Innovation is teamwork

Obviously, innovation should not be an end in itself, believes Arjan Driesprong, the Oasen CEO. “Innovation is exceptionally useful when it addresses issues in our primary process such as the removal of PFAS. And that is what people expect from us.” A changing world, changes in the water itself, people, systems and the technology: these are all developments to which innovation has to respond.

The list comes from Tico Michels, innovation manager at Brabant Water. “If you don’t innovate, you’re not appealing for potential new employees. Or the authority will come round to say you haven’t got your house in order. Moreover, as the drinking water sector, we have a role to play in encouraging technology development. So there are plenty of reasons to keep looking ahead. With technology companies and research institutes, we are part of an ecosystem that keeps improving our sector.”

Innovation throughout the organisation

Where innovation is housed in an organisation differs from case to case, explain Arjan and Tico. In a relatively small drinking water utility like Oasen, there is no separate department or an innovation manager. “Innovation permeates our entire organisation because it affects everything,” says Arjan. “If you give it a separate position, those people have to be very close to the business if you want to get results.”

Tico emphasises the importance of the fact that innovation shouldn’t be the responsibility of a single person. Although he is the only innovation manager at Brabant Water, which is a larger utility, he operates alongside the organisation. That means he works on innovation for the entire utility with linking pins – colleagues who establish connections and who break through organisational boundaries. Tico: “My position was established three years ago. So it really is very new.It was developed in response to the urgency of all the issues coming our way. We are adapting our strategy accordingly. By linking innovation to the direction you want to take as an organisation, you discover whether you are ready for the future.”

 

“By linking innovation to the direction you want to take as an organisation, you discover whether you are ready for the future.”

Tico Michels, Brabant Water

Strong shoulders take the lead

In a detailed discussion about the differences between larger and smaller drinking water utilities in Waterwijs, Arjan and Tico agree that stronger shoulders can take the lead in innovation. “At Oasen, we invested a lot in membrane technology for a while,” says Arjan. “But with three hundred employees, we are still a small player. That’s why I believe you have to work as a team. That you should identify the issues and that the larger utilities should come forward and say: we have the capacity to tackle this. It would be a real shame to compete with each other or fail to share the knowledge.”

Tico also sees that everyone has specific abilities and limits. Innovation and research are important but so are other agendas. “A thousand people work at Brabant Water,” he says. “Relatively speaking, we have a better for the testing of innovations. Not only that: in some cases, that is quicker than working with other parties. For example, we took the lead with the application of the digital twin of the mains network. That is a digital copy of our 20,000-kilometre network and it helps us to respond to challenges smarter and faster. Even so, I do believe that our fellow utilities should be looking over our shoulder as much as possible and not sitting back. We can learn a lot from each other. Everyone has their own role to play here.”

Boosting knowledge development

Nevertheless, there are limits to teamwork and innovation, says Anne Mathilde Hummelen, Waterwijs programme manager and TKI Water Technology programme director. “At TKI Water Technology, we work with knowledge parties, companies and end users,” she says. “With projects of that kind, you often see how innovations emerge from a small core: an enterprising person who wants to move forward with an idea. I don’t think it works to team up with everyone on an innovation of that kind. Things get too complicated.”

Because of her position in TKI, Anne has regular discussions with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. It is precisely there that she also sees a wish to programme knowledge questions in a larger context. “What we are doing with Waterwijs is of interest to many more parties than the water utilities alone,” she believes. “There are also the water management authorities. And the national government. As well as parties outside the water sector. Clients should create the space that allows them to collaborate with knowledge parties outside their usual circles. To my mind, there is more potential in working more effectively on our knowledge development. If we share better what everyone is doing, we can boost that knowledge development.”

 

“What we are doing with Waterwijs is of interest to many more parties than the water utilities alone.”

Anne Mathilde Hummelen, Waterwijs, TKI Watertechnologie

New chapter

The discussion with the experts shows that the drinking water sector is actually writing a new chapter in its hundred-year history. The title of the chapter is: operating and innovating in an increasingly complex environment. “Because of the enormous challenges facing us, we simply have to work together and that inevitably applies to research and knowledge exchange as well,” believes Arjan. “Until about ten years ago, we were very good at looking after our own back yard. But the world around us has changed completely. We need new treatment methods and new ways of extracting water, and there are residential areas for which there may, or may not, be mains connections. I have questions that include: What are water authorities doing in the area of water treatment? What is their approach to European directives relating to urban wastewater? We can no longer rely exclusively on our own knowledge and materials.”

Tico also points out that drinking water challenges are increasingly being tackled in conjunction with the environment. “That’s why there has been, for example, a significant increase in interest in the Water in the Circular Economy programme,” he says. “Because external parties have got involved here.”

 

“Because of the enormous challenges facing us, we simply have to work together and that inevitably applies to research and knowledge exchange as well.”

Arjan Driesprong, Oasen

Daring to do things differently

Innovation in the drinking water sector does still come with the inevitable challenges. Drinking water utilities are, at their heart, management organisations that focus on preventing risks, and Waterwijs helps to provide insights based on research into where there are problems and solutions for the longer term. “As a drinking water sector, we work continuously to improve our processes,” says Tico. “That’s hardly surprising: drinking water quality has to be safeguarded at all times. But innovation involves more than just improvements: it’s also a question of renewal. You contribute other technologies, other systems. People need to think and work differently. They need to break with routine and dare to do things differently. That requires transforming our DNA. Drinking water utilities are in a wonderful position. We can have a genuine impact on society. If we want to learn how to think about innovation as a single drop of water that we can use over and over again, we need to step out of our comfort zone. I hope we can be a thriving research and innovation ecosystem. Mankind can travel to the moon, so we can certainly manage this challenge.”

This article was published in Dutch in the Waterwijs magazine – Van kennis naar doen. You can read the magazine here.