BESIX participated in the IDA Water Reuse Conference in Nice as technical co-sponsor of the event

200 delegates from 4 different continents representing governments, universities and private sectors attended the event The conference of Water Reuse and Recycling covers leading edge strategies and technology for advanced municipal and industrial water reuse programs

The IDA Water Reuse Conference in NICE drew to a close on Tuesday 27th September. 3 days of intensive information sharing by eminent practitioners from Asia, Americas, Europe and Middle East.

As a first foray into a focus on water Reuse by IDA it was a great success. It highlighted the reality that whilst there has been a significant growth in the last 10 years in acceptance of the need for sea water desalination to meet the water needs of the accelerating growth in the number of mega cities to accommodate the expected 9.5 billion population of this planet earth by 2050, business as usual is not sustainable.

Innovative solutions to reduce CO2 footprint are being adopted at both the technical and structural level.

Forward Osmosis, Pressure Retarding Osmosis, Low Pressure Multi Stage are all technologies transcending SWRO and Reuse RO.

Co-location of power generation, WWTP and Reuse plants are being planned as a direct response to the realisation that mega cities growth is too far ahead now to consider independent centralisation of these facilities. It is also being discussed as potentially the only answer to the fact that rehabilitation of water, power and wastewater infrastructure in the developed countries has been left unattended to for so long it is now unaffordable and decentralisation is the only option.

Attendees believed whilst the post financial crisis recovery has still not taken traction in the power water industry, the backlog of needs and innovative technical and structuring solutions will begin to have real traction in the next few years as the mix of public and private finance begins to make a difference.

The successes of Aquifer storage and recovery of Reused water in California and Australia were both recognised at the end of the conference by both of the projects and their proponents receiving awards.

BESIX as technical co-sponsor of the event organized a dinner hosted by BESIX ex-President of IDA, Ghassan Ejjeh. This dinner was an opportunity for professionals and experts from the field of water and water reuse to meet and exchange opinions around the global challenge of water scarcity. With an extensive experience acquired in Middle East, BESIX greatly contributed to this moment.