According to the latest data, global advancements are falling short of achieving all eight targets of SDG 6. In some regions, not only is progress lacking but regressing.

Currently, billions of people still live without access to safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene services. Most water sources still do not have good ambient water quality. Just under half of all household wastewater is not safely treated and transboundary cooperation with regards to sustainable water management is still severely lacking.

The new reports are based on the most recent SDG 6 data, compiled and verified by United Nations agencies during a 2023 Data Drive.

High-quality data helps to inform the identification of challenges facing policy- and decision-makers, set priorities for more effective and efficient implementation, communicate progress and provide accountability. They also generate support in public and private sectors for additional investment.

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Titled, Stocktaking and gap analysis on the use of UNICEF Gender Responsive WASH Guidance: Key elements for effective WASH programming and recommendations to move to a transformative approach, the review conducted by UNICEF NYHQ PG-WASH, is based on desk reviews, interviews, discussions, and case studies.

Its findings identify the strengths and areas for improvement in UNICEF’s current WASH guidance document and calls for an update outlining new strategies that may be more applicable to different country contexts.

Although gender awareness is growing in development settings, WASH initiatives have been slow to address gender disparities. The report finds that this can be attributed to the sector’s historical focus on infrastructure and the traditional male dominance of this field.

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Nature-based solutions are already in place and scaling them up is possible

Nature-based Solutions (NBS) applications [1] are many around the world. However, their cases are often isolated or pilot studies, and the concept of NBS is being shaped, acknowledged and shared only now. NBS upscaling demands for improved knowledge base, the creation of attractive business cases, cross-sectoral and multi-scalar cooperation[2].

Rethinking the way we manage and interact with the ecosystems

Overall, the need to use more sustainable solutions that also take into account the ecosystems is a consensus. But what are the barriers to reach this? Or, how can we embed NBS in local practice and scale it up?

So far, civil engineering has dominated the building sector, erecting rigid and ‘inflexible’ infrastructures. Future developments for new and more adaptable solutions find their way right at this moment. As Ms. Madgwick, CEO of Wetland International, stated during the BwN Conference last month[3], “the need to upscale NBS originates from grey infrastructures’ side effects, their malfunctioning and environmental damages”. The call for maintenance of ageing constructions creates opportunities to integrate NBS in the urban and rural landscapes. Such integration comes with added benefits, since NBS represent viable and adaptive means for a sustainable development, to face new challenges posed by demographic growth and climate change, and contribute to reach SDGs as 6.1.

After having agreed on the needs to implement NBS, the challenge is to go from pilots to projects upscaling and investments. That is: reaching the embedment of NBS into society and economy. The priority issues to make this step happen can be gathered in three main categories: technical base, finance and governance (Table 1). Improving scientific evidence lies at the heart, but new layers are to be added, starting from creating business cases for NBS and revising current governance models. Governance settings “are made up of silos, with little collaboration and few integrated solutions” says Mr Hugtenburg from ARK Natuurontwikkeling[3], “we need to see nature not as an item of men, but as underlying principle that we need to enable. And enabling requires involvement at all scales”.

Table 1. Priority issues needed to scale up NBS implementation[4]

IWA is pioneering the dialogue among regulators

Means for NBS enablement exist in current policies, legislations and regulatory frameworks. However, the uptake of policies and measures often faces barriers of complex interpretations [6]. In this context, regulators can help bridging the gap between policies and practice. They can set criteria, standards, targets and tools to enable NBS upscaling, by rethinking about goals and the way services are regulated. Regulators can find ways to leverage investments and provide new tariff methodologies, e.g. to include NBS related-costs into users’ fees. They can act at different levels influencing projects from the early phases, and encouraging the incorporation of green and grey infrastructures, e.g. through building codes.

“Complying with standards, as regards NBS’ functional specifications, is the primary concern for engineering companies” has stated Mr Osinga from ECOncrete [3]. If such standards are set by regulators, and they influence companies and clients’ decisions and investments, doesn’t this mean that regulators are key players? Indeed, NBS upscaling and replicability highly depend on regulations. However, there is an urgent need for regulators to identify priority issues and gaps to upscale NBS implementation for water management and resiliency in the diverse governance contexts.

