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On Thursday, 3 June, Dorette Corbey, the new chair of the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), visited the WaterCampus innovation ecosystem which has developed in Leeuwarden and elsewhere in the North in recent years. She was accompanied by Bianca Nijhof, general director of the NWP and Ignaz Worm, director of the ENVAQUA sector organisation. The trio was received by Johannes Boonstra, member of the Executive Board of Wetsus and NWP board member, Hein Molenkamp, managing director of the Water Alliance and Joost Paques, director strategy at Paques and NWP board member. After visiting various locations in Leeuwarden, the group moved to Paques Balk, home to the BioBizz Hub since 2020, also as part of the WaterCampus.
The working visit began in Leeuwarden, where an impressive collection of buildings and facilities has been built on both banks of the Potmarge river. “I visited Wetsus years ago, but what they have established here today is really impressive”, says Corbey. “It is inspiring to see how many pioneering innovations get off the ground here and find their way to the market.” Bianca Nijhof agrees. “It is also great to see that there is a whole new generation already working on the world of tomorrow. I see young people everywhere in the offices and labs—it’s inspiring.”
Collaboration
During lunch, ideas were exchanged about intensifying the cooperation. NWP, Water Alliance and ENVAQUA already work together in WaterCoalitionNL. “It’s really starting to take shape”, says Hein Molenkamp, who was involved in creating the WaterCoalitionNL cooperation at the time and today sees good synergy between the three organizations.
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NWP DELEGATION VISITS WATERCAMPUS LEEUWARDEN
photo ©Lucas Kemper
“But we’re not there yet. The more we work together, the more we can offer the globally growing Dutch water technology sector.” Johannes Boonstra expressed the hope that the synergy in the WaterCoalition NL cooperation will continue to grow because better use will be made of individual specialities, and organizations will refer customers to each other more often. “This leads to a ‘no wrong door’ approach; in a system of facilitating water organizations which can often be rather confusing to outsiders, the ‘no wrong door’
principle makes it much less important where interested parties anywhere in the world first ask their question.” The afternoon featured a visit to one of the demonstration sites at the Leeuwarden wastewater treatment plant where new technology pilots are being conducted by water technology companies Susphos and Brightwork, among others. This was followed by a visit to water technology company Acquaint, known for its smart inspection robot that can inspect pipes from the inside.
