A Danish US partnership regarding water technology was launched in 4 April. The Danish company Ramboll participates in the partnership in order to help migrating water resource issues in California.
Droughts have always plagued California, but the UN Climate Panel and countless other scientists warn that climate change will worsen droughts in drought-prone regions, even rendering some areas permanently arid.
In order to avoid even more extensive problems related to the lack of water, a range of companies and utilities in both Denmark and the USA including Ramboll have formed a new forum for collaboration named Water Technology Alliance (WTA).
The alliance is formally inaugurated 4 April by Ulla Tørnæs, Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, at the conference “Water /More for Less – Sharing knowledge and best practise from the US & Denmark”. The main purpose is to share knowledge and develop new solutions for the water-related problems caused by climate change.
Achieving more together
The Danish water sector is world-leading in sustainable water resource management and avoiding non-revenue water, and Karen Kubick, director of the Wastewater Enterprise Capital Improvement Program for the City and County of San Francisco’s Public utilities Commission (SFPUC) and member of the 2015-2016 Board of Trustees for the Water Environment Federation (WEF), has been looking forward to the collaboration:
“I am looking forward to sharing San Francisco’s story with our colleagues from Denmark, and learning more about their one water approach at the WATER/MORE FOR LESS program on April 4. This type of in-person cultural knowledge exchange, while rare, allows the world’s most sustainable practices to be shared and implemented across the globe so we can achieve more together,” she says in her comment prior to the conference.
Max Halkjær, Global Service Line Leader for Water Resources in Ramboll Water, also looks forward to collaborating with the other WTA members on bringing innovative solutions to the market in the Western part of the US:
“Even at this very early stage we see the benefit from working closely together. We accelerate and share our insight in the market and we use the WTA to get access to potential clients as well as the innovative environment in California,” he says.
The WTA is part of the Consulate General of Denmark with offices in Chicago and San Francisco and supported by The Danish Industry Foundation. Besides Ramboll, it consists of the companies Kamstrup, Applied Biomimetec, Danfoss, Grundfos, Smith Innovation, Skytem, DHI, and Leif Koch A/S.
Danish Water Alliance Helps Solve California’s Water Challenges, written by Michael Rothenborg and Martin Zoffmann.
This article was written for Ramboll Water. We thank the company for their kind permission to republish the article.