The Director of the Chair for Transformation of the Economic Model - Circular Water Economy of Universitat de València, Francesc Hernández, participated on Wednesday 16 December in a round table on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) organised by Club Diario Levante.
Francesc Hernández was joined by José Claramonte, general director of Fasca; Elisa Valía, the councillor for the Integral Water Cycle of València’s City Council; Augusto Montamarta, manager of EPSAR; Paco Sanz, from Ecologists in Action; Andrés Campos, the councillor for Strategy, Innovation and Economy of Torrent; and Benjamín Pérez, general director of Natural Environment of the Government of the Valencian Community.
In this instance, the event focused on SDG number 6, on clean water and sanitation, and had the collaboration of the Metropolitan Entity of Hydraulic Services (Emshi).
In his speech, Francesc Hernández highlighted the need to make decisions to achieve a circular model. “Something is not working, because the figures for reuse are not progressing”. The professor focused on the immobility of many governments, who justify their position by claiming the high economic cost of these measures.
To debunk this myth, he said, the Universitat de València has developed an indicator that calculates the cost of not acting. Hernández and his team took a detailed report to the United Nations showing that it is more expensive to do nothing than to take action. Since then, many governments have taken a side on this essential issue, he says.
During the colloquium, moderated by journalist Julio Monreal, both signs of progress and challenges came to the force, but Francesc Hernández prefers to be non-conformist: “we are leaders in potential but not in reality, we need to take action”, he insists.
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