World Water Week 2021: Global Water Experts Discuss Building Resilience Faster

We spoke with a few of our global water solutions experts about this theme to see what “Building Resilience Faster” means to them. Watch the video below to hear from three Antea Group experts. You can also read their answers in the transcript below the video.

Julie Mouton, Water Stewardship Lead, Food and Beverage Segment Lead 
Antea Group USA

 “Building resiliency faster, what that means to me is that coming together to work in the community where we source our water from. First, understanding what those challenges are, and then coming together as a community, as industries, as all water users to actually fix the challenge. There's a lot of collective actions going on, but there's definitely not enough, and I think that collective action is where we can make the most benefit. And once you understand and identify what those challenges are, bring the right stakeholder groups together. Not just from industries, but also from non-governmental organizations, they're doing a lot of great things. But also, the government side, those that are regulating our water supplies and those who have the pulse of the infrastructure challenges, as well as the scientific community and the engineering community. So, bringing all those relevant players is what I think building resilience faster means.”

Nadia Jebbour, Senior Hydrogeologist and Water Resource Expert
Antea Group France

“So, when we talk about building resilience faster, and for example, when you talk on one aspect, which is water scarcity, it is in my view, very important to set really ambitious goals to achieve, to protect the water resource on one hand, so really setting those targets. Then, to work together with different stakeholders to achieve those targets, that's how we gonna get there faster. Because sometimes, industrials can set on a project, a very ambitious one, but without the help of other stakeholders, that could be authorities, could be NGO's, could be other industrials. Working together is really the best way forward to achieve the protection of the water resource and help reduce water scarcity.”

Hilton Lucio, CEO
Antea Group Brazil

“We've been working with business continuity plans around water for a while, and that's where you start finding the pillars for resilience long time. A couple of challenges that we have already perceived is that if you are working with water, you should not expect results in one year or two. We are already using the word transgenerational for some of these challenges. If you're starting something today, you're going to see solutions coming in a couple of years and people should not confuse that with a long period of time. This is actually where we can really help, because it really doesn't matter how big the challenge is. The philosophy of implementation of your actions is what's really important and the effectiveness of your actions. So, even if it's going to take a lot of time, if you start doing the right thing today, you're going to end up with good results. And to find a right balance between what you need to do and the velocity that you have to use to do that is the big challenge to create resilience.”

We asked the same three water solutions experts, Nadia, Julie, and Hilton, to talk briefly about how they work with their clients on shared water challenges and water sustainability solutions. This is what they said:

Nadia Jebbour, Senior Hydrogeologist and Water Resource Expert
Antea Group France

“When working with my clients on water sustainability projects, one really important point that we were aware and develop is that it's really important to understand what is happening outside the four walls of an operating facility, and really understand what is happening on the watershed. Every watershed in the globe has its own specific set of challenges and identifying the shared water challenges and trying to address them by having projects is really a key approach. Not only it would help the watershed, the stakeholders, the ecosystem, but it will also help securing the water supply of the facility.”

Hilton Lucio, CEO
Antea Group Brazil

“I think that what's really important to discuss over these days is how these ESG policies and practices are going to impact your water management policies and practices. I don't think there's anything more transversal than water, right? And in certain locations around the world, you can easily find results if you truly think about what you can do outside of your boundaries, right? So, it doesn't matter how efficient your plant is. If there's a municipality on the other side of the fence, spending, like in some cases in Latin America, up to 60% of the water they treat, there's no way you're going to reach water security in that region. So, it's time to start thinking about how to engage with others in other programs that might not be your programs, but are going to bring you results in a much faster and efficient way. That's the current challenge that we are helping our clients with.”

Julie Mouton, Water Stewardship Lead, Food and Beverage Segment Lead
Antea Group USA

“The majority of my role is working with clients on addressing shared water challenges. So, typically when we engage with clients, we figure out what locations are at most risk for these different shared water challenges. We'll define the high-risk locations and then we'll do a deeper analysis on the actual watershed, the water supply, what risks are they facing from a physical, regulatory, and social reputational perspective. Then we help them define or understand what these challenges are and define a plan to mitigate those challenges. It could be at the inside of their four walls, maybe around working on efficiency projects, working to increase or include circularity or replenishment within their own facility. For example, around wastewater reuse or reusing water instead of a once-through pass, or it could be outside of their four walls, looking at different stakeholders to work with on these shared water challenges.”

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