" terminals are fully autonomous, meaning that the user can record different programs to be stored in the internal

Hidroconta contributes efficient technological solutions to ensure a proper use of water resources and stewardship of the land 70

- MAGAZINE

HIDROCONTA memory of the PCB and executed even if communications are lost. The system allows detecting the opening and closing of boxes containing meters and other system elements by means of transducers to detect intrusions installed in each of them; such alarms are reported via the SCADA-WEB platform or SMS text messages to operators, thus contributing to the fight against vandalism. The SCADA-WEB user interface offers the advantage of being able to operate the equipment from any device with an internet connection and browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari,

etc.), either a traditional PC or any mobile device (tablet, Smartphone, etc.), offering the possibility of customising the application to fully adapt it to the users’ needs. The water management company may have several remote management systems in the same area. If these systems are not interconnected, the data generated might not be processed properly, leading to information losses and the misuse of technology. The first step for a system to be interoperable is to be able to transfer and receive data to and from other systems; in general, this data transfer is done

through an adapted and customised interface. The system should be able to process different data sources independently of the manufacturer or the technologies used; it must integrate data from other systems and any communications protocol. Hidroconta has developed its API (application programming interface) that allows exchanging and processing of data between the Demeter system itself and other systems. There are two main communication protocols on which APIs are based: J Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). J Representational State Transfer (REST). The latter has now largely outpaced the former because it is more flexible, since REST uses a standardised protocol and methods. The Demeter system allows integration with other management and control systems through a REST API. That is, through an interface that provides a series of HTTP requests to query information and manage the devices integrated in the system; any third-party system can access the system. In addition, access to the system is restricted according to the type of user. The application is based on HTTP REST web services using JSON as the data exchange format. In addition, this API has a mechanism that immediately notifies third-party systems of instantaneous changes in device status. In the case of water management companies that have their own management application and do not want to implement the system developed by Hidroconta, an intermediate software has been designed to facilitate its connection to the control and communications network. Hidroconta contributes effective and efficient technological and digital solutions to ensure a proper use of water resources and stewardship of the land.

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

DR BÁRBARA WILLAARTS RESEARCH SCHOLAR AND SCIENTIFIC PROJECT MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

“Water science should generate impact beyond academia” The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), in Austria, conducts research into problems of a global nature that are too large or too complex: water security is one of them, requiring a transdisciplinary and system’s approach.

Cristina Novo Pérez

Water security is more than a buzzword at the intersection of water and sustainable development: in practice, it is a complex concept encompassing water resources and how they are governed and managed, for all, now and in the future. Currently, at the Water Security Research Group at IIASA, Bárbara Willaarts’ research focuses on water resource scarcity and integrated management with an impact beyond academia. In this interview, she delves into the many aspects of water security in the developed and developing world. Can you tell us briefly about your career path and your current role in the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis? Originally from The Netherlands and born in Spain, I am a senior researcher with over 18 years of experience in environmental planning and policy, and the last ten years with a special focus

"The water security agenda comes to develop the role of water in meeting the sustainable development agenda of countries" 72

- MAGAZINE

on water scarcity and integrated water resources management. My research is driven by two main principles. One is collaborative and interdisciplinary research aiming to understand complex problems and find joint solutions to support the development of pathways to sustainability. Two, impact-oriented research in and beyond academia to enhance the social and policy relevance of science and my research in particular. I have developed most of my professional career in research organizations and policy think tanks and I benefit from an international reach through geographical settings ranging from Europe to Latin America, and more recently Africa and Asia. In addition to my career as a scientist, I also work as a consultant for different international organizations on a wide range of aspects related to water security. Currently, I am working as a project manager and research scholar within the Water Security Research Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, an international research organization and policy think tank, coordinating the research effort and the stakeholder engagement strategy of several international projects dealing with water security, participatory scenario planning and the localization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

What are the key elements of water security? Do some of them tend to be more of a priority than others? The first question that we need to ask ourselves is what water security means in practice, beyond being a fancy and now popular concept. There are various definitions, but if I had to explain it in plain language, I would say it is about exploring how countries and regions are managing their water resources, and how these are supporting the economy, livelihoods, and environmental goals. The water security agenda comes to develop the role of water in meeting the sustainable development agenda of countries. To ensure that water delivers positive outcomes for the economy, society and the environment, we need to explore the water sector using a system’s approach, which means not just looking at what resources are available, but how those are governed (institutions, regulatory framework, financing and infrastructures) and managed (are water resources and water-related risks being managed effectively, how good are water services being delivered). A critical assessment of these aspects should allow us to understand where the gaps are

"Rich countries are also water insecure, and this is due to a combination of multiple aspects that include governance and financial gaps"

BÁRBARA WILAARTS

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

"Our development model and our short-term thinking lays at the heart of the water security challenges we face globally and locally" and identify entry points for action. We often see how water rich countries are also water insecure, and this is due to a combination of multiple aspects that include governance and financial gaps, but also lack of enforcement and prioritization of policy measures. The opposite also holds true, and sometimes we see countries that are water scarce but their governance and management instruments support the delivery of high economic, societal, and environmental benefits. In short, it is not only about what resources you have available but, importantly, how you make the best out

- MAGAZINE

of them, and this requires smart and long-term vision thinking. Can current global levels of human development and well-being decline if we do not ensure progress concerning water security? Definitively. The current level of water extractions and pollution in many parts of the world resulting from our development model is having enormous implications on our rivers, aquifers, and freshwater ecosystems, and this ultimately translates into a higher number of social conflicts and economic risks. Our development model and our short-term thinking lay at the heart of the water security challenges that we face globally, but also locally within our countries and regions. Choosing to exhaust aquifers for the sake of facilitating short term economic development of the irrigation sector, is a societal and political decision that will pay back with a boomerang

effect as it will have enormous consequences for other economic activities and citizens, even more if we take into account climate change impacts on water availability in much of the areas that strongly rely on groundwater. Similarly, we have largely neglected the water pollution problem and chosen not to prioritize treatment efforts. These are often political decisions driven by short term objectives, generating huge externalities that have larger economic and societal costs for all of us. Improving our water security is at the end of the day investing in inclusively sustaining our well-being. This said, it is important to know that water security is a status, not the end of a journey. If countries want to become more water secure or maintain their status, they have to have a vision and work on the pathways to it day by day. Different challenges and different contexts might require also different sets of solutions.

BÁRBARA WILAARTS is the willingness of decision makers and water users to make it happen.

