The water of the future: challenges and prospects for companies in the sector

Can innovative solutions or processes, in France, help stakeholders in the water sector to improve their economic performance and to effectively face the multiple societal challenges to which the resource they are responsible - water - must respond?

This question is at the heart of the study "Water of the future: challenges and prospects for companies in the sector" which has just been published.

IOWater, together with other actors of the French Water Sector (FFE), was part of the steering committee of the study that has just been published by the Inter-ministerial Pole for Prospective and Anticipation of Economic Change (Pipame). This study was entrusted by the Directorate General of Enterprise (DGE) to the firm In Extenso Innovation Croissance.

The identification of solutions likely to increase the competitiveness of the sector, as well as the examination according to a prospective approach of the conditions of their implementation, lead to propose a coherent approach to facilitate their deployment within the companies concerned. These solutions aim both to optimise the "small water cycle" devices (drinking water supply, wastewater collection and treatment) and to address important environmental challenges inherent, in particular, in the "large water cycle" (from cloud to sea).

The study's recommendations target the various levers (innovation, human resources, etc.) on which the actors in the water sector can rely to deploy the identified solutions. This should enable them to improve the performance of production facilities, improve the contributions of their activity to other sectors (energy, health, etc.) and to the final consumer, and thus achieve an essential gain in competitiveness.