The director of the Chair of Economic Model Transformation: Circular Economy in the Water Sector, Francesc Hernández, has given a lecture at the 5th International Technical Seminar on Water organised by the AINIA technology centre.

Francesc Hernández, director of the Chair of Economic Model Transformation: Circular Economy in the Water Sector of the Valencian Government and the Universitat de València (GVA-UV), has stated that the increasing scarcity of water resources “requires reconsidering the traditional approach to water consumption in order to adopt new strategies that enable this vital resource to be reused to the maximum”.

The professor made these statements during his conference ‘The role of reuse in the necessary adaptation to climate change: the cost of not taking action’ within the 5th International Technical Seminar on Water organised by the AINIA technology centre, which took place this September and in which 12 experts participated with the aim of addressing innovative technological solutions aligned with the new challenges of the European Green Pact, the 2030 Agenda and the the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE in Spanish).

The expert explained that the consequences of climate change require “moving towards an approach based on circular economy in which wastewater is no longer seen as waste, but as a valuable resource”; an approach in which a combination of regulations, incentives and the intervention of all the actors involved “are key to transform the traditional criteria for managing water resources”.

The professor also expressed the need for greater awareness of the real problems of water scarcity and warned that “inaction” in the face of the climate change challenges in water management and the lack of effective strategies to guarantee the sustainability of water resources, “will cause serious social, economic and environmental consequences that, on many occasions, are not taken into account”. 

Hernández also stressed that the wastewater treatment sector is particularly relevant for the use of technologies that allow water regeneration and its subsequent use for other purposes and, in this way, “wastewater becomes a new alternative water resource that ensures the availability of water while reducing the pressure on conventional water, guaranteeing its sustainability”.