Water security is a status, not the end of a journey. Countries have to have a vision and work on the pathways to it day by day Is there a role for new technologies in advancing water security? To what extent are cyber threats to critical water infrastructure a concern? Technology has and will continue to play a major role in achieving the water security agenda. However, a country’s water security agenda requires much more than tech-

nological solutions. It requires first of all political commitment, an ambitious enabling environment, with institutions well resourced and coordinated, and a clear vision on what wants to be achieved, including the societal, economic and environmental outcomes, and how. Technology is one important aspect, but more important

What trends have you observed in terms of the role of water security for political stability and economic development? Without wanting to send any apocalyptic message and acknowledging that much more often in history water challenges have been addressed through cooperation as opposed to conflicts, the truth is that decisions we are making as countries or consumers today are exacerbating for the most part the conflicts across sectors and borders everywhere. In the developing world, large transboundary basins with many riparian countries facing enormous development and environmental challenges, are making development decisions that will eventually have large implications for downstream countries in terms of what water, when, and of what quality they will receive. This uncertainty and the silo planning

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

Technology is one important aspect, but more important is the willingness of decision makers and users to make water security happen

- MAGAZINE

style of countries increase the socio-economic risks and political tension over the borders. In much of the developed world like Europe, we are trying hard to advance along with the water security agenda, but with various levels of effort. Lots of efforts are going to improve the regulatory framework and to some extent its enforcement, but while we are focusing on this, other aspects such as how to allocate and manage water efficiently to deliver the largest benefits for all now and in the future are not being sufficiently prioritized. And this is why today we are witnessing also in Europe an increasing number of social conflicts

BÁRBARA WILAARTS the sustainability pathway, which is also the pathway to security and social peace.

around water and ultimately with more than likely economic implications. Wetlands are being dried out because of the short-term economic development goals of some sectors, citizens in Europe having unreliable access to clean tap water because of intensive pig farming or economic development targets from some lobbies, etc. In summary, I think the number of conflicts will increase everywhere unless we rethink the role of water in our society, and we force our governments and decision makers to be brave and develop inclusive and sustainable water security visions, and to put in place the necessary actions to put all of us on

Can you tell us about your research to assess water security and design strategies to improve water security in specific regions of the world? The main features that define the research that we undertake on water security at IIASA are transdisciplinary and system’s approaches. This means that we look at water from a holistic perspective, acknowledging that water is an extremely complex domain involving many sub-sectors and dimensions (irrigation, water services, freshwater ecosystems, hydropower, tourism, etc), an incredible number of actors (users, planners, citizens, utilities, industries, etc) with many different types of knowledge (scientific, practical, cultural, etc), all of which need to be considered to address the complexity of the challenges that we face. We understand that excellent water science should be innovative and move forward the knowledge frontier, but also it should be able to generate impact beyond academia. For this reason, we develop different types of science-based tools, such as state-of-theart integrated assessment models but also innovative participatory approaches, and we test them working in close collaboration with stakeholders to identify priority needs from the stakeholder’s perspective and elicit viable and cost-effective solutions to inform decision making. Another relevant feature is that we benefit from being a research organization with advanced research experience and knowhow on other important domains such as energy, agriculture, biodiversity, climate change, migration and economic frontiers among other research domains. This gives us the chance to work in multi-disciplinary projects at the interphase between the energy-food-water-biodiversity-climate nexus, to name some. Since we are an international organization, we work in very diverse geographical settings from across the globe, and we have an increasing number of projects at the inter-

phase of “science for development”, especially in Africa and focused on advancing the water security agenda of countries in collaboration with local research organizations and decision makers. While the landscape of research organizations working on water security is wide and very strong, we believe we have singular and innovative approaches that are helping basin commissions from transboundary basins and countries overall to design the roadmap to water security and improve their institutional capacities to tackle the different challenges. Are water-related hazards and extreme events sufficiently contemplated in water security strategies? For a long time, the focus of water security has been mostly on water quantity. Luckily the approach is now wider, and other critical considerations such as quality and water-related risks such as droughts and floods are becoming more prominent in the water security debate. As mentioned earlier, water security is and should be treated as a holistic approach to see how water supports countries economic development, social wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. The increased frequency of floods and droughts we have experienced in past years, and the huge impacts these are creating, are slowly helping countries and decision makers to realize that water security is also pretty much about protecting and mitigating the impacts of water related risks. And this is of utmost importance taking into account that climate change will likely exacerbate the frequency and intensity of these extreme events.

"Decisions we are making as countries or consumers today are exacerbating the conflicts across sectors and borders everywhere"

- MAGAZINE

FEATURE

WATER TAKES

THE LEAD

IN THE NEW SPACE RACE

- MAGAZINE

From ensuring safety in growing urban communities, right down to pinpointing leaks and monitoring water quality, the applications and potential for Earth Observation Science (EOS) solutions in the water market have grown in new and unexpected ways. Today, space science affects every drop of water.

Rezatec

When Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit in 1957, the profound impacts the space race would have on the people of Earth had been scarcely dreamed of even in science fiction. Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, did little more than broadcast a radio beep as it flew over the surface, but just a few years later, in 1960, TIROS-1 was transmitting television pictures of global weather patterns. The age of Earth Observation Science (EOS) had begun.

REZATEC Today, more than six decades after TIROS blasted into space, Earth Observation Science is firmly established. While initially driven by military ambitions and the conflict between east and west, space science has evolved into something far beyond a geopolitical bargaining chip. Since those early days, satellites have given us nearly instant worldwide communications, the global positioning system and advanced weather forecasting. But fresh applications and approaches continue to emerge, and Earth Observation Science is enhancing life for the people of Earth in new and novel ways that are just as breathtaking as Sputnik was in the 1950s. X-head: Managing Earth’s water from space One area that satellites are changing our lives is how we underTstand and manage the Earth's natural resources, such as its water. This is already a big business and is an area that is anticipating signif-

icant growth. EOS solutions in the water sector are expected to create a global market worth around $2 billion over the next five years, for example. Driven by factors such as climate change, urbanisation, ageing infrastructure, growing populations, and the need to manage precious resources such as freshwater more carefully, digital innovations and emerging sources of data are seeing investment pouring into the sector. Subsequent innovations are producing new kinds of information that are in turn influencing our understanding of water resources, as well as their use and management. By its nature, water management is extremely complex. For instance, water quality is influenced by any number of anthropogenic and naturally-occurring factors such as land management, industrial activity, the availability of sanitation and underlying geology. By increasing the quality and consistency of the available data, EOS is able to de-

liver high-frequency actionable information that can support governments as well as public and private-sector organisations concerned with the delivery of water services. At one end of the scale, for example, the Technical University of Munich recently used data from the CryoSat-2 satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to map water levels across the entire Lower Mekong River Basin in South-East Asia and covering even the smaller tributaries. Similarly, the World Resources Institute has developed a suite of Aqueduct tools that includes a water risk atlas that maps and analyses current and future water risks and is based on NASA satellite data and analysis from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). From these broad-brush approaches mapping the water quantities in reservoirs and rivers or the water quality in a catchment, at the other end of the scale, space-based observations combined with advanced analytics are able to detect the slightest displacement in water infrastructures such as dams, embankments and pipelines. Accurately assessing infrastructure using EOS can pinpoint leaks and potential failures, and, as a result, remote sensing tools such as EOS have a daily impact on how we use store and transport our water. X-head: Getting down on the ground with Earth Observation One company that has emerged to take advantage of EOS in the water sector is UK-headquartered Rezatec. The compa-

One area that satellites are changing our lives is how we understand and manage the Earth's natural resources, such as its water - MAGAZINE

FEATURE ny uses radar data from the SAR aboard the Sentinel 1 satellites as well as optical observations from Sentinel 2 satellites. This geospatial data is used to detect terrain motion and changes in the growth patterns of vegetation and is coupled with a sophisticated machine learning algorithm to support municipals and utilities in their management of water and water risks. Water losses are a major issue in any distribution system, but in some countries and regions, the scale of the losses reaches another level. In Italy, for example, some 40 per cent of all the treated drinking water that is produced is simply lost. The scale of these losses represents a high cost to the consumer who ultimately pays for this lost water. Estimated at around EUR billion annually in Italy alone, losing treated water also has an environmental impact in terms of the carbon footprint but also economic impacts caused, for instance, by disruption to the transport system during pipeline failures and their subsequent repair. Rezatec has a Pipeline Risk tool that combines satellite data with artificial intelligence techniques to produce risk assessments. These assess a broad range of parameters and historical data to predict where pipeline failures are likely to occur in the future. Armed with data showing

the Likelihood of Failure (LOF) as well as the costs associated with such a failure, utilities are able to target budgets on the top 10 or 20 per cent of pipelines with the highest risk of failure. Italian multi-utility HERA S.p.A manages more than 35,000 km of water distribution network as well as 400 water treatment plants and has deployed the Pipeline Risk tool in a bid to reduce the level of its losses. "We discovered that there are interesting factors: not just the diameter of the material of our pipelines but other factors like soil and the temperature had an influence too. We found we also had a correlation with other factors, for example, the salinity of the soil is a variable that must be considered. There is also the groundwater level that is different in the different areas of our region," explains Maurizia Brunetti, Water Supply Technical Coordination Manager at HERA. “Rezatec were the first provider to propose a predictive solution that considered not only the diameter, the historical data series about breakages or the age of our pipelines, but also the groundwater level, the kind of soil, and the temperature. It was an algorithm which considers all of these factors and was more integrated than the data we considered previously,” Brunetti adds.

