project

GRROW – Generational and Radical Rethinking of the Water Sector

The GRROW project will have a sequel: the GRROW lab! If you want to participate as a participant, register now via this link. or visit the GRROW-lab project page.
What should the water sector look like in 2070? In what respect does the sector need to radically reinvent itself. And what are the things that we really need to keep? As part of the collective research programme of the water companies, the BTO, KWR wants to address that question with the people who can still play an active role in the Dutch and Flemish water sector in 2070: water professionals and researchers under the age of 35.

Radical rethinking of complex systems

Despite the fact that the drinking water supplies in the Netherlands can be considered very reliable and safe, there is a growing awareness of challenges related to issues such as climate change and urbanisation. To continue to supplying drinking water in the long term, water companies are being forced to rethink their current practices. However, rethinking and adapting complex systems such as the drinking water infrastructure represent a challenge at both the technical and institutional levels. For example, the costs of infrastructure are often anchored in the future and these structures are designed to stay in place for decades. As a result, fundamentally rethinking the system structure is often both administratively and technically difficult.

In order to rethink and to look to the future from a new perspective, this project focuses on the young people in the drinking water sector.

In order to rethink and to look to the future from a new perspective, this project focuses on the young people in the drinking water sector.

Connecting to the future and to each other

In order to rethink and to look to the future from a new perspective, this project focuses on the young people in the drinking water sector. Working with young (< 35 years old) researchers and drinking water professionals, our aim will be to decipher the principles or paradigms underpinning the current urban drinking water chain. By jointly rethinking and evaluating these principles, we can determine which elements we want to cherish and preserve, and which of them need to be readjusted in the future. We hope this approach will connect young people, not only with each other but also with the future of the sector.

Methodological, substantive and process-based reconnaissance

This exploratory study will target three goals:

  1. The development of a methodology to investigate, with professionals in the drinking water sector from different generations and positions, which assumptions and paradigms currently govern our actions. An important component of this methodology is an intergenerational dialogue in which young water professionals themselves engage in dialogue with experienced colleagues about the sector and its future.
  2. The drafting of a range of visions about the future of the urban water chain in 2070. On the basis of this radical rethinking, guiding principles can be identified for the possible futures of the sector.
  3. The establishment of a network with young drinking water professionals in which they have the opportunity to engage with each other and also to raise the issues they feel are important for the future of the sector. This project will also explore the issue of whether it is possible to maintain the network that has been established after the completion of this project.

Download the visualizations of the GRROW future images below

  1. Collectieve keten
  2. Water op maat
  3. Lozers zijn losers