BTO Festival Day 2023: collective, circular and forty years of BTO

Singer Tania Ravelli opened the festival programme with a passionate performance.

Full halls, a full marquee and a bright sun: the BTO Festival Day celebrating 40 years of BTO was sparkling and lively. With a passionate “Vivo per lei”, singer Tania Ravelli opened this particularly joyful celebration of the biennial knowledge celebration of the BTO drinking water research programme on 8 June at the KWR in Nieuwegein. Anne Mathilde Hummelen (BTO programme manager at KWR) and Riksta Zwart (vice-chair of the BTO Directors Consultation Platform and the director of the Groningen Water Utility) then kicked off a dazzling and scintillating programme that centred on the value of collective research, circularity and the celebration of 40 years of BTO – a good reason for an extra celebration.

Riksta Zwart (vice-chairman of the BTO Board of Directors (above) and BTO program manager Anne-Mathilde Hummelen opened the programme.

Riksta Zwart (vice-chairman of the BTO Board of Directors (above) and BTO program manager Anne-Mathilde Hummelen opened the programme.

Hummelen was obviously pleased to see more than 150 people in the room “who work passionately every day to ensure that there is enough clean and safe drinking water for everyone – and who know that this cannot be taken for granted.” That is why the BTO drinking water research programme is continuously developing and improving. Riksta Black talked about “doing smart things together for strong, powerful and beautiful water, now and in the future.”

New Honorary Fellow: Luc Keustermans

KWR Director Dragan Savić and new Honorary Fellow Luc Keustermans with the plaque that will hang in the gallery of honour at the KWR.

Luc Keustermans – the now-retired technical director of the Flemish water utility De Watergroep, who was for many years a driving force behind the alliance between De Watergroep, KWR and the BTO – was then officially appointed an Honorary Fellow of KWR by KWR Director Dragan Savić for his major contribution to the establishment of this alliance. Keustermans thought his efforts at the time simply made sense because: “if you are too small to do something on your own, it is best to work together. People in the water sector in the Netherlands realised that forty years ago. It goes without saying that it is still very, very true today. Working together certainly allows you to produce more practically applicable research results faster.”

Flemish-Dutch alliance

Keustermans then talked more about the past and future of the Flemish-Dutch alliance (which will be covered in greater detail in a later article) with Louise Vanysacker (R&D manager at De Watergroep). Vanysacker concluded their joint presentation by announcing that De Watergroep has decided to participate in the new BTO programme for 2024 – 2029 as well.

Louise Vanysacker, R&D manager of De Watergroep and vice-chairman of the BTO Coordinating Consultation, spoke about the Flemish-Dutch cooperation.

From linear to circular: WiCE

Henk-Jan van Alphen (KWR) gave a TED talk on Water in the Circular Economy.

Henk-Jan van Alphen (KWR) told the audience about how using coins in a shower on a campsite got him thinking about the circular economy and the research programme Water in the Circular Economy (WiCE). That programme focuses on all the relevant knowledge questions relating to the circular economy: questions about technical and physical solutions, questions about needs and preferences, and questions about change. But WiCE is not just a research programme: it is also brings the water sector and other sectors together to work on cases from practice. Moreover, WiCE is a knowledge broker that develops, disseminates and collects knowledge. Watch a recording of his TED talk here.

GRROW

Nicolien van Aalderen presented the audience with some tough dilemmas to illustrate GRROW.

Nicolien van Aalderen (KWR) then told the participants more about the recently completed BTO project Generational and Radical Rethinking of the Water Sector (GRROW), in which a method has been developed to bring together young professionals on the basis of a shared objective: thinking about the future of the drinking water chain. She brought the audience into the debate and allowed them to make choices about three dilemmas relating to the future of the drinking water industry. That resulted in animated and intensive discussions and provided the participants with a clearer picture of three scenarios developed under the GRROW banner.

GRROW artwork

Before lunch, Anne-Mathilde Hummelen presented the new GRROW artwork at the main entrance to the KWR. It represents the GRROW philosophy by connecting two symbols  ̶  the root and transformation. The mathematical root sign refers to ‘radical’, a word that comes from the Latin ‘radix’, meaning root. In addition, the root symbolises the scientific method and the GRROW network function. Intergenerational stands for connecting all generations, not just the new ones. The ‘arrow’ or ‘shift’ sign symbolises ‘rethinking’, or the initiation of a transformation. The stainless steel structure is home to living vegetation: native ivy (Hedera helix) symbolising how we keep the GRROW philosophy alive in today’s and tomorrow’s world. The artwork was designed by artist Joost van Summeren (in the photo with the design during the GRROW final conference). Joost is a water infrastructure researcher at KWR and he has also been studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy for a few years. He is very interested in the synergy between art and science. So he very much enjoyed working with the GRROW team, various people from the workshop, our gardener and the facilities department in order to design and produce a work of art for GRROW.

After lunch and an enlivening and tuneful exercise led by singer Tania Ravelli, the audience split up to attend different sessions. Before the break, they had the opportunity to choose between the themes of Saving and Treatment, with the themes of Storing and Connecting on the menu after. During the sessions, after an introduction by experts from water utilities and KWR, they engaged in discussions about dilemmas and perspectives that were important in the past and which, given the major challenges facing society, are now an even greater priority for drinking water supplies.

BTO Implementation Awards from the expert jury and public for Nature Recovery from Nitrogen

The festival day concluded with yet another climax: the presentation of the two BTO Implementation Awards. Thirteen research projects had been nominated and three were  selected by the expert jury. The winner of the expert jury award was the Nature Recovery from Nitrogen project, in which Waternet, Dunea, PWN, Brabant Water, Evides and Vitens, with KWR, had investigated which measures you can use in nature areas to counteract the effects of nitrogen deposition. It was found that ploughing dry heaths did not work, but encouraging wind dispersal in dunes turns out to be a good way of restoring dune grasslands. In the Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes, thanks to the creation of some 300 wind dispersal pits with calcium-rich sand, the wild pansy and the Queen of Spain fritillary are on the rise again. This measure has now been used successfully on several occasions in the Netherlands and other countries. This is an important instrument for water utilities that not only need dune areas to produce drinking water but that also want to take good care of nature and promote biodiversity. The public, which had the opportunity to vote via the internet until the day before the BTO Festival, were in complete agreement with the expert jury. Double congratulations go to Mark van Til and Luc Geelen (both Waternet), Harrie van der Hagen and Maarten Wering (Dunea), Jeroen Groenendijk and Hubert Kivit (PWN), Martin de Haan (Brabant Water) and Camiel Aggenbach and Edu Dorland (KWR), who executed this BTO project.

The winners of the BTO 2023 Implementation Award from both the expert jury and the public for Nature Recovery from Nitrogen: Martin de Haan (KWR), Luc Geelen (Waternet), Camiel Aggenbach (KWR) and Edu Dorland (KWR).

Do you want to know more about the three nominated projects? You can watch the short videos made in response to the nominations here. And, of course, they were also put in the spotlight.

Afterwards there was a long festive drink in the tent.

Photos

Het bedrijfsrestaurant van KWR omgetoverd naar een symposiumzaal voor ruim 100 gasten.