EOS solutions in the water sector are expected to create a global market worth around US$2 billion over the next five years

- MAGAZINE

The predictive assessment began with a retrospective analysis of three-year’sworth of data, including pipeline attributes, satellite-derived ground motion, vegetation data and soil data. The model at the heart of the solution is trained on historical failure data to identify the sections of pipe that have the highest likelihood of failure. Using data about the network and surrounding infrastructure, the solution also identifies pipes that could cause the greatest amount of cost and inconvenience, which is expressed as a consequence of the failure metric. Together these metrics help predict areas of concern and allow Hera to prioritise its pipeline replacement investment. Acquedotto del Fiora SpA (AdF) is another Italian water company that turned to the EOS approach to manage losses. “Our network is large but with low customer numbers, so it is a challenge to quickly find water losses. Therefore, we want intelligence to help us find water losses quickly and decrease the time needed to fix those failures,” explains Alessio Giunti, Head of Water Balance

REZATEC

and Metering Equipment, Water Resource Protection at AdF. “Implementing innovative technology, such as Pipeline Risk, is something that can help us improve our performance and enable us to reach our goals.” With SAR data able to detect displacements of just a few millimetres, geospatial data can also be deployed in the management of other types of water system assets, such as dams and embankments. Intelligent analysis of satellite data can pick up on the changing vegetation indicative of seepage or the slightest bulge or sag of the crest that can be suggestive of a structural problem needing further investigation. X-head: Allocating scarce resources in Australia Australia’s Hunter Water owns and operates the Grahamstown Dam in NSW. With a reservoir of some 182,305 million litres, it is the company's largest drinking water supply dam and provides about 40 per cent of water to the region. With a five km-long embankment featuring a

solid clay core but sand shoulders, as a structure, it is challenging for engineers to assess manually and therefore effectively manage any potential failure risk. “Dams are very large assets, and very high or extreme consequences result if they are to fail. You're doing your best to monitor all the key points, but it is very hard to have absolute coverage of a dam,” explains Daniel Turnbull, Dam Safety Engineer at Hunter. “It's not physically practical to monitor every aspect of the dam. That's one of the big challenges we face, making sure that our monitoring is targeted and effective,” he adds. Having deployed a structural and environmental dam monitoring service from Rezatec, Hunter now relies on EOS to assess changes every 10-12 days as the satellite passes over, rather than on a more typical annual basis. This enables them to allocate scarce resources where they are needed most and reduce the risk to the public. As Turnbull says: “I liked the thought of an early warning system, so the satellite monitoring was perfect given we

can start to see changes over that much shorter frequency. Satellite monitoring, just because of the coverage it provides, also gives us a more holistic view of what's happening with the dam.” Since the earliest days of the space race, breakthroughs in space science have led to new ways of seeing and understanding our world. That trend continues to this day, with space-based observations helping to develop new ways of working, improving both environmental and economic performance and even helping to keep communities safe. Reaching out into space adds another important dimension to the toolbox for water management.

Since the earliest days of the space race, breakthroughs in space science have led to new ways of seeing and understanding our world

- MAGAZINE

WATER & NEWS - DIGITAL

IDRICA DEVELOPS THE WORLD'S FIRST 5G-NR DEVICE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE WATER INDUSTRY The device is part of a 5G-NR technology project for real-time remote reading of drinking water consumption in Spain Idrica has developed the first 5G-NR device specifically for the water industry. This groundbreaking piece of equipment, based exclusively on 5G-NR (New Radio) technology, will provide solutions to challenges which had been out of reach up until now, mainly in Massive IoT scenarios, with millions of devices connected in very small areas. The breakthrough will also make devices more energy efficient, guarantee service in adverse conditions, and reduce latency to milliseconds in the management of critical infrastructures. These are just some of the many advantages of 5G-NR technologies, which include network slicing and edge computing. The device has been designed, engineered and manufactured in Valencia (Spain), where Idrica has led all phases of development alongside FiveComm, the company in charge of hardware development. The project got underway at the end of 2020 and, over the course of 2021, progress has been made on board and component design. "The global chip supply crisis has been a real challenge, but we have continued to persevere, and manufacturing was successfully completed after the summer. We now have fully functional operational devices deployed", says Carlos Tejedor, Instrumentation & Smart Metering Specialist at Idrica. “5G technology is far superior in terms of capabilities to any of the existing technologies applicable to the water industry.” This technological innovation is part of the pilot project that is being carried out

- MAGAZINE

in Valencia to assess the benefits of 5GNR technology in real-time remote reading of drinking water consumption. The scheme focuses on analyzing the advantages of 5G-NR over NB (NarrowBand). The pilot applies 5G-NR to smart metering to simulate a scenario of millions of connected devices (Massive IoT). Thirty water meters have been selected on the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia's campus. They have been chosen because they are located in areas of poor coverage and difficult access, such as basements, underground passages and parking lots. In addition to comparing the two technologies, the meters selected on the university campus will be monitored to check whether they are working correctly as smart meters, whether the infrastructure communicates and sends readings,

the extent of sensor implementation, and the quality of the data signal at specific depths. Water consumption and the energy management of the devices will be analyzed and alarms triggered by leaks or poor data communication will be monitored. The pilot project, which is also a world first, is part of Spain’s National 5G Plan, implemented by the public-sector corporation Red.es, promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Idrica is working on this initiative with Orange. Other companies supplying equipment and services such as Arborea Intellbird, CFZ Cobots, Etra Investigación y Desarrollo, Visyon (Grupo Mediapro), Elewit and Robotnik are also taking part in the initiative.

THAMES WATER MAPS LONDON'S VAST TRUNK SEWER NETWORK USING MOBILE-FIRST APP Thames Water uses a mobile-first app called what3words for a detailed overview of the city of London’s vast trunk sewer network A mobile-first app that provides a detailed overview of London’s vast trunk sewer network has been adopted by Thames Water as part of its industry-leading digital transformation. SymTerra allows the Strategic Pumping & Trunk Sewer team at more than 1,000 locations across the capital to record and access all aspects of a job, whether remotely or on-site. With “what3words” embedded across all features of the app, communication and safety are improved by enabling engineers to record the location and condition

of assets and generate real-time updates of progress and issues. A fully searchable cloud-based photo and knowledge library can also be created that integrates with Thames Water’s existing mapping and modelling systems, making it quicker, easier and cheaper to plan for future work. Richard Dennett, Thames Water’s operations manager for strategic pumping & trunk sewers, said: “Some of our work can be complex, with unclear information, conflicting priorities and blurred accountability lines.”

