On September 27th Water Alliance organized a Water-Tech business day in close collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy in Portugal, started with a lovely business breakfast, hosted by Ambassador Mrs Margriet Leemhuis at her Residence in Lisbon. With a small group of attendees deputy ambassador Mrs. Esra Sen opened the business breakfast. The variety in the attendees gave good and enthusiastic vibes as everyone was active in the discussion: “How to work together”. So therefore we had a mixture of Dutch and Portuguese participants.
After short pitches of the participants, Mr Hans Wouters, CEO Brightwork, highlighted the results of a water sector survey about the Portuguese market. This report was composed on behalf of the Netherlands Embassy in Portugal and Water Alliance and has recently been completed. The input of various Portuguese stakeholders was reflected in this report and hence it gives a very good insight in how the water sector is organized, which growth areas are identified and what topics will be most relevant in the coming years.
The highlights of the report were discussed by all attending. Moderated by Hein Molenkamp, Managing Director Water Alliance, ideas, suggestions, and hurdles to take were addressed. Ambassador Margriet Leemhuis participated in these discussions and indicated the importance of organizing these encounters as a stepping stone towards further collaboration. For the Dutch participants the aim was to create a good understanding of the Portuguese water sector and to explore options and ideas of strengthening the collaboration between the Netherlands and Portugal.
Wrapping up: some challenges are to be taken, but giving the fact that all participants were very much willing to engage these challenges a step forward was made for collaboration!
This breakfast meeting was attended by various Portuguese stakeholders whom gave valuable input to this report, Dutch companies interested in Portuguese water market and of course the embassy of the Netherlands.
The Dutch participants were:
- Colsen, Mr. Merijn Picavet
- MTD, Mr. Nuno Vital
- Pure Water Group, Mrs. Amaia Du Ugarte Iturbe
- Bluecon, Mr. Jaap Stuiver
- Brightwork, Mr. Hans Wouters
- Water Alliance, Mrs. Juliette Douglas and Mr. Hein Molenkamp
From Portugese side:
- Indaqua, Mr. José Santa Marta
- Lis Water, Mr. Jaime Melo Baptista
- Portuguese Water PartnerShip, Mr. José Saldanha Matos and Mr. Joao Simão Pires
- Águas de Portugal/Águas do Tejo Atlântico, Hugo Xambre Pereira,
Embassy of the Netherlands in Portugal
- Mrs. Margriet Leemhuis
- Mrs. Esra Sen
- Mr Filipe Fernandes Murraças
- Mrs Paula Geades
The second part of the Water-Tech business we were invited to the Water Factory in Alcantara, the WWTP of Águas do Tejo Atlantico of Grupo Águas de Portugal. This plant, processing wastewater from 800,000 inhabitants of Lisbon, is extraordinary as it is fully built underground in a compact layout.
After a well prepared presentation of the characteristics of the plant and the innovative water solutions by the management of the plant, we got a guided site tour throughout the full scale plant. Also the current pilot trials, executed at the facility and aiming at tertiary advanced treatment processes were highlighted and visited. A nice example of waste water reuse was actually their own flower garden on top of the building!
Closure of the business day was a networking lunch with even more Portuguese stakeholders to strengthening the collaboration. This lunch was hosted by Water Alliance and Portuguese Water Partnership.
Special thanks to Mr. Filipe Fernandes Murraças, Senior economic officer at the Netherlands Embassy in Portugal and Juliette Douglas of Water Alliance for organizing this meeting.
If you are interested in receiving this market report you can download it here:
