Water consumption by the power sector was a central issue in discussions during the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul. After agriculture, the power industry is the second largest user of water. In the United States today, 39% of water withdrawals are used for power production, compared with 31% in Europe.

Despite its timing – late on the Friday 19th afternoon – session 6.1.3 about Education and Local Empowerment in water services, attracted more people than the conference room could host. The format of the session allocated a lot of time for discussion and debate. It was very much geared towards the question of how to harness web 2.0 and mobile technologies and how to develop new knowledge management systems favoring knowledge sharing and co-creation rather than just storage.

Upon the closing of the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, I would like to call for a more open and integrated approach involving all stakeholders and to advocate for the transition from an economy based on volume to an economy based on value: the issue today is no longer managing large volumes of water, but rather contributing social and environmental know-how that is adapted to the needs of communities and users.

This new edition of the Forum provided the opportunity for all players working on water-related issues to assess the advances achieved over the past three years. These are real but terribly insufficient compared to the challenges of water access and climate change! In order to meet these challenges, an integrated approach and innovation are the key to sustainable, well-balanced progress to which we dedicate the development of our professions.

Diane d’Arras is Technology and Research Senior Vice President of SUEZ ENVIRONMENT.

In this interview, she emphasizes the fragility of water and the need to protect it. Thus, wastewater treatment is a crucial issue.
Research is in this field focuses on two main objectives : treatment techniques must be improved and the energy consumption of stations must me reduced.

The development of water and wastewater services is central to the three major issues of the 21st century:
- satisfying the increased requirements caused by demographic change, while preserving water resources
- attenuating the explosion of urban development and industrialisation by limiting the impact of water and wastewater services on the environment
- protecting biodiversity.

Our capacity to simultaneously reply to all of these issues conditions how we convert to sustainable service models: our partners (local authorities and industries) want us to be a source of proposals to help them quickly and sustainably reduce their environmental footprint.