With the every year increasing urgency to work hard on smarter use of water worldwide, it is a great thing that there are global market places such as Aquatech Amsterdam: A place where industry, but also countries, regions and municipalities are looking for solutions.
Water Alliance and WaterCampus Leeuwarden were prominently active at the ‘Netherlands Pavilion’, where the latest groundbreaking innovations from excellent Dutch water technology companies were presented at the Holland Innovation Park (HIP). But we were active at many more locations during Aquatech. A quick recap!
Holland Innovation Park
The HIP is an initiative of Water Alliance and was implemented in collaboration with Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) and Partners for Water. The responses from the participating companies were very enthusiastic. “For us, it was a success”, said Judith le Fèvre, Co-owner at Ferr-Tech. “We noticed that we are becoming more and more of a recognized name in the market, resulting in significant interaction at our booth. From interesting collaboration partners to potential end-users. The investment in time and budget has been more than worthwhile.”
“It ran like a clockwork”, said Ewout Riteco van SOLiSENZ. “The demand for our product is enormous at the moment and the attention from Aquatech-visitors to our stand was also overwhelming. So, I am very satisfied. The biggest challenge now is to serve everyone properly.”
Also for Water Alliance-member Hulo.ai, being a part of the HIP was ‘really usefull.’“Showcasing Dutch innovative technologies on a shared pavilion helps in attracting the right audience to your company”, said Robbert Lodewijks. “We had a lot of interesting discussions and believe that we created a bigger awareness about HULO’s real-time leak localization software.”
A highlight was the visit on Thursday morning by Victoria Elema (head of the International Water Cluster at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) to the Dutch Pavilion and the Holland Innovation Park (HIP). A signal that the Dutch government is participating not only financially, but with true dedication, in encouraging and promoting Dutch water technology worldwide.
More activities
However, the Water Alliance team was active in significantly more locations than only the HIP. For example, a program was compiled by Water Alliance and its partners, in which approximately 20 foreign representatives from Brazil, Canada, the US, United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal were given the opportunity to get acquainted with numerous Dutch water technology companies and their innovations within the context of the WTEX10 program. “We don’t need new techniques, but new relationships,” said Alejandro-Sturniolo, vice president of the H2O innovation company. “Of course, that is not really true, but I mean to say that the technology is often already there, but the biggest hurdle to solving water problems is that we don’t know each other enough yet. We need to get to know each other much better and then we have to take action together. In that sense I must say that I have a very good feeling about the past few days. I have been to dozens of conferences over the past ten years, but the feeling of connection I have experienced here in Amsterdam is unique.”
Of course, much more happened. For example, the Water Alliance members were welcome to a special dinner to network and catch up. And on Tuesday, November 7th there was a meeting entitled ‘Resource Recovery from Water: Solving the Challenge of Value Creation.’ Maarten Schaafsma (Programme Manager at Waterschap Rijn en IJssel) and Coos Wessels (Managing Director of CirTec B.V.), coming from different backgrounds, shared their experiences in establishing a value chain with interviewer Ronald Wielinga ( Manager Entrepreneurship WaterCampus). Recovering nutrients, cellulose, and bioplastics from industrial and wastewater becomes meaningful when these reclaimed products find high-end applications, such as in agriculture, chemistry, construction, and more. “If we don’t do it now, we’ll pay for it later”, said Wessels. “Resource recovery is not a choice but a necessity. We must speed it up!”
Also very special was ‘The Great Water Technology Election Debate’ on Wednesday, where several prominent politicians made great promises that can accelerate the adaptation of innovative water technology in Dutch society.
Sessions
We absolutely don’t want to forget to mention the session ‘Resistant Bacterias in wash Basins, how to avoid them’ at the Netherlands Lounge. This session emphasized the enormous problem of micro pollutants and medicine residues in water. “The presentations were on point and the interaction with the public was great”, said Brigitte Duffhues, Project Manager at Water Alliance. “It is a good thing that so many Dutch companies are collected here and communicate one story. That is the power of collaboration”, added Anneloes van Veen of Erasmus MC.
Our very own André Mepschen ( Water Alliance’s Business Developer Nationaal) and Rixt Sinnema (Projectmanager at Water Alliance) hosted another session swith the title ‘Underground fresh water storage, practical solutions to increase water security’. Thomas Wagner of the Wageningen University & Research explained the goals and purpose of the Dutch @AquaConnect project. Gertjan Zwolsman of Dunea told more about their role in this project and provided more information about their Freshman project to store freshwater under the dunes.
Communication
One of the last sessions of these four days filled with activities and knowledge sharing was ‘Data driven predictive data management’. Hosted by Water Alliance’s International Business Development Manager Harro Brons, it featured presentations from Ignaz Worm ( Spatial Insight), Wouter van Daal (Msc) (digigo) and Rogier de Groot (Samotics). “The Netherlands is at the forefront when it comes to distinctive companies.” said Harro Brons. “These companies have great solutions in the areas of digitalization and AI. But, it is still a peoples business that needs to be communicated right!”
Speaking of communication: recapping such days is impossible without neglecting people and events: a big thank you for everyone who attended, worked with us, visited the booth and the HIP and participated in any form! As Water Alliance we were pretty much everywhere. Are you curious about our activities and want to know more? All information and latest updates can be found at our LinkedIn page or at the website you are currently visiting.
