Wavin | Why we need to think of our cities as giant water collection facilities
Friday 1 december 2023
Like pandemics of the past, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons on how we can improve urban life. It has made clear that we need to reorganize cities around a more local and circular way of life with resilience and sustainability at the core. This is most important when it comes to the most essential aspect of civilization: water.
The way we treat water today is unsustainable and inefficient. As soon as it enters our cities, whether that is as surface water, groundwater, or rainwater, we try to get rid of it. We treat water linearly – source to use to disposal – instead of circularly, presenting a great opportunity to future-proof cities and make them more livable for centuries to come.
Circularity means water is reused rather than used once and never more. At its core, circularity mimics nature, where everything is reused and nothing is wasted. A zero waste mentality would go a long way toward alleviating the global water crisis and many of the other major 21st century environmental challenges.
In this vein, we must see our cities as giant water collection facilities. As precipitation falls more erratically, cities must be prepared to capture water when and where it falls – for instance, on roofs and streets to avoid expensive transportation of clean water from elsewhere.
Orbia Wavin’s Geertjo van Dijk (Global Product Manager Stormwater Management) shares his vision in this month’s Smart Water Magazine. You can read the full article via this link.
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