News
– The exhibition is part of the European B-WaterSmart project, through which the first living lab in Spain on water reuse was created in Alicante
– In the last Community of Practice of the lab, more than 20 representatives from all fields have created the Water Manifesto to define future collaborative actions
The Museo de Aguas de Alicante will host, until 9 June, a free exhibition open to the public to raise awareness of the integral water cycle and highlight the innovations implemented to improve efficiency and sustainability in the use of water resources in the region.
This initiative is part of the European B-WaterSmart project, which made Alicante the first Spanish city to have a living lab focused on water reuse and the identification of circular economy opportunities.
Since September 2020, Living Lab Alicante has held six Communities of Practice (CoPs) that have brought together leading professionals from the public and private sectors, together with representatives of civil society, to discuss and co-create innovative solutions that accelerate the transformation towards a society and economy based on smart and sustainable water resources management.
At the sixth and final CoP, organized by Aguas de Alicante and Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, and held yesterday at the Museo de Aguas de Alicante, 20 representatives from various fields created the Water Manifesto, a document that reflects the will to continue working collaboratively to achieve a smarter water cycle. The B-WaterSmart project comes to an end this summer, but the Water Manifesto is a starting point for future actions aimed at achieving more efficient and sustainable water management through cross-sector collaboration and technological innovation.
Ignacio Casals, Head of Innovation at Aguas de Alicante, highlights the importance of this kind of initiatives for the city:
“Aguas de Alicante and Cetaqua are working within the framework of the B-WaterSmart project to implement innovative solutions that allow us to take a leap forward in the sustainability of the urban water cycle, committed to the circular economy. However, these technologies cannot be developed in isolation, they have to be based on collaboration and continuous dialogue with the environment, with all the stakeholders involved to reflect their concerns, priorities and interests, and this is precisely the objective of the Communities of Practice. Equally important is outreach, especially to young people: it is essential to understand what happens to water before it comes out of the tap and after it goes down the drain, what the challenges are and how we turn those challenges into opportunities through projects like this one. I think it’s an exciting journey, and that’s what we’re trying to convey in this exhibition.”
B-WaterSmart, coordinated by the IWW Water Centre in Germany, is an EU co-funded project involving 35 partners from different countries. The project focuses on the development of smart technologies and solutions based on the circular economy for efficient water management. Alicante, as one of the six living labs of the project, plays a key role in the validation of these innovations, being the first innovation space in Spain dedicated to water reuse and the identification of circular economy opportunities in the region.
Aguas de Alicante and Cetaqua, through Living Lab Alicante, continue to promote initiatives to improve the sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle, reaffirming their commitment to innovation and collaboration to face the water and environmental challenges of the future.
