Toronto 2024 – a personal note

The Congress & Exhibition kicked off on Sunday 11 August with a powerful opening ceremony with the First Nations welcome by Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill and the water blessing by Elder Vivian Recollet.

I was touched by their wording and storytelling, as well as by those of some of the other speakers during the session. To mention but a few examples: “water seeks life”, “the sacred importance of water”, “if water is unhealthy, people are unhealthy” and, “water is where I connect with nature”. These statements all point to a fundamental and deep appreciation of the significance of water.

It goes without saying that access to healthy water should be a feasible human right for individual people and for a flourishing society. But as we learned in the opening session, it is not. During the first day of the congress, there was much reference to transitions and transformational change that we have to set in motion to deal with climate change and biodiversity loss. Water has an enormous potential to play a pivotal role in the transformation to healthy and thriving communities. However, it can only reach its full potential when the values of water are embraced, made visible and known to those that shape our future.

At KWR we work passionately to bring the values of water to life with applied scientific knowledge. This goes hand in hand with an open collaborative spirit. Because we are only as good as the quality of our collaborative relationships, our networks and our ability to open up to and absorb different views and competencies. For those reasons, we cherish our long standing cooperation with so many national and international partners, among which are the Netherlands’ drinking water utilities and the Flemish water utility De Watergroep. That same rationale makes us eager to find new partners to team up with. A special focus is on partners that think and do things differently: it is at the edges of our networks that we find interfaces for creativity and innovation. Moreover, these partners are a huge support in not reproducing current patterns and ways of working that got us all where we currently are.

Easier said than done, I know. I was therefore really happy to have the KWR booth at the exhibition being opened by two water leaders we have been working with for a longer time: Riksta Zwart from drinking water utility Waterbedrijf Groningen and chair of the knowledge program on Water in the Circular Economy and, Peter Grevatt from the Water Research Foundation and chair of the Global Water Research Coalition. Both of them have been investing a lot in spreading the importance and value of long term and stable knowledge development as well as connecting to new ideas, people and organisations.

The ‘KWR & Friends’-themed booth got its beating heart by the work of a dedicated group of our early careers. The content, creative skills, energy and drive they showed and shared have enabled many of us to push the boundaries of our own knowledge and our networks. Their critical questioning of current paradigms opens new directions for long term strategy development. They are so ready to get more involved, and I hope we mid- and late-careers are ready to embrace them too.

Thank you all for connecting with us during congress sessions and in the KWR & Friends booth. It made our week truly inspiring and so much fun. With this newsletter, we try to bring you a bit of the content and vibe of Toronto 2024. Please see it as an invitation to reflection, questions and collaboration.