RIWA-Rijn moves to the KWR building

Drinking water from the Rhine

For more than seventy years, RIWA-Rijn has been a knowledge institute and representative of the Dutch water utilities that use the Rhine as a source of drinking water. Its members are the water utilities Oasen, PWN, Vitens and Waternet – which are also KWR shareholders. RIWA-Rijn is one of three independent sections in the RIWA association of river water utilities. The other two sections focus on the Meuse and Scheldt rivers. Each section represents the drinking water interests in their river basins: quality development, research, reporting, education and interventions.

Working internationally on water quality

The aim of RIWA-Rijn is to ensure that the water quality in the Rhine is good enough to allow for the production of drinking water with simple, natural, treatment processes. To achieve this goal, RIWA-Rijn, with the International Association of Waterworks in the Rhine River Basin IAWR, deploys its substantive knowledge and influence to bring the importance of a clean river to the attention of politicians, government authorities and policymakers in water management and industry.

Years of collaboration

RIWA-Rijn and KWR have been working together regularly for many years, for example on a range of research projects as part of the Joint Research Programme of KWR and the water utilities (BTO). In addition, KWR supports RIWA-Rijn in its work for the Rhine Water Quality Expert Group Rhine and the IAWR Advisory Board. RIWA-Rijn and KWR also jointly developed the treatment index that RIWA-Rijn publishes annually in its annual report on the quality of the water in the Rhine.

KWR director Dragan Savić and RIWA-Rijn director Gerard Stroomberg sign the lease.

Even easier from now on

“Because the RIWA-Rhine and KWR research fields overlap extensively, it made perfect sense for us to opt for the KWR,” says the RIWA-Rijn director. “Because we will be literally closer, collaboration will now be even easier. Instead of talking on the phone, we can sit down for a cup of coffee.” KWR director Savić is also excited about the opportunities generated by working in the same building.