Exploring Dutch Water innovations during NWP Member Tour 2023

After successful editions of the NWP Member Tour in 2021 and 2022, this spring NWP organised a third edition with exciting trips to impressive projects of NWP members. Both tours had a different thematic focus. The key topic in the tour to Markerwadden Islands was building with nature, whereas the tour to the AWZI Harnaschpolder was about wastewater treatment and the public-private partnership of the Defland Water Authorities.

Above all, the member tours offered lots of opportunities for inspiration, potential collaboration, and new connections. Once again, NWP is proud to be an ambassador of the Dutch Water Sector and to share these innovative projects with a national and international audience.

Marken Wadden islands - project driven by nature

The first visit of the 2023 edition of the NWP Member Tour to the Marker Wadden took place on Thursday 25 May. We look back on a perfectly sunny day for visiting the newest islands of The Netherlands. Together with a group of 15 people from NWP’s member network, we took the Abel Tasman sailboat to the islands early in the morning. Thomas Vijverberg, deputy manager at Boskalis, freed up his busy schedule to give a guided tour around the islands and talk about the project that he managed from beginning to end.

Marker Wadden is a unique experiment for researchers. It was created with and for nature in an innovative way. We have learnt that never before in the Netherlands a new ecosystem was built on such a large scale. Not only was this a beautiful day spent out in nature, which for most of the group was a welcome change from the office, but it also was great interacting with each other, talking about the impact of nature-based solutions and exchanging experiences from the different fields of work.

30-year public-private partnership (PPP) in wastewater treatment

Member Tour Day 2 headed to the AWZI (wastewater treatment plant) in Den Hoorn. This is the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. It treats the wastewater of more than 1 million inhabitants and about 40k companies from the region of The Hague and covers an area of 25 hectares. The members were welcomed by Joyce Rombouts, Strategic Advisor at Delfland Water Authorities. She explained why and how Delfland Water Authorities started a 30-year public-private partnership (PPP) in wastewater treatment.

In the year 2003, the capacity had to be increased considerably to remain compliant with EU regulations. To finance this 700 million dollar project, The Delfland Water Authorities, the public authority and employer of Delfluent, opted for a Public Private Partnership. They attracted private funding, which gave private companies the advantage of being able to get into potentially profitable long-term projects and the public the advantage that they could profit from a better service.

Member-Tour-collage-wasterwater-treatment-plant

A public-private partnership (PPP) is a nice theory, but it is about how you deal with challenges that pop up and interfere with your daily business. It’s a people’s business. You have to learn a joint language to work together, you have to respect each other’s interest and risk allocation, be transparent and work together on mutual interest. It’s all about managing dynamics.

Joyce Rombouts

Strategic policy advisor

After much interaction and in-depth questions, the participants were shown around the wastewater treatment facilities, where several stops were made to explain the different stages of wastewater treatment.