What we learnt in 2025

Reviewing the lessons, voices, and ideas that defined our journey through water in 2025.

2025 is almost over, and what a year of learning and growth it has been.

It feels important to pause and reflect on everything we’ve learned, so I’ve put together a brief recap of the key insights, the water peers who shared valuable knowledge, the categories that shape our business, and a couple of key takeaways for each.

We’ll be back on January 11th.

For now, it’s time to rethink, reset, and organise the next steps.

Mark Gilligan (Wiszo) – Water Savings / Behaviour Change

1. The key to domestic water savings lies in flush avoidance when urinating, achieved through an effervescent tablet that removes colour and odour—replacing the more than 50 litres of potable water a person uses daily just for toilet flushing.

2. To drive behaviour change, it is essential to provide information and education, along with a “nudge” and motivation. This system also delivers an economic benefit, as the product costs roughly half the cost of flushing water.

Alicia Dauth (Water Security Collective) – Water Stewardship / Water Risk / Governance

1. Water stewardship is the practice of being responsible with water resources, ensuring that use is equitable and does not negatively impact others. This requires transparent disclosure and communication of data—an area where organisations need improvement.

2. Organisations face three main types of water risks: physical risk (e.g., water quality), infrastructure risk (inability to treat effluents or manage resources), and reputational risk (stemming from the previous two).

Paul O’Callaghan (BlueTech Research) – Water Innovation & Technology / Investment

1. Commercialising water technology is inherently slow and conservative, typically requiring many years after pilot testing to reach standardisation and be included in large-scale projects.

2. Investment suffers because capital deployment timelines clash with the long lifecycle of water projects; success requires patient capital and smart capital.

José Manuel Clamagiran (Sener) – Pumped Storage / Energy Storage

1. Pumped Storage (PS) is the largest energy storage battery that exists. It is now essential for managing electrical system volatility, especially to absorb peaks in photovoltaic generation.

2. PS projects require exhaustive planning and at least six years of development, due to complex permitting and implementation. The design is highly technical and demands precise handling of hydraulic transients to ensure grid stability and equipment safety.

Carlos Rubilar Camurri – Water Strategic Communication / Water Management in Chile

1. Strategic communication is crucial because “what isn’t communicated doesn’t exist.” In Chile, urban populations often remain unaware of the severity of water scarcity because water services continue functioning.

2. Chile’s water challenges are rooted more in governance and inefficient management than in physical scarcity, reflected in poor infrastructure, regulatory gaps, and excessive permitting (“permisología”) that delays projects.

Marco (InfoTiles) – Digital Water / Data Analytics

1. Digital water solutions aim to provide near real-time analytics as a digital decision-support tool, addressing recurring technical issues such as data integration and data quality.

2. Digital technology is crucial for mitigating the “silver tsunami” (loss of expertise as experienced staff retire), by documenting knowledge so new operators can reach the same optimal decisions.

Ben Solis – Water Economics / Financing vs. Funding

1. It is essential to distinguish between financing (initial capital investment) and funding (resources needed to cover capital plus O&M costs over the project life). Funding is covered by tariffs or taxes.

2. Taxes are a key complementary tool for funding because they enable redistribution to low-income communities and can cover initial service costs until quality improves and willingness-to-pay increases.

Pablo Ruiz (Azud) – Water Efficiency / Industrial Reuse / Decentralised Solutions

1. Industries seek integrated and sustainable water solutions that deliver efficiency (water, electricity, chemicals), ensure supply security, and provide a quick return on investment (under 2–3 years).

2. Technologies such as air-assisted disc filtration can be key for industrial reuse, drastically reducing reject water (down to 0.05%), optimising OPEX, and performing robustly against organic or sticky particles typical in industrial effluents like those from the agri-food sector.

Alain Meyssonnier (IME) – Mediterranean Water Management / Water Strategy

1. The Mediterranean water strategy is based on four pillars: understanding and protecting natural resources, sobriety (minimal consumption), efficiency (across operations and design), and a diversified water mix including reuse and desalination.

2. Integration via the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus is essential, as pollution (including untreated wastewater and plastics) and climate variability (erratic rainfall and events like mini-cyclone DANA) complicate management.

Ravid Levy – Israeli Water Model / Water Reuse

1. Israel’s water success is grounded in legislation stating that all water belongs to the public domain, enabling the State to manage, allocate, and price water centrally. This creates an economically closed and financially sustainable water system (water must be self-funded).