“There are also many stakeholders involved, which can lead to confusion and frustrations, but with SymTerra we have raised the bar and, with the use of what3words, have gone back to basics to identify confined space entries, assets and locations.” Sarah Crawley, co-founder of SymTerra, said: “The trunk sewer team has been open to new technology and challenged the status quo, demonstrating how you can better capture and leverage real-time updates and insights from the teams on the ground.”

SMART CITY WATER DEVELOPS A NEW APPROACH TO REDUCE URBAN FLOODING Smart City Water develops a tool to identify drainage system vulnerabilities that can cause significant damage to homes and businesses Smart City Water has developed and launched a new approach to identify drainage system vulnerabilities that can cause significant damage to homes and businesses. Their latest finding implements a new method to understand how the overland flow and sewer systems interact and predicts how the sewers become overloaded due to excess surface water entering the underground pipes in ways not previously accounted for. "The company has used the United States Environmental Protection Agency

(US EPA) Stormwater Management Modelling (SWMM) platform and connected it to comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) and LIDAR data preparation tools to set up models of city drainage systems in a 'dual drainage' way not previously considered. The approach can now predict when, how, and the amount of rainwater that enters the sanitary and storm sewers and cause pipe overloading situations leading to the flooding of basements, at the surface, and sewage spills to the environment" says Edward Graham, President of

Smart City Water. Basement flooding due to sewer backup has caused billions of dollars in damages, and sewage spills to the environment are becoming more prevalent. With the increasing urban growth across major cities and regulatory requirements for sustainable drainage infrastructure, VO-SWMM is well-positioned to assist cities, consulting engineers, and scientists in analyzing the impact of severe storms and increasing efficiencies to allow safe and resilient development in growing cities and towns.

- MAGAZINE

OPINION

LISA COMMANE OFWAT'S SENIOR DIRECTOR

H2OPEN – A CASE FOR CHANGE IN THE WATER SECTOR Open data has the potential to revolutionise the water sector Use of intelligent sewer monitoring can provide early interas we know it. vention for storm overflow flooding, whilst open data hacks At Ofwat, we want to supercharge the conversation, tying in have produced a wealth of interesting insights, from better the good collaboration that already happens and making sure that understanding the sources of fatbergs to modelling impacts of the sector accelerates this work. We recently published H2Open: Covid-19 and predicting future energy demand. A Case for Change, our discussion paper on open data in the Innovation cross-cuts other sectors. For example, one comwater sector, which aims to spark conversations and discussion. pany utilises open data from mobile phone signals to generate Open data is data that is freely available to everyone to ac- real-time population maps, allowing them to better predict wacess, use and share. This means that open data sets are acces- ter consumption hotspots. sible not only to water companies and regulators, but to the Finally, open data can improve transparency and build trust wider supply chain, third parties and the public. in the water companies. It can open conversations with cusData can feel quite disconnected from real solutions, but tomers and allow users of water greater access to information through open data, the water sector can drive efficiency, inno- about their local environments. vation and transparency – benefits that everyone wants to see. Open data means that customers are more engaged with It can help to address some of the their water suppliers and the widchallenges we face far beyond the er sector. Customers and interestOpen data plays a central sector and the supply chain, such ed third parties can gain a more as climate change and the need to comprehensive understanding of role in stimulating new protect the most vulnerable. the supply and demand of water thinking and the use of open Open data can drive efficiencies resources. Open data can catalyse through streamlining existing propublic interest and regulation, with data is vital for the water cesses, improving data quality and the potential to redefine traditional sector to innovate incentivising collaborative working. relationships and empower water Operational efficiencies, such as users to engage more closely with the ability to detect and resolve sewer defects, are increasing as the sector. a result of open data and digitisation. The use of artificial intelliOther sectors have showcased the power of open data in gence algorithms on large datasets has enabled companies to iden- delivering huge benefits for people and the planet. Open data tify cracks and damage within sewer pipes, cutting down hours plays a central role in stimulating new thinking and the use of that would previously have been spent reviewing CCTV footage. open data is vital for the water sector to innovate and address Similarly, the use of open banking technologies has also in- some of the challenges and opportunities that exist. creased efficiencies in conducting customer vulnerability assessWe want to unleash the untapped potential of open data and ments, so that customer services teams are able to access financial to support the water sector in realising this. We have identified information in real time and approve tailored payment plans. key enablers for open data in a strong data culture and the deOpen data can also catalyse innovation, creating opportunities velopment of capability and skills, improved collaboration and to attract new skills and develop new technologies, business mod- established data infrastructure. els and services that can enhance customer experience, environWe are really looking forward to seeing how the sector remental quality, and business processes. We recognise its impor- sponds over the next 12 months. Together we can open up tance: it's one of the five themes of our innovation competitions. solutions and opportunities to revolutionise the water sector.

- MAGAZINE

CLIMATE CHANGE

INTERVIEW

NEETA POKHREL CHIEF OF WATER SECTOR GROUP, ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

“Our latest quantitative assessment in 2020 shows a generally positive trend in water security” Many countries in Asia and the Pacific are in a water crisis: as their populations expand and the demand for water increases, water resources are threatened by misuse, pollution, and climate change. The Water Sector Group of the Asian Development Bank supports its developing member countries (DMCs) to become water secure and resilient.

Z The Asian Development Bank (ADB) works to secure investments that improve water services in cities and rural communities and ensure sustainable management of water resources. Neeta Pokhrel has worked towards water security and environmental sustainability for over 25 years. Currently the Chief of the Water Sector Group, she puts her knowledge and expertise to work in support of ADB’s vision of a resilient and water secure Asia and the Pacific. In this interview, she discusses the role and current approaches of ADB as they work to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and san-

"Asia-Pacific is the most disaster-affected world region, home to more than 40% of the globe’s calamities and 84% of affected people" 86

- MAGAZINE

Cristina Novo Pérez

itation for all and reduce the risks from water-related disasters. Can you tell us briefly about your career path and your current role in the Asian Development Bank? I am an engineer by training. My bachelor’s degree is from RMIT University Australia and my master’s degree is from Imperial College London. Starting with my first job at an engineering consulting firm in Melbourne in 1995, I have worked with the private sector, international consulting firms, non-governmental organizations, water utilities, and have now been with ADB for the last 18 years. I enjoy being in the field and have lived and worked in more than 10 countries, leading and managing diverse teams, designing and implementing very small community-based to large infrastructure projects, policies, and programs. Ensuring water security and environmental sustainability – through managing resources upstream, downstream, across regions, and within urban or rural

centers– has been the drive and focus of my professional career. As the Chief of Water Sector Group of ADB, I currently lead the strategic development of ADB’s water sector and provide knowledge management and implementation support to the operational departments to meet ADB’s goals of resilient and water secure Asia and the Pacific. Asia has experienced a boom in development in recent years. How has water security evolved as socioeconomic development increased? Despite a boom in development in recent years in Asia and the Pacific region,

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of water security to prevent and respond to future health crises"

NEETA POKHREL

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

more than 2 billion people in our region still lack adequate water supply and sanitation. It is also the most disaster-affected region in the world and home to more than 40% of the globe’s calamities and 84% of the people they affect. We have been tracking water security status of our 49 member countries from Asia and the Pacific region since 2013 through the Asian Water Development Outlook report. We define water security as the availability of adequate water to

