"German Water Partnership" launches at IFAT 2008
The German water industry and water-research organisations are further expanding their position on international markets with the new umbrella brand German Water Partnership. As a central contacts points for inquiries from abroad this initiative gathers together the wide range of expertise in the country’s water technology sector. At the same time it is intended as a joint contribution to implementing the internationally agreed developments goals in water supply and sanitation. "Solving the world’s water-supply and waste-water problems is a tremendous challenge. But it also opens up great opportunities. Germany companies are in an excellent position to further expand their leading position in this market," said Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister for the Environment, opening the 15th International Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Refuse and Recycling (IFAT) at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre.
With over 2,555 exhibitors from 44 countries, IFAT is the world’s biggest display of technology for the field of water and waste. "IFAT 2008 is a shop window for the German environmental technology sector, and as such it is also a barometer of the success of environmental policies that are aimed at encouraging innovations, market-orientation and private-sector initiative," emphasised Mr Gabriel.
"Around the world appropriate solution packages are needed. If you want to be successful you must play a role in advising, even at the stage of setting up the necessary legal and institutional framework, and then developing the right financial concepts. Project planning and project management, delivering the technical components and drawing up operator and management concepts - all of this has to be combined to suit the particular need. The German water industry contains all of these components. With the German Water Partnership we want to bring together the many competences in the German water industry - the companies, the research establishments, the trade associations and the administrative bodies - and provide strategic orientation," said the Federal Minister.
The German Water Partnership is a joint initiative involving many companies from the German water industry, water-research establishments and water-industry associations. It also involves five Federal Ministries - those for research, economics, economic cooperation, the environment and the Foreign Office. The presentation by the German Water Partnership at IFAT, where it has a 500 square-metre stand, is also the official launch of the operational activities of the initiative. As of now the German Water Partnership has an office in Berlin which acts as a central contacts point for inquiries from abroad. The association which supports the initiative was founded on 8 April 2008, and it already has 140 members.
In order to achieve the millennium goal of the United Nations, namely of halving the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015, each year over 80 million people have to gain access to clean water. How to produce and distribute this water, and process the waste water in an environmentally-friendly way, and how to increase the efficiency of water use are cornerstones in building a sustainable water economy.
The water sector is an international market with a future - experts put global turnover in water supply and waste-water technology at currently 250 billion euros - in the coming decade this is set to double to around 500 billion euros. According to the OECD (2003) water technology exported by the world’s biggest exporter, Germany, is second only to measurement, control and systems technology in the country’s list of exports. In terms of global trade, Germany’s water and waste-water technology accounts for around 16.5 percent, which puts it in second place behind the world market leader, the USA.
There is extensive need for investment in proper water supply and waste-water processing in Eastern Europe, for example, in the emerging economies of Asia, and also not least in the developing countries. The discussion about climate change has further underlined the importance of efficient solutions for utilising ever dwindling water resources. Innovative technology is one part of the answer, but also important are integrated concepts and system solutions for the management of water and water supplies.