This is one of the primary efforts of the IWA Water Policy and Regulation area of work. A few months ago, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the area started a joint research “Building nature-based, resilient water systems: Catalysing the Role of Water Regulators”, with the objective to support the information needed for ensuring policies and regulations that promote NBS in water management, as basis for resilient and sustainable universal access to water and sanitation for all. Through a Task Force, IWA is creating a global network to exchange experiences and lessons learnt, and to identify which environmental, economic and social regulations are coming into place that have effects on business opportunities for NBS, stakeholders participation, and for reaching the SDGs 6.1. and 6.6. The water regulator work is being complemented by research into the demand for nature based solutions by water utilities. This includes looking at what are the elements of success and how regulators working with utilities can create incentives for integration of nature into built water systems.

Find out more about this work through the following events and resources:

IWA and TNC host a sofa at the Stockholm World Water Week

Water Utilities’ Leadership in nature-based solutions

Monday 27 August  14:00 – 14.30 / Corner of the exhibition area of Folkets Hus

Achieving water security is fundamental to sustainable economic and human development; and managing natural infrastructure for water security can support the delivery of many – if not all – of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Upstream watershed protection is recognized as a cost-effective and efficient approach to increasing the security and resilience of urban water supplies. But investment in natural infrastructure has yet to be widely adopted as a mainstream solution by local administrations and the utility sector, both of which have a critical role to play in the provision of secure and sustainable water to urban populations.

A recent partnership between the International Water Association (IWA) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) aims to leverage the two organisations’ strengths to influence greater investments in watershed protection.

During the sofa, Helmut Kroiss, former President of the International Water Association, Andrea Erickson, Acting Global Managing Director for Water, The Nature Conservancy, and Philip Gichuki, CEO, Kiambu Water Company, will examine the relevance of nature-based solutions for water security.

More information about the event on IWA Connect and on the Stockholm World Water Week website. The sofa will be broadcasted live via www.vimeo.com/siwi and available to view afterwards.

Webinar On-Demand

Last August 9^th, IWA and The Nature Conservancy organized the Webinar “Building nature-based, resilient water systems: Catalysing the role of Water Regulators”. Watch the webinar recording online upon registration. Continue the discussion with the speakers on the related group on IWA Connect and get involved! Please remember you need to subscribe and be logged in to IWA Connect to view the group discussion.

IWA and TNC at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, 16-21 September 2018, Tokyo, Japan

The partnership between TNC and IWA aims at contributing new insights on how regulators can shape behaviour to favour the incorporation of NBS into water systems. If you’re attending the IWA World Water Congress, come join us at the 5th International Regulators Forum.

References

[1] “Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human and biodiversity benefits”  (IUCN, 2016:5). These include solutions to water-related issues as: restoring and managing wetlands and rivers to reduce flood risk; developing green infrastructures in urban areas to reduce stormwater runoff; etc.

[2] Conferences and initiatives worldwide are launching a call to scale up NBS – see the UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP, 2018), the European Commission policy agenda on NBS (EC, 2015), the IUCN work by the Commission on Ecosystem Management (IUCN, 2016), IWA activities on NBS (IWA, 2018), or the Netherlands National Committee for NBS for water (IHP-HWRP, 2018).

[3] Quotes from speakers at the Conference Upscaling Building with Nature (BwN) organized by EcoShape, in Utrecht (NL) on June 27, 2018. BwN includes the use of Nature-based Solutions (NBS).

[4] The list has been developed readapting keynotes from the BwN Conference³ and previous desk research.

[5] System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, by the UN Statistics Division (SEEA); Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES)

[6] I wrote more about this here.

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We live in a world in which everything has an economic value. Our time is measured in opportunity cost, our value to society is measured by our contribution to GDP, even our lives ultimately have a dollar value; just ask any actuary.

Unsurprisingly, these views trickle down to colour how we look at our natural resources and ecosystems. Methods of environmental valuation are wide-ranging and imperfect. Researchers may look at mitigation and/or restoration costs, the revealed (i.e. travel cost methods) and stated (i.e. surveys) preferences of consumers, and supply and demand functions. All of these methods can give a somewhat close approximation of a natural entity’s economic value to society, but fail to capture the true intrinsic value.

Anthropocentrism through the ages

This way of thinking is not new. Aristotle believed that every species had an end purpose and a place in a natural hierarchy, of which humans were situated at the top. Under this anthropocentric paradigm, nature was viewed as existing purely for the use of humans.^[1] In the late 1700s, naturalists like Charles Darwin and Alexander Von Humboldt began to create a new framework within which to view the environment; as an interconnected web of different landscapes and species, all crucial to its function.^[2]

This view of nature lay the groundwork for modern environmentalism, and still prevails in environmental movements, but unfortunately, environmentalists are often powerless when economic incentives are not on their side.