"Governments and partners need to rethink their messaging, keeping water as one of the drivers of both urban and rural development" 88

- MAGAZINE

support sustainable and resilient living, by ensuring safe and affordable water supply, sanitation for all, improved livelihoods, and healthy ecosystems, with reduced water-related risks. Our latest quantitative assessment in 2020 shows a generally positive trend in water security, including the key dimensions of rural household water security, economic water security and water-related disaster security. Progress in urban water security and environmental water security has been less evident. Although the general trend is of improved water security, particularly in East Asia and Southeast Asia, 22 countries out of the 49 surveyed remain in the lower two ‘insecure’ categories of the five-band national water security index. This represents 2.05 billion people or about 50% of the regions’ population.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the critical role of water security to prevent and respond to future health crises, which could undo decades of financial and socioeconomic gains in the region. Therefore, much more still needs to be done to make our region water secure and able to achieve the socioeconomic status that it aims for. The positive socioeconomic impacts of improved access to water and sanitation are known. How can we increase the level of attention to water and sanitation issues and make investments in water and sanitation more attractive? Though socioeconomic impacts of improved water security are generally acknowledged by policymakers, the critical links to sustaining life, environment, biodiversity, climate, food,

NEETA POKHREL energy, among others, may not be fully understood. Otherwise, we would see this transferred in actions in the form of much-needed budget allocated by the public sector, and funds mobilized by the private sector. We would therefore not see a colossal financing gap to meet the global SDG6 targets, estimated at more than $114 billion annually in capital expenditure alone. And this is just a predicted scenario when we hope there are no extreme climate related disasters, or worse still, no more pandemics such as the one we are currently facing with COVID-19. Factoring just a few of these disruptors will add trillions more to this estimated financing gap for water and sanitation. Governments and their partners need to radically rethink their messaging, keeping water as one of the drivers and centerpiece of both urban and rural development, and reframe their fiscal and non-fiscal incentives and governance frameworks. Ensuring the right environment for private investments to flow into the water and sanitation sector, strengthening and decentralizing governance, and regulating to optimize resource conservation, are at the heart of increasing and attracting financing both from the public and private sector in water and sanitation. These actions can only be done by the governments and local-level policymakers. Development partners and financiers, such as ADB, play a part in supporting our government clients in sensitizing and implementing these actions. Local-level providers of water and sanitation services have a key role in ensuring that ongoing assets continue to function and deliver substantial benefits for communities, the economy, and the environment, by improving efficiency, so the financial need for their replacement is minimized. Communities themselves play the most important role in ensuring more judicious use of the scarce water resources.

Sustainable water and sanitation financing is not just about money; capacity building and awareness will make or break it Last, sustainable water and sanitation financing is not just about money. Capacity building and awareness of all stakeholders will make or break it. Increased climate change impacts and COVID-19 have also been reminders that water financing must be focused on infrastructure and systems that are resilient to climate and other shocks. Can you comment on the potential role of decentralized non-sewered sanitation solutions in Asia? We believe that effectively managed non-sewered and on-site sanitation solutions will be the game-changer for Asia and the Pacific. With growing urbanization and high population densities in our region, managing a vast amount of human waste is becoming ever more challenging. Lack of sanitation can have significant impacts on city and national economies, affecting public health, productivity, competitiveness, real estate values, and the overall quality of life. Non-sewered and on-site sanitation offer huge benefits to low-income and sparely dense areas in cities. Governments can increase sanitation service coverage faster over a shorter period of time. As more people use septic tanks to

manage their waste, approaches such as fecal sludge management programs can help more communities easily access sanitation services. It also ensures that human waste is safely managed along the entire sanitation service chain. Non-sewered systems are also more inclusive and sustainable. They promote long-term planning, community engagement, technical innovation, institutional reforms, and help in financial mobilization at the local level. Effectively managed non-sewered and on-site sanitation solutions will have a significant impact on public health and overall quality of life. They will also have long-term effects on productivity, competitiveness, and real estate values. Since 2011, ADB has invested $308.07 million in non-sewered sanitation/fecal sludge management (FSM) projects. Newly approved sanitation

"We believe that effectively managed non-sewered and on-site sanitation solutions will be the game-changer for Asia and the Pacific"

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW projects which focus on FSM also increased to 32% in 2021, compared to 17% in 2020. Water resource management comprises institutional issues as well as technical issues. What approaches does the ADB support in order to drive change and achieve SDG-6? Although SDG-6 is generally simplified as clean water and sanitation for all and water resources management is specifically targeted through SDG6.5 (“By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate”), SDG 6 refers to water resources management at the goal level through its official wording: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Cognizant of this integrated character of water resources management, ADB has been promoting integrated water resources management (IWRM) in all its developing member countries. IWRM is firmly vested in its water policy of 2001 and further contextualized in its water operational plan 2011-2020 and its forthcoming water sector framework (2021-2030). ADB’s current water sector portfolio is about $19.4 billion. We plan to add around $10 billion to this over the next three years. We approach all our water projects, whether it is for municipal or rural water supply, sanitation, irrigation, basin management, or improved resilience and flood control from an IWRM perspective. We support our member coun-

"Non-sewered and on-site sanitation offer huge benefits to low-income and sparely dense areas in cities: coverage can increase faster" 90

- MAGAZINE

tries to develop water policies, strategies, and institutional reforms, which form the conditions and lay the foundations for integrated water resources management. Such institutional reforms may include the establishment of basin organizations at the apex level, such as the Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO). However, having apex bodies is not a prerequisite, integration can also be achieved through other mechanisms. In order to effectively carry out integrated water resources management, the availability of reliable data is an absolute necessity. In many of our projects, we support member countries to develop national and basin water resources information and data centers that use the latest technologies to collect and process objectively verifiable data such as high-resolution remote sensing and robust hydrometeorological telemetry. On the basis of such objective information and extensive stakeholder involvement, sound and balanced investment plans can be developed for sustainable use of water resources. Such plans are also required for effective transboundary cooperation and ADB supports this through participation in international fora and conferences on transboundary cooperation as well as specific projects and regional cooperation on water for example recently launched as part of the water pillar of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC). I have already mentioned in my response to question three some of the measures we are supporting in our member countries to increase awareness and drive change toward meeting and financing SDG 6. Can you tell us about ADB's initiatives on e-Marketplace on water management, first one in March 2021, and second just completed in October 2021? What outcomes do you envisage from them? We realised that the water sector in our region is one of the least digitalized sec-

tors. The COVID-19 pandemic also showed the need for water managers to be digitalized. While many innovative technologies are available that can improve efficiency and resilience of water services and communities, a lack of awareness and apprehension toward technology exists among water and sanitation practitioners. Therefore, in March 2021, ADB organized its first e-Marketplace for water management, to help demystify the technologies and connect the market with our clients and staff. The first eMarketplace brought together 58 ICT, digital and remote sensing technology providers and connected them with ADB’s water sector developing member country clients and its own water sector staff. The 2nd e-Marketplace in October 2021 showcased solutions from another 58 companies and institutions. The e-Marketplaces are intended to cross-connect digitalization solution providers to ADB’s DMCs’ water sector stakeholders and staff, and to share learnings from the experiences of water service providers and water resource management organizations. We plan to continue such events and synthesize internal and global best practices, via an interactive virtual learning hub for staff and member country stakeholders. Outcomes are expected to be demystifying digitization for water management, showcasing what is available and can be sourced from where and at what cost, creating demand from our clients, and linking demand to supply sources.