2. Israel is a global pioneer in wastewater reuse, recycling nearly 90% of domestic wastewater, mainly for agriculture, covering about 50% of irrigation needs.

Ramon Rubio (The Water MBA) – Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) / Investment

1. The PPP model is vital for infrastructure development, enabling the sector to focus on long-term growth while transferring operational and execution risks to the private sector through contractual structures (BOT, BOOT, BOO).

2. Long-term contracts and aligned strategic visions are essential to attract investment, and this model is increasingly being exported to water-stressed countries.

Jason Hallowes (WaterSphere 360) – Satellite Data / Water Intelligence

1. Satellite technology provides accurate regional-scale data that complements limited in-situ monitoring networks, enabling more effective management and better decision-making for both short- and long-term planning.

2. The platform integrates multiple satellite metrics (rainfall, vegetation, reservoir volumes, groundwater) to track the full drought cycle and deliver actionable intelligence on water availability, drought risk, and agricultural optimisation.

Christos Charisiadis (Brine Consulting) – Brine Valorisation / Desalination

1. Brine valorisation—upcycling high-salinity waste—is a fast-growing field aiming to recover valuable resources (magnesium, bromine) and clean water, turning desalination waste into a profitable by-product.

2. Achieving Minimum Liquid Discharge (MLD) is the most commercially viable first step to reduce brine volume. Full Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) is legally targeted but rarely economically feasible, as the crystallisation stage accounts for up to 60% of total CAPEX/OPEX.

Aisha Nankanja (Rural Water Initiative) – WASH / Community Development / NGOs

1. In sub-Saharan Africa, women and children bear the greatest burden of water scarcity, spending over 200 million hours per day collectively fetching clean water, severely affecting health and economic opportunity.

2. Long-term success in rural interventions requires prioritising needs assessments and community engagement from the outset to ensure local ownership and avoid infrastructure abandonment.

Cristian Carboni (Water Europe) – European Strategy / Regulation / Resilience

1. Europe’s water management will focus on three pillars: Resilience to climate impacts, Digitalisation, and Integration of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus.

2. New EU regulation is shifting to a precautionary, risk-based approach (e.g., Water Safety Plans) rather than relying solely on compliance limits. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is being promoted so polluters (pharma, cosmetics) pay for removing micro-contaminants like PFAS.

Jesús Maza (DAQUAS) – Spanish Urban Water / Financing / Governance

1. The average urban water tariff in Spain (€1.97/m³) is insufficient to cover real O&M and investment needs required under new regulations. This results in key infrastructure—like pipelines—having renewal cycles projected at up to 400 years, which does not make sense.

2. Sector efficiency is hindered by high administrative fragmentation (8,000+ municipalities and 17 autonomous communities), requiring legislative harmonisation that elevates water management above partisan politics.

Darío Salinas Palacios (Casini) – Water Geopolitics / Spanish Water Conflict

1. Spain’s water crisis is essentially a territorial geopolitical conflict, rooted in a development model that prioritised infrastructure (transfers, dams) to meet the demands of intensive agriculture and coastal tourism.

2. Rivalries (e.g., Tajo–Segura Transfer) intensify due to fragmented governance, where autonomous regions act like “states” defending their interests, using EU directives and national politics as leverage.

Juan Murillo (Veolia Mexico) – Mexican Water Crisis / Regulation / Desalination

1. Mexico faces a severe water crisis, with metropolitan areas like Mexico City consuming up to four times the maximum water volume recommended by the WHO, placing enormous stress on groundwater sources.

2. Recent regulatory changes—after two decades of stagnation—introduce much stricter quality standards (eliminating arsenic, controlling COD), creating a major market opportunity for new technologies, especially in water reuse.

Ana Juárez – Flooding / Hydrology / Risk Mitigation

1. Growing flood risk is mainly due to construction in flood-prone areas (which seals the soil and shifts problems downstream) and climate change, which causes more intense and erratic rainfall events (like DANA).

2. Although hydrological studies and models (HEC-RAS,…) can accurately identify risk, lack of public investment and political will to build protective infrastructure remains a key issue driving disasters.

Oliver Femont (Agueres) – Flood Protection / Self-Activating Barriers

1. The Self-Closing Flood Barrier (SCFB) is a highly reliable solution for urban resilience because it activates autonomously using the floodwater itself and has only one moving part—eliminating dependency on human intervention, electricity, or mechanical reliability.

