Digitalisation of the Water Sector: Challenges And Opportunities

On August 11th to 15th, the IWA World Water Congress in Toronto took place. The European Water Association organized a 90 minute workshop on Digitalisation of the Water Sector: Challenges And Opportunities.

The water sector is undergoing rapid digitalisation. It provides enormous opportunities not only to the industrial countries but also to the developing world. Real-time water quality monitoring, advanced process surveillance and control, and more comprehensive and user-friendly access to water services data for managers, operators, engineers and the general public have become much more accessible than costly and outdated technologies. It also provides a better foundation for decision-makers to get more out of the limited resources. IoTs, advanced modelling tools and SCADA systems are becoming more affordable. However, the uptake of digital tools in the water sector is still slow. Thus, the workshop aims to explore the bottlenecks and pitfalls in the digitalisation of the water sector. The workshop explored how water stakeholder communities like IWA and EWA can contribute to the faster uptake of digital solutions to solve tomorrows challenges.