Smart Water business intelligence week 18/11/2024

18 Nov. 2024

Market

The re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 is expected to usher in a significant shift in U.S. water policy away from the Biden administration’s sustainability-focused initiatives. This shift is expected to reshape key areas of the water industry, including infrastructure development, water quality standards, climate change strategies, and utility operations. As the administration shifts toward a market-centric approach, industry players must prepare for new challenges and opportunities:

2024 U.S. Presidential shift: Water policy impact and industry implications

Technology

In addition to new methods that have emerged in recent years, water operators, local governments, and industry can still rely on pH and ORP to understand and monitor water quality and the state of natural resources. Users have a mature range of pH and redox probes, which is also open to connected sensors:

pH et redox, deux paramètres fondamentaux dans l’analyse de l’eau

Regulation

In the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in 2022, due to the situation that emerged south of Lyon, the DREAL took the initiative to launch exploratory investigations to identify other potentially affected industrial sites. Since June 2022, DREAL inspectors of classified installations have included PFAS in the substances to be analyzed, during previously scheduled unannounced checks on industrial sites (i.e. without notifying operators). The 20 PFAS subject to the drinking water standard were measured in discharges into water, through 161 unannounced inspections that involved 156 separate establishments between June 2022 and November 2023 (some establishments were inspected several times). These investigations have been ongoing since 2023 in line with a national framework, following the ministerial decree of June 20, 2023 providing for the monitoring of aqueous discharges from industrial companies potentially emitting PFAS:

[ARS] la surveillance des PFAS des rejets industriels dans l’eau et les milieux aquatiques

Financing

Infinity Water Solutions has just announced the publication of its first “Blue Circular Economy Financing Framework,” marking an important milestone as the first American company to launch a blue financing model dedicated to environmental impact, sustainability, and water preservation. Independently assessed by Moody’s, this move positions Infinity as an industry pioneer, bridging the gap between climate resilience and energy security:

Infinity Water Solutions launches America’s First-Ever Blue Financing Model

Research

Librairy

2.05.2022

WEF Briefing paper May 2022

A Freshwater Future: Without Blue, There Is No Green Economy

In today’s challenging global context, water’s role as an enabler and impact multiplier to transition to a green economy is ever more critical.

4.01.2022

Hydreos White Paper

Water and adaptation to climate change in the "Grand Est" (French)

Water resources will be one of the main indicators of the effects of climate change in the Grand Est. HYDREOS offers a white paper in which its effects and impacts are exposed, as well as the solutions that exist to improve resilience in the face of this challenge.

8.06.2020

Water Europe Vision Implementation 2020-2027

Vision and the Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda

The present document will outline how the Vision and the Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) of Water Europe relate to the renewed European strategies and policies, with a strong focus on the European Green Deal, as well as the Horizon Europe Framework Program for Research and Innovation, and how the Vision ad SIRA underlying values can accelerate the transition towards a regenerative growth model that gives back to the planet more than it takes, as highlighted in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.

6.04.2020

RMC water agency activity report 2019 (French)

Summaries of projects carried out in 2019

2019 review of the actions carried out by the RMC water agency. Great projects, but an absence of smart water to deplore.

23.03.2020

2020 UN water report

Water and climate change

The climate is changing, and our world is in danger.

Around one million animal and plant species are facing extinction. Freshwater species have suffered the greatest decline, falling by 84% since 1970. Humans are also affected: around four billion people currently experience severe physical water scarcity for at least one month per year, a situation that has been exacerbated by the climate crisis.

As the planet warms, water has become one of the main ways we experience climate change.

2.03.2020

France's international strategy for water and sanitation (2020-2030)

Report from the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs

This 2020-2030 strategy is the result of broad, inclusive and participatory consultation by all French water stakeholders. Five colleges of actors were thus mobilized: the State and its public establishments, civil society, local communities and parliamentarians, the private sector as well as institutions of higher education, research and training.

These works revolved around three phases. A diagnosis first made it possible to specify the trends, challenges and international opportunities of French cooperation, as well as to identify good practices, national and international. From this basis was developed a strategic reflection defining the priorities for action and the objectives. The third phase was devoted to determining monitoring and results indicators, as well as defining monitoring and accountability procedures. Each phase was the subject of in-depth discussions within the framework of a concertation conducted within the five colleges of actors.

5.02.2020

UE directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption

New proposal

Directive 98/83/EC set the legal framework to protect human health from the adverse effects of any contamination of water intended for human consumption by ensuring that it is wholesome and clean. This Directive should pursue the same objective and should improve access to such water for all in the Union.

25.01.2020

FP2E / BIPE report: Public water and sanitation services in France

Economic, social & environmental data

The publication of this seventh edition of the BIPE-BDO / FP2E document on public water and sanitation services takes place in a national context where the political will to boost investments was asserted during the Water Assizes and improve performance by contracting between the players. The ambition for increased service efficiency is displayed, through the generalization of blueprints and transparency on the data. The objective of achieving good status for water bodies remains a priority, and is even reinforced with the revision of the European Water Directive. Adaptations to the impacts of climate change are becoming essential today.

15.01.2020

PROSPECTIVE Water of the future - challenges and prospects for companies in the sector

Report of the Interdepartmental Pole of Forecasting and Anticipation of Economic Changes (Pipame)

The Directorate General of Companies (DGE), in collaboration with the French Water Sector (FFE) and other representatives of the sector have launched a prospective study on the challenges and prospects of future water. Conducted within the framework of the Interministerial Pole of Prospective and Anticipation of Economic Mutations (PIPAME), this study aims to shed new light on stakeholders in the water sector on possible futures through operational recommendations for improvement of their competitiveness.