"ADB’s current water sector portfolio is about $19.4 billion. We plan to add around $10 billion to this over the next three years"

NEETA POKHREL

- MAGAZINE

OPINION

JULIA MACHADO URBAN RESILIENCE MANAGER AT WAVIN

WHY CITIES NEED TO DESIGN FOR CIRCULAR WATER MANAGEMENT Climate change threatens the livability of many places, es- ings, neighborhoods, and even cities. Then, we should apply pecially cities. From sea level rise to extreme weather events, this concept of connection to different disciplines, partners, to pollution, cities must adapt to a less stable climate with technologies, designs, and solutions to collectively achieve the climate adaptation strategies, smart building and landscaping most adaptive and inclusive infrastructure. architecture, and infrastructure that mitigates risks while creWavin offers solutions that can help implement this vision. ating livable and eco-socially attractive spaces. Our AquaCell technology - made from 100% recyclable plasOne of the key threats posed by climate change to urban tic - routes water in a more weather-independent and conareas is water availability. A destabilized climate will make trolled manner, insulating urban areas from volatile weather water supplies more volatile and unpredictable, but the way patterns. AquaCell is an example of a geocellular unit, which we think of water only exacerbates this threat. We treat water can control and manage rainwater surface runoff. It infiltrates linearly - source to use to disposal - instead of circularly, and (allows water to permeate the soil) and attenuates (stores) this presents a tremendous opportunity to future-proof cities water while providing underground tanks that allow trees to and make them more livable for centuries to come. grow in urban areas. Our intelligent StormHarvester technolRisk mitigation and resilience in the urban building sector ogy selectively returns water to groundwater, even in poorly can be achieved through innovapermeable soils. When rain is foretive smart and integrated bluecast, StormHarvester’s predictive By making use of every drop green infrastructure - inclusive technology adjusts the tank’s water water management in particular. level to ensure capacity for rainas frequently, efficiently, We must change the way we use water retention. Instead of letting and naturally as possible, water as part of broader climate rainwater go to waste, StormHaradaptation efforts. It's not just vester helps close the water loop by we both mitigate climate about using less water, dischargpredicting water availability and change and adapt to it ing more water faster, or building adjusting accordingly. bigger reservoirs. It's about using By making use of every drop as water at the right time and in the right place. frequently, efficiently, and naturally as possible, we both mitiThe way we treat water today is unsustainable. As soon as it gate climate change and adapt to it. Best of all, this vision will enters cities, we try to get rid of it. We should treat water as a help rebuild, establish, and/or retrofit and maintain such a precious asset rather than a disposable commodity. We must water-sensitive blue-green infrastructure at far lower cost than reuse it where there is too little, filter it where it is too pollut- repairing damage from climatic catastrophes. ed, and return it to the ground when groundwater supplies are Both people and the environment benefit from such a fudepleted. This would close the water loop and stop shifting ture-proof way of rethinking cities and building sustainably, as the problem from one upstream end to the other downstream well as from climate adaptation and resilience that will prepare end. A circular mentality must undergird every urban design cities for population growth and climate change. By developing step we take. We must make every drop count. new standards and solutions while driving the global discourse How can we fulfill this vision? To me, the magic word is on the future of cities, Wavin is supporting climate-resilient connection. We must connect systems often viewed as inde- cities that can keep being livable and lovable. We look forward pendent - like wastewater, rainwater, and tap water systems to working with governments, architects, urban planners, and - to create circular and controlled water cycles around build- other stakeholders to design cities for the future.

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

COP26 is the first time the Paris Agreement is really put to the test

- MAGAZINE

SIWI

JENNIFER JUN SENIOR MANAGER INTERNATIONAL POLICY SIWI The United Nation’s annual conference on climate change, COP26, took place at the beginning of November in Glasgow, Scotland. Governments from around the world got together to make determining decisions and plans to combat and mitigate the devastating effects of global warming. This summit was especially critical as countries are still considerably off track to meet the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Olivia Tempest

By now, it is a well-known fact that water is the primary medium by which the world population feels the effects of the climate crisis – either too little, too much, or both at the same time. Nevertheless, the past Conferences of the Parties have not given the water world enough consideration. This is one of the reasons why Jennifer Jun, Senior Manager International Policy SIWI, decided it was crucial to give water a united voice after she attended COP25 in Madrid. And the best way to do this, was to organize the first-ever Water & Climate Pavilion at the Blue Zone of a UN Climate Change Conference. Thirty plus organizations, including government, civil society, and intergovernmental partners came together to make this vision a reality. From the heart of the Blue Zone at COP26, Jennifer spoke to us about why it is essential water be considered an ally to climate action by government leaders and climate decision makers. Water is the primary medium by which we feel the effects of climate change, yet water has played a secondary role in the past global climate conferences. Why do you think this is? That is a very good question. One reason might be because people tend to forget how dependent we are on nature, including the water cycle. The climate discus-

sions in settings such as the COP often centre around technical solutions to reduce emissions, not on how humans and ecosystems can become more resilient. But now we are starting to see a shift, both because there is a clearer understanding of how people experience climate change and its effects first hand - more droughts and floods for example - and because the science behind climate change has become crystal clear. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, recently has placed much more emphasis on how global warming impacts the water cycle. We really need this science-based understanding to make the most effective policy choices. There was a Water Pavilion in this year’s COP26 for the first time. What did you hope to achieve with this pavilion? The aim was to deliver cutting edge, science-based advice to climate decision-makers. The Water Pavilion was

"The climate discussions often centre around technical solutions to reduce emissions, not on how ecosystems can become more resilient"

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

"There are many powerful water-related climate solutions that countries, communities and companies should learn about and start implementing" 96

- MAGAZINE

located in COP26’s Blue Zone where negotiations took place. But we were also live streaming different events so that people around the world could learn more about the central role that water plays in the climate crisis. There are many powerful water-related climate solutions that countries, communities and companies should learn about and start

implementing. At SIWI we are working closely with different sectors to bring about that change. What water companies, organizations and governments helped make the Water Pavilion a reality? We are very proud that more than 30 organizations have co-created the Water

JENNIFER JUN Pavilion so that the water community is speaking with one voice. SIWI played a leading role in mobilizing this community of partners and operationalizing the idea, together with the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), CDP, Global Water Partnership (GWP), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). What results would make COP26 a success in your opinion? COP26 is the first time the Paris Agreement is really put to the test. Success would mean reaching agreements on how it should be implemented and financed, in a manner that is perceived as credible and fair also by the countries that are hardest hit by climate change. Another measure of success is if countries really strengthen their commitments to keep the 1.5-degree goal alive. Water is conducive to inclusion, efficacy, and efficiency. Many water-related climate solutions manage to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen the resilience of people and communities, which is exactly what the world needs. SIWI mentions that many countries are still unaware of the powerful water-related solutions that exist to combat the effects of global warming. Why do you think this is? The most important point we want to make is that water-related solutions are needed both to combat the effects of global warming and to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This is new – traditionally water has only been associated with climate adaptation. SIWI is now actively contributing to new research on how water is also essential to strengthen climate mitigation. I think this is one reason why water-related solutions have been overlooked, the climate debate is often much more focused on mitigation than on adaptation. The focus has often been very narrow, emphasizing only regulations and tech-