If you ask a stranger if they value the environment, 9 times out of 10 I bet they would tell you they do. So why then do we still live in a culture of fast fashion, gas-guzzling cars, excessive water waste and plastic, wrapped in plastic, wrapped in more plastic? Green movements may seem like they are at the forefront of sociopolitical discussion, but when you look at the day-to-day habits of most individuals, we still have a largely anthropocentric view of the world.

It’s possible that when many people say they “value” the environment, they do care, just not enough to make changes that will cost them extra time, money or effort. Under this assumption, one might reason that the only real way to change our habits is to create financial incentives for making environmentally sound choices.

Water and our values
When it comes to water resources, this might mean charging higher per unit consumption rates, heavily taxing bottled water, subsidising products that are free from persistent organic pollutants and taxing those that contain them, or offering rebates on water-efficient or water reuse technology.

Any of these steps would almost certainly create a change in behaviour, but only to a certain extent. We would likely only conserve as much as is financially rewarding; no more, no less. Unless a conservation mindset is deeply ingrained in our collective values, we will not make greater changes to our behaviour than it pays to make.

Unless you are a water professional, fervent environmentalist or individual dealing with extreme water scarcity on daily basis, water may not be something you think about until your utility rates increase or you are offered a rebate on a low flow toilet. As water professionals and activists, part of our purpose lies in persuading the world to increasingly think of water as a valuable resource, until conservation becomes a habit rather than a reaction to some politically motivated stimulus.

Values vs. behaviour
There is a school of thought touting the idea that dramatic shifts in societal values are unlikely, and therefore, it makes the most sense to try and change behaviours within an existing value system. There are opposing ideologies that see this as treating the symptom rather than the cause, and believe that society-wide value shifts of the magnitude necessary to avert ecological crises are possible, however difficult they may be to enact.^[3]

To a certain extent, I agree with the former; persuading people to prioritize problems that may not be glaringly obvious in their day-to-day lives over the convenience of making wasteful consumer choices can seem like an uphill battle.

However, I don’t want to lose hope that with persistence, zeal and education, we can create a steady shift in societal values over time. If we disseminate information through our networks, we have a shot at changing the way the people think and feel; and as a society, seeing resources as being more than just there for the taking.

The challenge we face is in impelling this shift to take place as fast as humanly possible. We no longer have the luxury of time. As the masses gradually wake up to the harsh consequences of corporate greed and overconsumption, the angriest among us need to make our voices heard, encourage action, vote with purpose and put our money where our mouths are; it’s the only way forward.

^[1] Burchett, Kyle. Anthropocentrism and Nature: An Attempt at Reconciliation. 2014. https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/faculty_publications/Anthropocentrism_and_Nature_An_Attempt_at_Reconciliation_Burchett_Kyle.pdf

^[2] Wulf, Andrea. The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World. , 2015. Print.

^[3] Keim, Brandon. Changing Behaviours Vs. Changing Values: An Argument Over How to Save Nature. Anthropocene. 2017. http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2017/12/change-values-or-behaviors/

Devon Hardy is a lover of all things water and sustainability. She has an extensive background in water management at the municipal level and has been lucky enough to work with organisations like the International Water Association, Future Earth and Mantis Environmental. She currently resides in Montreal, Canada where she devotes her time to doing fulfilling work, reading and writing about the issues she cares about, and being heavily integrated in the local arts community.

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Now the company is advancing at full speed into a brand-new business area by launching a new analysis platform that will make Kamstrup’s customers in the water utilities sector better able to control their distribution grids and efficiently intervene to stop waste and unforeseen incidents in their supply processes.

The first two products targeting water works are called Incidents and Water Intelligence. Water works will now be able to substantially increase the value of collected meter data as the data will now be automatically organised, visualised and analysed – requiring no more than just a few clicks.

“It will be possible for water works staff to get a precise overview of water waste and leaks in the grid system. They will be able to monitor developments in their pipelines district by district and automatically receive alarms about technical incidents or irregularities,” says Kristian Rokkjær, Head of Product Management, Water Solutions at Kamstrup.