2. The barrier is a viable alternative to dikes or concrete walls in urban areas wishing to preserve river views. The investment pays for itself after the first flood, and early adoption is increasingly driven by insurer requirements.

Rafa Coca – Wastewater Treatment / Process Engineering

1. A recurring challenge in designing wastewater treatment plants is scarcity and poor quality of baseline analytical data (alkalinity, flow peaks, pollutant ratios), forcing process engineers to rely on analogies while still meeting strict performance guarantees.

2. Nutrient removal (nitrogen/phosphorus) is fundamentally an environmental protection issue to prevent eutrophication. Treatment effectiveness must be assessed holistically, considering pollutant inputs from both the plant and diffuse sources such as agriculture.

Ravi Kurani (Liquid Assets Podcast) – Water Entrepreneurship / Innovation / Investment

1. The water sector faces the major challenge of long sales cycles and regulatory barriers, discouraging venture capital and creating an investment gap relative to other tech sectors.

2. Entrepreneurs must view marketing and sales not as secondary tasks but as core disciplines. Communication quality is a critical factor for securing funding and overcoming investor scepticism.

Dirk Brusis (Skion Water) – Strategic Water Investment / Acquisition

1. Investing in water technology requires a long-term horizon (13–15 years or more). Strategic investors prioritise cultural fit, a shared long-term vision, and acquiring companies with customer access for introducing new technologies.

2. The biggest challenge water companies face today is the lack of talent. Young engineers and purpose-driven professionals are needed, and companies must compete for them by offering development and opportunity.

Tom Freyberg (Burnt Island Ventures) – Venture Capital / Early-Stage Water Investment

1. Venture capital can succeed in water by identifying well-timed entry points at early stages (seed/Series B), targeting high expected value (potential 30× returns) relative to a low entry price.

2. Entrepreneurs must build a compelling business case backed by solid evidence to raise capital—recognising that their real competition is “literally any other company” seeking investment, not just direct water-sector competitors.

Israel Hurtado (Mexican Hydrogen Association) – Green Hydrogen / Energy Transition

1. The push for Green Hydrogen is an urgent response to the race against time aiming to decarbonise electricity generation and mobility by replacing fossil fuels.

2. Due to innovation curves and economies of scale (similar to solar cost declines), Green Hydrogen production costs are expected to match Grey Hydrogen by 2030, enabling widespread adoption.

Mishelle Mejia – Water Geopolitics / Governance / Water Security

1. Conflicts and diplomatic tensions can be triggered directly by water pollution, as seen in the Honduras–Guatemala tension over massive plastic waste flows into the Caribbean via the Motagua River.

2. Water security requires establishing a single, non-politicised water authority with centralised control over all resources, as multiple uncoordinated political actors create chaos and prevent informed decision-making.

María Cardenal (Bluefield Research) – Water Reuse Market / Global Trends

1. The European water reuse market is projected at €1.8 billion ($2 billion USD) between 2023 and 2030, driven by new EU regulation and increasing water stress.

2. Project success depends on co-financing solutions (PPPs), as the main cost is not treatment technology but the new network of pipes and pumping infrastructure needed to deliver reclaimed water to end users.

Lylian Coelho (Suez / Water for All) – Global Water Leadership / PPP / SDGs

1. Redefining Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) must focus on three values: People for Value, Environment for Value, Finance for Value. This is essential for modernising ageing infrastructure and improving services in developing economies.

2. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires community engagement and cultural adaptation of solutions, as well as funding and supply-chain support to build local water and sanitation infrastructure (dignity).

Douglas Espin (Cerafiltec) – Ceramic Membranes / Water Technology

1. Ceramic membranes offer superior robustness and longevity (warranties over 20 years), and can withstand extreme conditions such as high temperatures (up to 70°C) and wide pH ranges (2–12).

2. This technology reduces plant footprint and simplifies pre-treatment (eliminating stages like sedimentation or DAF), a major advantage in industrial wastewater and desalination where water quality presents challenges.

Craig Beckman (Aqua Membranes) – RO Membrane Innovation / Energy Savings

1. Innovation focuses on replacing the traditional RO spacer mesh with a 3D-printed flow pattern, improving performance by allowing more membrane area in less space and reducing operating pressure (energy savings).