We are proud that more than 30 organizations have co-created the Water Pavilion so that the water community is speaking with one voice nical innovations to bring down carbon emissions. Both are very important, but we have often forgotten the role that nature plays and how different systems are interconnected. Now we are starting to see a growing awareness of how people depend on healthy ecosystems to bring down carbon emissions and protect us from extreme weather events. The established siloed way of thinking is also increasingly challenged; many sectors depend on water and need water knowledge to become more resilient. The world needs more sustainable food systems and a fast transition to green energy, but this is only possible if water perspectives are taken into account. Why are Nature-Based Solutions essential for climate adaptation? Nature-based solutions are essential for both climate adaptation and mitigation. Nature might be able to help with onethird of the greenhouse gas reductions needed by 2030. Nature-based solutions can help strengthen nature’s ability to store carbon, which is important since there are now worrying signs that this ability appears to be weakening, as reported by the IPCC in August. But many of the same solutions also reduce

the impact of global warming. Healthy wetlands sequester carbon but they also buffer against flooding and drought. Forests can recharge and clean water, and they give food and livelihoods. Farmers become more food secure by investing in improved water management. SIWI has always advocated for transboundary water management. Why is this important in the face of climate change? About 40 per cent of the global population live in a transboundary river basin and depend on what happens upstream. Countries can find much more effective climate solutions if they manage shared water resources jointly. Not only does this give them more financial muscles, but it greatly improves efficiency. How one country treats a shared river, lake or groundwater aquifer has great implications for their neighbours relying on that same water source. One country’s investment in the restoration of a watershed could for example be undone by pollution or damming upstream. Countries need not only to understand more about opportunities and trade-offs but also to discuss these openly. By doing so, they can improve their climate policies and reduce the risk of mistrust between neighbours.

- MAGAZINE

WATER & NEWS - CLIMATE CHANGE

NEW GLOBAL INDEX ON CITY WATER OPTIMIZATION IS LAUNCHED Economist Impact’s index of 51 cities highlights opportunity to mitigate water scarcity through sustainable water management

Economist Impact launched the inaugural City Water Optimisation Index, sponsored by DuPont, which will measure how well cities around the world are safeguarding the reliability, accessibility, and sustainability of water resources. The Index can serve as a measurement tool for city leaders, policymakers, and regulators to make resource, investment and policy decisions toward increased access to safe, affordable, and reliable water. Unlike other indices, which focus on water scarcity or water quality, the City Water Optimisation Index creates a common framework to benchmark numerous factors that contribute to an optimized and ample water supply. Its findings incorporate 47 quantitative and qualitative indicators that assess how well each city's policies and infra-

- MAGAZINE

structure safeguard water supply, treatment, and distribution networks. With climate change increasingly challenging our water supplies and the projected urban population growth, the Index is a powerful tool for decision-makers around the world to measure how well their cities are prepared to deliver safe, reliable, sustainable access to water. The Index can also be used by cities to develop and refine their water strategies, learn from other cities' successes and setbacks, and prioritize projects and policies that will have the greatest impact on water optimization, and thus water security. The results of the Index are encouraging, with cities with diverse geography, climate, and socioeconomic factors achieving commendable results in two of the three categories—Reliability and Acces-

sibility. The results were mixed, however, in the Sustainability category, measuring how waste is minimized and efficiency is maximized, a key factor in ensuring water accessibility for future generations. Highlights of the findings of the City Water Optimisation Index include: J Los Angeles earned the highest overall score in the Index, followed closely by Melbourne. Both cities are focused on sustainability and creative approaches to mitigate pending water scarcity challenges. J National income is not as important a factor in the pursuit of water systems optimization as one might assume. Low- and middle-income cities frequently ranked among the top performers in at least one of the main categories in the index. J Cities need to think of water management as a circular process, focusing on water reuse and reclamation to mitigate current and impending freshwater shortages. While reclamation and reuse were a key deficiency found in many cities in the Index, the survey revealed high public favourability overall (61%) towards drinking treated reclaimed water. 41 cities have incorporated accounting and auditing of their water systems for water resource management; 33 of those cities have also adopted real-time monitoring. A smaller number of mostly high-income cities have started deploying smart meters, some accompanied by A.I. and machine learning platforms. There is much opportunity to improve optimization through sustainability.

TURKEY’S SECOND LARGEST LAKE, LAKE TUZ, DRIES UP Turkey’s second largest lake has completely receded this year. Experts say that climate change-induced drought is partly the culprit Lake Tuz, the second largest in Turkey and one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world, has dried up due to climate change-linked drought and groundwater overdraft for irrigation purposes, explains an AP article. Known for its colonies of flamingoes, last summer hatchlings and adult birds were found dead on the dry lake bed. Turkey has been experiencing rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall; water scarcity is having an impact on farmers, and although water shortage was a con-

cern in urban areas last winter, official data indicate the country’s three big cities have a secure water supply for the next 6 to 12 months despite the ongoing drought. Other lakes in Turkey, such as Lake Meke, have also dried up or shrank to a great extent, due to low rainfall and unsustainable irrigation. Studies show water levels in Lake Tuz started to decline in 2000. The Konya basin, where Lake Tuz is located, in central Anatolia, was known for its cereal production, but farmers have turned to more profitable and water-in-

tensive crops, leading to the depletion of groundwater resources. Poor agricultural policies play a role in the deterioration of the country’s lakes, according to environmental groups. Groundwater overuse in the Konya Plain is also blamed for the formation of sinkholes in recent years, some of them as much as 150 metres deep. Levent Kurnaz, a scientist at Bogazici University’s Center for Climate Change and Policy Studies, said there are some 120,000 unlicensed wells in the region.

GLOBAL WATER INDUSTRY NET ZERO COMMITMENTS TOP 72 MILLION PEOPLE SERVED The international water community has stepped up with pledges from 26 utilities to join the Race to Zero, halving global emissions by 2030 With global water use, storage and distribution responsible for around 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there has never been a more important time for the sector to transform its approach to water and wastewater services. The international water community has stepped up to the challenge with pledges from 26 utilities to join the Race to Zero and drive down the emissions associated with providing water and wastewater services to over 72 million people.

Race to Zero is the UN-backed, global campaign to rally leadership and support from all non-state actors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery. All members are committed to the same overarching goal: halving global emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the very latest. The announcement comes as the international water community hosts the first ever COP Water Pavilion, bringing together over 30 organisations, governments and companies to speak with one voice on

the powerful water-related solutions that are at the heart of effective climate action. The Pavilion aims to deliver cutting edge, science-based advice to climate decision makers and offer countries the opportunity to learn more about the central role that water plays in the climate crisis. A total of 13 Australian water utilities and one New Zealand company have pledged through the Race to Zero to reach net zero by 2050 or earlier, with some pledging to achieve their target as early as 2025.

- MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

DR Z. JASON REN, PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

“In order to get to net zero, or carbon neutrality, we have to tackle direct emissions from wastewater treatment as well” The winner of the 2021 Paul L. Busch Award, Dr Z. Jason Ren, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, intends to use the award’s funding to develop an inventory and digital tools to measure greenhouse gas emissions from the wastewater sector. Z Cristina Novo Pérez A leading expert on the water-energy nexus, Dr Z. Jason Ren’s research focuses on energy and resource recovery during processes such as wastewater treatment, desalination and remediation. He plans to use advanced sensing technologies to quantify direct GHG emissions at the plant level and machine learning tools to understand emissions from the wastewater industry as a whole. In this interview, he explains how his approach to emissions accounting can contribute to the decarbonization of wastewater treatment facilities. What does it mean for you to receive the Water Research Foundation’s Paul L. Busch Award? It is a tremendous honor and also a big responsibility. The Paul L. Busch Award is many water researchers’ dream, and many of the awardees are not only the best in their individual research areas but also leaders in moving the field forward. It’s been a humbling experience during the past few weeks, and I am excited to take on this task and contribute to our profession. What is your research focus and why is it important to quantify direct carbon emissions from wastewater treatment? I have been working on water energy topics since my graduate school years,

100

- MAGAZINE

and I started by designing energy efficient membrane reactors and then converting wastewater to renewable energy such as hydrogen and electricity. We know the chemical energy embedded in wastewater can be many times that needed for treatment, so it is possible we get to energy neutral, and in fact quite a few utilities already achieved that goal. However, in recent years I realized energy neutrality is not enough, because based on studies from UK and other places, direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may account for nearly half of the total emissions. So in order to get to net zero, or carbon neutrality, we have to tackle the direct emissions as well. What does your approach to emissions accounting involve, and how does it differ from existing methods? For many years I have been focusing on technology development to reduce energy use and carbon emissions, and I assumed IPCC methods are accurate. But the more I study this area the more I realized there are a lot of knowledge gaps, and the tools for emission estimation can be greatly improved. That’s why I was looking for new methods, especially for a plant level prediction. Fortunately, I work with colleagues and think the mobile sensors used in oil/

gas fields can be very applicable to wastewater plants because they can’t be considered as either a point source or a non-point source, rather somewhere in the middle, and the mobile sensors can be pretty good on estimating emissions at this scale. Is there a market for emission accounting tools from industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants? I believe there is a market for emission accounting tools in the wastewater sector because in many towns and cities such plants are major energy consumers and major non-CO2 GHG emitters. With the carbon market and other measures coming into place to achieve net zero goals around the globe in the next few decades, it is critical to understand the actual emissions of these facilities to guide emission mitigation programs.

What is the potential for carbon-neutral wastewater treatment technology and what would a utility of the future look like? I believe there are many opportunities to get to carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative for the utilities of the future. There are three levels of work we need to do to achieve this goal. First, we have to understand the emission baseline and identify the hotspots, so we can develop strategies to reduce emissions and avoid processes that lead to higher emissions. Second, we can optimize the systems and implement technologies to reduce energy and chemical uses, reduce fugitive emissions, and reduce other emissions across all three accounting scopes. Finally, we can even develop new technologies and processes to capture carbon and convert CO2 or CH4 into value-added products to not only achieve carbon-negative but possibly revenue-positive. We summarized such strategies in a recent review in Nature Sustainability (Wastewater treatment for carbon capture and utilization, Nature Sustainability, 2018, 1, 750-758).

DR Z. JASON REN

"Energy neutrality is not enough, because direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may account for nearly half of the total emissions" "In many towns and cities wastewater treatment plants are major energy consumers and major non-CO2 greenhouse gas emitters"

- MAGAZINE

101

102

- MAGAZINE

SPEAKERS' CORNER

TO GIVE THE GRETAS OF THIS WORLD HOPE Hans Ruijgers, Head of Communications and Press Officer at KWR Water Research Institute in The Netherlands. The researchers at KWR work at the intersection of science, business and society. The institute’s communications team makes their scientific knowledge and expertise known to water professionals and the public, lobbying groups and journalists. In this interview, Hans Ruijgers, Head of Communications, tells us about the important role of communications in the implementation of knowledge at KWR.

Z Cristina Novo Pérez How do you think communication in the water sector has evolved in recent years? When I joined KWR in 2010 the communication emphasis was mainly on demonstrating technological knowledge (show & tell). From 2015-2016 that started to shift to the application of the technology. No wonder KWR sharpened its motto to “Bridging Science to Practice.” And that practice quickly broadened - partly under the influence of the Circular Economy philosophy - to other sectors (including energy). In the last three years, partly influenced by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, communication has focused on the societal task of technology suppliers and knowledge institutes. For my communications team, this means that we must explicitly embed individual scientific discoveries in overarching themes that are understandable to a broad audience. To this end, we continually advise and educate our scientists.

Why do you think it is essential to focus on citizens when communicating about water? Citizens can be involved in research and the realisation of innovations. In its communication, KWR primarily targets stakeholder groups in the water sector and individual water professionals. At the same time, citizens look to us for guidance and answers to societal issues, where support for technical innovations is still a prerequisite. The public perception and behaviour of citizens play a vital role in the acceptance of change. In this light, it is inspiring for me to have social scientists as colleagues at KWR. Together we discuss strategies on the interface of communication, psychology and transition management. What are the most challenging aspects of communicating about the work of the water sector? The biggest challenge for communication - but equally for my management team and my fellow researchers

- is to create a measurable impact with stakeholders in the water sector and, where possible, with citizens. We do succeed in reaching out with our knowledge through many channels, but: does that communication effort lead to actual follow-up? Are we successful in obtaining funding for projects? Can we attract research partners in Europe or beyond because of our strength and reputation? Could you highlight one of your organisation’s communication success stories? From the start of the corona pandemic, our microbial sewage surveillance expertise has been in the spotlight. By consistently measuring the sewage of a small set of cities and towns from February 2020 onwards, KWR’s microbiologists have built a solid database. Daily communication about their work via Twitter and LinkedIn has helped KWR's microbiologists to become world-famous. They are sought-after speakers at webinars and have seized the opportuni-

ty to set up a global SARSCoV-2 database. Due to the frequent social media communication, our LinkedIn and Twitter followers increased by more than 50% in 2020. Who or what organisation inspires you when it comes to ways of communicating? As a father of two daughters, age 20 and 25, environmentalist Greta Thunberg is a great inspiration to me. Her appeal to governments and to science and the builders of technology is crystal-clear. When it comes to Greta, and her peers, the wheels of policy and politics turn frustratingly slowly. Youngsters have to get their hopes up for a better future from other areas like, in my case: applied water science. Numerous splendid water innovations prove the opportunities and possibilities for dealing more sustainably with finite resources on Earth. Therefore, my appeal to the reader is – as did Sir David Attenborough at the COP26: Let us give the Gretas of this world hope!

- MAGAZINE

103

MEDIA LIBRARY BY: OLIVIA TEMPEST SOMETHING TO READ...

THE WATER KNIFE A believable future?

The book The Water Knife by American science fiction and fantasy writer Paolo Bacigalupi takes place in a very plausible future in which individuals, cities and criminal organizations compete mercilessly for that most precious resource, water.

SOMETHING TO WATCH...

MARCHER SUR L’EAU Accessing water

Marcher sur l’eau (Above Water) is the first feature film as a director for the actress Aïssa Maïga. It aims to raise awareness of a major social issue: access to water. About 2.2 billion people worldwide do not have direct access to drinking water. The film tells the story of how global warming is affecting the inhabitants of the village of Tatiste in northern Niger.

SOMETHING TO ENJOY...

FOO FIGHTERS – I AM THE RIVER Connecting the citizens of NYC I Am The River was released in 2014 by the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl, vocalist, guitarist and composer of the band said in an interview: “I thought it would be a nice idea that there's something natural and prehistoric that runs underneath something as monolithic and futuristic as New York City. And maybe we're all connected by something like that.”

104

- MAGAZINE

ULTRASONIC FLOWMETER Advanced consumption analysis Direct access to temporary records

Data logger

Alarms management

Assets management Different levels of security and privacy

Communications included Accuracy

R400 / R800

Starting flow rate Battery life www.hidroconta.com

1 l/h +12 years