A lengthy development process precedes the launch of the first analysis products. In addition to its traditional workforce, Kamstrup has recruited its own corps of specialists with unique expertise in the field of data analysis.
These experts in data and data applications have cooperated with a number of selected water works to analyse large volumes of metered data for the design of the new products. The result of their efforts provides a simple overview of incidents and identifies water-loss problems in an easy-to-grasp manner.

It is no coincidence that it is notably these efforts to limit water waste which are the focal point for the first launch of Kamstrup’s new analysis platform for water works.

European statistics show that water waste in many countries is quite substantial – in many instances 20% or more. This is because it can be quite challenging to monitor what in many cases is an old, widely branched supply line that is also buried underground and could easily be peppered with undiscovered leaks which allow precious water to seep into the ground.

For years water works all over the world have found it difficult to ensure that the greatest possible volume of water ends up in the right place: in the water taps, bathtubs and toilet tanks of consumers – who are also paying for the water.

“By combining intelligent measuring technology, remote reading and our new analysis platform, a water works company can actually learn much more about its own distribution network – without having to commission cost-intensive excavation works,” says Kristian Rokkjær, Head of Product Management for Kamstrup’s Water Solutions Division.

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Using advances in automation, the Internet of Things (IoT) and sophisticated data management and analysis, the company aims to give plant operators in the region better access to information to serve communities. Utilities and industrial plants will be able detect and react to problems and predict with others may occur.

In 2016, Siemens and Bentley Systems, which provides software solutions for infrastructure, began a strategic alliance to catalyse new business through digitalisation.

“Bentley’s advanced knowledge in the field of water infrastructure means that customers are able to simulate processes in water plants allowing for predictive maintenance, resource optimisation and energy data management,” Siemens said in a statement.

Siemens also recently hosted a 48-hour hackathon themed on developed disruptive technology within Africa. The company brought together its own engineers with IoT and digital industry experts from companies including IBM, IoT.Nxt, Atos and Wits University.

The winners presented a decentralised water management system that links a mobile app capable of monitoring flow and pressure to an in-house cloud-based system.

Siemens has also said the threat of climate change makes major innovations crucial, highlighting the uses it sees for 3D virtual technology. 3D rendering of existing water plants could, for example, test the functionality of automation and electrical components “to ensure positive outcomes”.

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When it comes to public infrastructure, China’s ambitions rarely feel modest.
With outcomes measured foremost by volume or velocity, the ancient country with the world’s largest wall has in recent years also constructed the world’s largest dam, the world’s largest airport, the world’s biggest sea-bridge, the world’s fastest trains, the world’s largest building, and the world’s biggest solar plant.
To sustain breakneck urbanisation and industrialisation, the country’s officials are now seeking to combat the effluent, which all that growth has left behind. In doing so, they have started what could only be described as the world’s largest clean-up operation.
Consider that from 2000 to 2014, the total number of wastewater treatment plants in cities increased from 481 to 3,717. China can now process 140 million cubic metres per day, an amount surpassing all other nations. [See box: China’s Change Agent] But not only has there been a huge increase in the number of plants, this has been combined with a new concept: better technology, carbon neutrality and new strategies for management. China’s Concept for Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) has shown the country’s ambition to become a leader rather than a follower in the wastewater industry.
But while this new approach is laudable, there is a lot of work to do. “Wastewater discharge standards have been way too low,” says He Xiaoxia, head of the Beijing-based Green Beagle Institute.
In 2014, Yale University assessed government progress in wastewater treatment, and agreed: China ranked 67th out of 178 countries, far from impressive for the world’s second largest economy.
Until 2013, when a group of six academics came together to develop the Concept WWTP, few were challenging the status quo. But Jiuhui Qu, Kaijun Wang, Hongchen Wang, Gang Yu, Bing Ke, and Han-Qing Yu were prepared to not only highlight the problems but also to carry through some radical solutions.
A key issue in terms of energy management is that the majority of wastewater treatment processes in China are based on extended aeration. “Almost two-thirds of existing treatment plants still use traditional extended aeration and these consume 50 percent more power than anaerobic sludge digestion,” says Han-Qing Yu of China’s University of Science and Technology.

