How can digitalisation advance resilience, smart management and efficiency in Europe’s water sector? This was the question discussed during today’s workshop organised by the EU Digital Water Coalition and moderated by the European Commission.

We welcome the European Commission’s intention to launch an EU Digitalisation Action Plan for Water as one of the flagship initiatives to achieve the objectives of the Water Resilience Strategy. Within this scope, digitalisation should not be considered an end, but a means to concretely improve capacities in water resource management.

AI and the Internet of Things, for example, can bring significant benefits to water utilities, and many APE members are already investing significantly in this domain. However, in order for AI and IoT to deliver their potential, some challenges should be addressed first as a priority; these include data quality, human expertise, interoperability and cybersecurity.
Also, we should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and instead focus on solutions that provide actual operational value.

This means addressing the combined challenges related to infrastructure, data, skills and connectivity.

This was the key message of our intervention in today’s working group: the EU should provide a framework that supports utilities in digitalising where it brings real operational value, while allowing solutions to reflect the very different realities of European water operators.