13-14 June, Brussels.
Water Innovation Europe 2018 organised by WssTP (European Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform). Under the theme ” Water-Smart Society: “Overcoming the water challenges of the future”, WssTP biggest annual event focused on bringing together people from the whole water chain to debate, discuss and shape, a resilient water future. WssTP was giving shape to an exciting agenda of dynamic and interactive sessions which featured a great panel of key-note speakers and panelists.The pre-conference day of the event took place on wednesday the 13th of June. On thursday the 14th of June, five sessions took place. The topic of session 1 was about Water Crisis. More specifically, this session discussed how water crisis can be prevented and how Circular economy and digital water are the fundamental enablers and play an essential role to build the needed Water-Smart Society. Moreover, session 2 (Water-Smart Industry) discussed how to measure resilience, build resilience in industry and how is water used in this sector and what opportunities exist to reduce, reuse and recycle it. Furthermore, session 3 (Water-Smart Cities) discussed both the problems that urban areas face and the opportunities which they afford. Session 4 (Water Smart Agriculture), provided insight to successful living lab initiative, in line with the WSTTP Vision and SIRA their demands and experiences, and finally flagged action points that need to be addressed in the near future to make them a key instrument in the strive towards a water-smart society. Last but not least, Session 5 (Water-Smart Society) gave insight and contributed to pave the way forward to the realisation of the global Water-Smart Society.
Prof. Phoebe koundouri was a keynote speaker at the specific event. She gave a keynote speech on ” Smart Sustainable Cities ” at Water Innovation Europe 2018. An amazing audience and great Water Innovation Europe Awards ceremony. More specifically, Prof. Koundouri made a reference to the conference:
Dear WIE2018 Speakers and Moderators,
I would like to warmly thank you for your valuable contribution that made 2018’s edition of Water Innovation Europe a great success! We have already received a lot of positive feedback from many participants both during the event and afterwards in phone calls and email correspondence. I hope that you also enjoyed the conference. Your contributions have been key to this success!
WIE2018 was organized under the title “The road towards a water-smart society: Overcoming the water challenges of the future” with a narrative firmly rooted in the WssTP Water Vision “The Value of Water: Towards A Future-Proof European Water-Smart Society”. The two special ingredients woven into the fabric of this year’s programme: a strong and visible inclusion of water in HorizonEurope (FP9) including a possible Mission on Water, and provision of a more central place for water in the governance structures at all levels, were received with both enthusiasm and backing by the participants proving that water slowly starts to claim it’s central role.
By guiding the participants along the five sessions, you contributed to raise the awareness on the forecasted water crises and in the same time, you provided much awaited answers to some of the biggest challenges of the sector. Thank you for your involvement and for your effort.