2. This results in significant energy-cost reductions (up to 4–5% in desalination) and higher productivity—critical for EPCs and developers seeking to minimise CAPEX by reducing the number of treatment trains.

Javier Lorenzo / Jochen Hamburger (GF Piping) – Thermoplastic Valves / Desalination

1. Thermoplastic valves (e.g., Type 565 Butterfly Valve) solve the problem of corrosion in marine or aggressive environments. They are much lighter (60% less weight) and offer a one-to-one replacement for metal valves without modifying the piping.

2. Despite being plastic, they reach high performance (PN16) and are Industry 4.0-ready with compact position sensors and connectivity protocols for advanced monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Veronika Z (Waterloop Solutions) – Reuse Implementation / Regulatory Risk

1. Water reuse is not a technology problem (the technology exists), but a problem of bridging the gap between scientific research and real-life implementation, requiring transparency, scientific evidence, and ongoing collaboration with authorities and the public.

2. Implementation is constrained by permitting and perceived risks. It is essential to follow a strict, multi-layered risk-management plan (as required by EU regulation) to demonstrate safety and feasibility to authorities.

Walid Khoury (Desalitycs / WEF) - P2P Business / Corporate Strategy / Africa

1. The water industry is highly innovative (e.g., capable of short-cutting the natural water cycle), but the main barrier is adoption of innovation, which must be overcome by developing new adoption models and incentives, often driven by political legislation

2. Success in challenging markets like Sub-Saharan Africa depends on building strong People-to-People (P2P) relationships, providing local support/expertise, and offering training to build the next generation of technical professionals

Antoine Walter (Don’t Waste Water Podcast) - Water Innovation / Investment / Lithium Geopolitics

1. Demand for lithium (for batteries/EVs) is projected to multiply by 4 to 6 times by 2030, driving intense global exploration, even though over 90% of current refining capacity is located in China, raising geopolitical concerns.

2. The extraction process is shifting toward Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE), leveraging advanced water technologies (membranes, ion exchange, adsorption) to extract lithium from low-concentration brines, opening new avenues for water tech companies.

Jesse Ndyamuhaki (Ryan’s Well Foundation) - WASH / Community Development / NGO

1. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women and children bear the heaviest burden of water scarcity, spending over 200 million hours daily fetching water, severely impacting their health and economic opportunity,.

2. Long-term success in rural WASH interventions demands prioritizing community needs assessment and comprehensive engagement to ensure local ownership and prevent infrastructure failure or abandonment.

Markus E. (Agru) - Piping / HDPE / Desalination

1. The largest diameter solid wall, single-extruded HDPE pipes (up to 3,500 mm) are produced in the US, leveraging proximity to the Atlantic Ocean for towing long strings (up to 600 meters) directly to intake and outfall project sites globally,.

2. The integrity and long-term durability of HDPE piping systems depend critically on using the highest quality raw materials (e.g., PE 100 plus standard) that include UV protection (carbon black content) and can withstand harsh installation conditions.

Santiago Gomez (World Youth Parliament for Water - LAC) - Water Governance / Latin America Challenges / Youth Participation

1. The main challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is not always water scarcity, but poor governance and inefficient management, which results in severe operational deficiencies, such as the loss of 20% to 40% of transported water, and a lack of universal access to WASH services,,.

2. Representing young professionals in LAC, his group works to amplify the region’s voice regarding six main problems (including climate risks and lack of source protection), successfully integrating their proposals into the official outputs of the Ministerial Summit for Water in Peru.

Any suggestion?

If there’s anything you think we should change in what we’re doing or offering, send me a message on LinkedIn—I read every reply. No matter what.

Have ideas for new episodes or essays? Any project or collaboration you’d like us to analyze? Or someone from our community we should feature?

The Water MBA will be shaped around what water professionals truly need. Simple as that. I’m just opening the door.

Thank you and see you on 2026

By now, you may have noticed that we’re bringing together an incredible group of water colleagues from all over the world, each representing a different piece of the water puzzle.

2024 laid the first layer, 2025 strengthened it, and 2026 is shaping up to be even better.

There are still many areas we need to explore, but we’re moving in the right direction.

Thank you for being part of this community, for reading, sharing, and sending your messages.

And a special thanks to our 71 members who stay most engaged through our Tuesday essay editions and enjoying the full content of our TV.

Your support truly makes this possible.

I appreciate your time.