“Many plants are marred by high costs, weak performance, short-termism, and cost-cutting,” explains Jun Chen, chief engineer at the Jiangsu Institute of Environmental Industry. That mindset, he says, “distorts the development and reduces the effectiveness of wastewater treatment systems”.
In August, China’s Vice-Premier Wang Yang reiterated that it will be a “formidable task” to clean up water pollution, and called for a comprehensive metamorphosis following the launch of China’s new action on water pollution in April 2015 (see box: Water Ten). Speaking at a meeting to discuss progress on the strategy, Wang called for higher accountability on the part of local officials, binding targets for environmental quality, and new incentives for water protection. “Not only do we need a fundamental change in thinking about development and ways of development but we also need technological breakthroughs as well as commitment and legal support,” said Wang.

A vision of wastewater as a resource

That commitment is shared by the group of six and two years before the national government was banging the drum, they had co-authored a long paper Building the Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Future, which called for a radical overhaul. It was an audacious move, but an effective one. While others complained of problems, these six individuals formed a grantmaking committee and advanced a shared vision of what to do about it.
“Rather than perpetuating the old ways of wastewater treatment, we need to build the health, resource and recycling factories of tomorrow,” says Jiuhui Qu of China’s Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences. Under his leadership, the Executive Committee proposed to build one Concept Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) within five years.
Today, they are undertaking two: one outside Beijing, the other in Yixing. And both offer a clear break from previous efforts. To begin with, their Concept discards the old plants that burn up energy to remove organics, isolate nutrients, and expel phosphorous. Instead, they

draw inspiration from closed-loop, energyneutral, and toilet-to-tap systems like Singapore’s NEWater project, Austria’s Strass plant, and Southern California’s Water Factory 21.
In bringing the concepts to life, these six leaders are looking for cuttingedge technology from beyond China’s borders–and plan to improve on it. They see pollution as one of the world’s greatest sustainable resources and reframe China’s water crisis as a huge opportunity: to apply foreign tools to local needs; to pioneer new scientific concepts; to achieve a new level of global relevance; and to learn from past failures in order to adopt a spectrum of solutions that earlier, developed countries didn’t have.

AT THIS POINT WE DO HAVE THE CONCEPTS AND AN INITIAL SET OF NUMBERS UNDERPINNING THIS IS AS A REALISTIC TARGET BUT WHAT WE NOW NEED ARE CITIES TO STEP FORWARD AND REALLY TAKE THIS ON
John Crittenden, Director, Georgia Institute of Technology, US

A meeting of minds

China’s experts are fascinated by discovering exactly what’s ‘inside’ wastewater and stand united in wanting effortlessly to break down and transform effluent. “Waste is a resource that offers us a lot of valuable things,” says Jiuhui Qu. “We can recover not only water, but also energy and valuable materials. We should transfer wastewater into a resource and lead the market in the future.”
Concept WWTP seeks competitive technical proposals and each new plant must ensure sustainable water quality, selfsufficient energy, resources recovery, and be environmentally friendly. Not only is resource recovery ecologically friendly, but it also can lower long-term operational costs. On the cusp of another Five Year Plan, experts hope to create advanced models so reliable, so advanced, and so effective that cities can invest in, adapt, and implement them across the country and abroad. “We want to build the first new style plants in the coming two years, with many others to follow,” says Nanqi Ren, Vice President of the Harbin Institute. “Through cooperation with local governments and the private sector, China can one day offer inspiration.”
That effort crossed a milestone on 22 September when wastewater industry experts from China, Europe, and the US came together to explore the edge of what’s plausible. By the end of the meeting, there was a recognition that while many years of hard work lie ahead, the first step has been taken, and it has opened up a sense of the possibilities. “Progressively

China’s bold effort to re-conceptualise their water, carbon and energy systems can help build a ‘circular economy’ that closes resource loops

designed plants should prove both prestigious and potentially lucrative since China will continue to be one of the largest wastewater treatment markets in the world,” says Jun.
Foreign experts agreed. The conventional big, powerhungry, centralised wastewater treatment plant is becoming obsolete, said industry leaders. Replacing it are nimble, decentralised systems that focus on the five Rs of water and wastewater: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and replenish. “Today there are many technologies that can start to deliver these outcomes,” says Halvard Odegaard, Professor at the University of Science and Technology in Norway, who attended the September meeting. And as resource recovery frontiers are explored, China is well positioned to be a global pioneer in how new plants “can be very compact and fit even in very densely populated cities”.

China’s bold effort to re-conceptualise their water, carbon and energy systems can help build a ‘circular economy’ that closes resource loops. “At this point we do have the concepts and an initial set of numbers  underpinning this is as a realistic target but what we now need are cities to step forward and really take this on,” says John Crittenden, Director at Georgia’s Institute of Technology in the US.

