DESSIN and the Global Water Research Coalition
The Global Water Research Coalition (GWRC) visited the Netherlands in April for their semi-annual board meeting. The GWRC is a partnership of watercycle research organisations from the US, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Singapore, Australia, South-Africa and the Netherlands and a non-profit organisation that serves as the collaborative mechanism for water research. The aim of the GWRC is to leverage funding and expertise amongst the participating research organisations, coordinate research strategies, secure additional funding not available to single country research foundations, and actively manage a centralised approach to global issues. STOWA and KWR, both members of the GWRC, hosted the meeting in KWR’s premises in Nieuwegein.
During their stay, members of the GWRC visited the Westland demo site and attended a workshop that presented the DESSIN Sewer Mining Athens pilot. The subject of this particular workshop was “Water in Circular Economy” and DESSIN researcher Christos Makropoulos (NTUA) presented how Sewer Mining can change the potential of and market for distributed reuse at the point of demand. Participants discussed the need to couple technologies with decision support tools and business models to assist upscaling and technology uptake.
The visit to the Westland demo site was a field visit to the greenhouse horticultural area in the Westland region, where the visitors were shown how aquifer storage has become an integral part of the area’s water management. The visitors were impressed by the typically Dutch collaboration between the many water players and by the resulting innovation. The backgrounds of the Westland demo site were presented by Ferdi van Elswijk (growers association ‘Prominent’), Michiel Haersma Buma (chairman of the local Water Association of Delfland), and Koen Zuurbier (KWR).
Sewer Mining as an option for creating a market for reuse and improving urban ecosystem services
GWRC Members and Christos Makropoulos during the workshop at KWR