Speakers Q&A: WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025

1. What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

Our presentation will provide a fresh perspective on pellet softening after more than forty years of practical experience. We will show how recent breakthroughs have allowed us to describe the softening process mechanistically, linking hydraulics, chemistry, and reactor design. This enables more stable operation, better process control, and improved sustainability. In addition, Edo Boek will demonstrate how advanced CFD and modelling approaches can further optimise softening reactors, offering new tools for design and real-time operation.

2. What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

We look forward to hearing how other utilities and researchers are innovating in core and futureproof drinking water treatment processes, especially where practical experience and modelling come together. The combination of operational know-how, experimental work, and digital tools is particularly exciting for us.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

The greatest challenge is to keep drinking water reliable and affordable under increasing pressure from climate change, stricter regulations, and changing source water quality, skilled employees etc. For softening specifically, this means dealing with more complex operational conditions while reducing the environmental footprint and maintaining flexibility for future needs.

4. Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

Of course, this conference is an important platform to connect technological innovation with practical application; at least I guess that is the case. It allows us to share the Dutch (and beyond) experience with large-scale softening, while also learning from other countries and approaches. For us, it is an opportunity to show how mechanistic modelling and CFD can bring softening into a new era of robust, sustainable, and intelligent operation.

1. What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

Expertise about the testing in accordance to EU-DWD and also information about the certification process in future.

2. What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

As my main topic is the testing of materials and products – the feedback from the market and the industry is every time very interesting and important.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

As we are a test lab for German and European regulation, the biggest challenge right now is the change of the regulation.

4. Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

Spreading information and discuss all the topics around testing and certification process

1- What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

At the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 conference, I will discuss the impact of global change on the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and share the strategies we are implementing to effectively manage and control them. In addition, I will present a case study on Indirect Potable Reuse in Barcelona, highlighting how DBPs evolve throughout the process.

2- What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I am interested in learning about the latest developments and innovative treatment approaches for addressing emerging contaminants such as PFAS, as well as engaging in networking opportunities with industry professionals.

3- What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

In my view, one of the main challenges for our industry is identifying and developing alternative water resources that are fit for purpose, while implementing appropriate technologies that ensure water safety and reliability without significantly increasing costs for consumers. Regulatory limitations, along with the pressing need to implement water reuse in countries experiencing water scarcity, further complicate the situation.

4- Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

In these times of uncertainty and global challenges, collaboration across the water sector is more important than ever. The WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 conference provides a vital platform for sharing knowledge, fostering innovation, and working together to ensure that the fundamental right to access clean and safe drinking water is protected across Europe.

1. What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

My talk will address risk evaluation focused on water resources in the context of the last drinking water directive 2020/2184. The presentation will illustrate how to address risk evaluation in practice with some examples from catchments at VIVAQUA.

2. What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I hope this conference will promote practical experience sharing among water professionals and by learning from these experiences I hope to come back with useful answers or solutions to my water company.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

We see an increasing amount of work and interest devoted to organic micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, industrial chemicals, household chemicals, metabolites of pesticides, PFAS … and one challenge is to assess their health risk from drinking water exposure, another challenge is to remove those presenting a health risk by achievable water treatment at an affordable cost.

4. Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

Many conferences are focused on research topics which are most of the time not easily transposed into practice, despite the huge amount of information shared. By bringing water professionals together at a reasonable size event, the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe conference can help us to solve problems we face and improve drinking water management

1. What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

My presentation will focus on catchment management and source water quality within the context of ‘Pollutants from sources to effects - A water and subsurface system approach to drinking water quality’. My contribution will focus on the increased restrictions on water intake for drinking water production caused by pollution and climate change, particularly droughts. I will present the narrative of substances' pathways from various sources via wastewater treatment plants to their effects on drinking water intakes in the Meuse River, and where and how measures can be taken throughout the system, from the sources of pollutants along these pathways to the receptors.

2. What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

About the integration of water quantity and water quality issues, and system approach to develop solutions.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Climate change, emerging contaminants and pollution

4. Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

To share knowledge, challenges, worries and solutions. To brainstorm together and inspire each other.

What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

Hearing how a water utility has been facing the introduction of new drinking water quality standards, with focus on analytical efforts and impacts on the management and upgrade of drinking water treatment plants.

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

The latest trends and experiences on drinking water quality, mostly PFAS management. Networking with experts and colleagues across Europe.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Compliance with new drinking water quality standards, ageing infrastructures, availability of water sources

Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

It is the main European event about drinking water quality, with contributions from different types of actors of the water sector.

What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

A crystal-clear message about the state of our drinking water resources. Which trends are dominating our views in this perspective? What is the impact for the current suitability of various water resources? And what is the impact on the natural and technologal drinking water treatment?

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

How the drinking water is dealing with an increasing uncertainty and complexity.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Keeping the drinking water supply resilient, under harsh circumstances due to geo-political changes, climate change, aging infrastructure, and scarcity.

Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

It is important because the international drinking water sector needs to get their heads together and share knowledge, experiences, and innovations to stay resilient.

What can we expect from your contribution at the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025?

Dunea, a surface water drinking water company, is confronted with substantial challenges related to both water quality and quantity. In my keynote, I will outline our approach to face these growing challenges and share my vision for effective solutions and strategies across technological, financial, and governance dimensions. I will highlight how Dunea integrates nature-based approaches and collaborates across sectors to ensure resilient and sustainable drinking water provision in one of Europe's most densely populated regions.

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I am particularly eager to learn from others in the (drinking) watersector, especially regarding innovative treatment technologies and investment and governance models, as these insights will be invaluable for shaping our own strategies.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

The primary challenge lies in securing sufficient clean water sources amidst pollution and competing land use in the Netherlands. Simultaneously, we must invest more than ever before in our sector, uphold high public trust, maintain affordable water rates, and accelerate innovation. All of this must be achieved while navigating increasingly complex regulatory frameworks.

Why is the WWT Drinking Water Quality Europe 2025 important to the industry and to you?

A conference like this serves as a platform for exchanging knowledge and fostering international collaboration. For Dunea, it presents a valuable chance to connect with industry peers, share our insights, test cutting-edge technological, governance, and financial strategies, and learn from others who are addressing similar challenges.

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