Moving to scale

Two cities have done precisely that, bravely entering uncharted territory.
Based on a positive response from the central government, Beijing was chosen for a demonstration plant, with Changping TBD selected as the specific site. Han-Qing Yu envisages an ‘underground’ wastewater treatment plant with capacity to process 100,000 cubic metres a day. It will become a truly sustainable city eco-plant that generates its own energy, yields high water quality, and recovers resources in an environmentally friendly manner.
Yixing City needs to treat 566 cubic metres of wastewater per day, yet remain China’s foremost Environmental Industry Park, that can attract top talent and promote technology closer to the water market in China. Both prototypes, loaded with advanced equipment and guided by progressive management, will be designed in early 2016, built over the next two years, be up and running by the end of 2018, and be scaled up nationwide from 2030 to 2040.
What sets these plants apart from others? One remarkable aspect of this grant challenge, is that its leaders seem far less obsessed with quantifiable metrics–speed, scale, volume, and meeting simple targets on time and under budget–than with quality, caution, complexity and care.
Consider water quality. Professor Gang Yu, of Tsinghua University, describes emerging pollutants generated by synthetic drugs and cosmetics as “invisible enemies” that are discharged into nature and come back in food and water, accumulating in our bodies to impact future generations. For him, the Concept plants must anticipate pharmaceuticals, persistent organic chemicals, or disinfection by-products– that haven’t even been listed yet. “Regulation of new contaminants often lags behind the fundamental understanding of their nature, extent, and impacts on the environment,” he says. “Intensive and in-depth studies on emerging contaminants help our society to find ways to improve environmental quality.”
Then there’s speed. Rather than go too fast, the Concept favours regularly measuring incremental progress, followed by robust debate. Both slow things down, but boost performance. “A future plant asks: ‘What’s the future? Where should it be built? Which technologies should be used?’” explains Chen Jun. “We need to design carefully and construct elaborately, so it cannot be finished very quickly.”
Ecological outcomes have risen in rank. “Some elements in Chinese society are missing such as sustainability, low-carbon production, energy generation, and resource recovery,” says Jinming Hao, “Now we should build ‘green’ WWTPs moving into the future.”
Local context trumps other factors. “Small and medium-sized WWTP’s are more feasible for reuse of the reclaimed water and natural purification processes should have priority in villages and small towns, though of course different areas of China should have different characteristics,” says Yi Qian, also of Tsinghua University.
In short, each WWTP’s form must inextricably follow its function. No one-design-fits-all, so experts ask questions to define the complex problem, assess options, and develop customised solutions. Is influent waste rich enough to merit a biogas reactor? Can nearby farms benefit from resource recovery? Can the same outcomes result from renovation of an existing plant?

The thought process

Perhaps the most refreshing tactic of all is that the Concept WWTP project is on track to invest as much time, money and energy into vigorous debate and discussion than into actual physical implementation.
A series of workshops will look in great depth at the challenges of de-ammonification, aeration, or micro-pollutant challenges to share knowledge with other top level experts around the world. Moreover, success will be measured not just differently, but repeatedly and continuously. Project leaders won’t complete the Yixing City demo, check it off a list, then move on. It will be tinkered with, adjusted, fine-tuned to future conditions. As will existing plants.

Perhaps the most refreshing tactic of all is that the Concept WWTP project is on track to invest as much time, money and energy into vigorous debate and discussion than into actual physical implementation

China’s authorities are moving beyond Five-Year Plans toward longer-term horizons. Why? “Because they are making an investment which will have a useful life of at least 50 years, if not longer,” says Glen Daigger of One Water Solutions. “So, the cost to not consider the future is much greater than any short-term opportunity. Building flexibility and adaptability into designs like this is not new. It is good engineering which has demonstrated consistent value. But it sometimes gets forgotten.”
Concept WWTP was established by professors. But having generated so much institutional, financial and political support, it is hard to think of it as an “academic exercise”.
For China it creates space for action. All their work distilling the most advanced procedures “is a very valuable basis for political decisions and also a progress in the development of design capacity,” says Helmut Kroiss, President of the International Water Association. “An intensive discussion on future concepts is extremely important for all designers as they normally tend to replicate existing technology in order to minimise their risks.”
In other words, the outcome is the Concept WWTP’s radical approach; the product is the process itself. By that new measure the project has succeeded, long before the first shovel of dirt has been dug.

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