CISPE’s response to the European Fee’s report warns that the ensuing regulatory uncertainty may harm the area’s economic system.
“Imposing new, standalone water rules may improve prices, create regulatory fragmentation, and deter funding. This dangers shifting infrastructure outdoors the EU, undermining each sustainability and sovereignty objectives,” CISPE mentioned in its newest coverage advice, Advancing water resilience via digital innovation and accountable stewardship. “Such regulatory uncertainty may additionally scale back Europe’s attractiveness for climate-neutral infrastructure funding at a time when different areas provide clear and secure frameworks for inexperienced information progress,” it added.
CISPE’s suggestions are a mixture of regulatory harmonization, elevated funding, and technological enchancment. At the moment, water reuse regulation is directed in the direction of agriculture. Up to date regulation throughout the bloc would encourage extra environment friendly use of water in industrial settings resembling datacenters, the asosciation mentioned.
On the identical time, nations battling restricted public sector budgets are usually not investing sufficient in water infrastructure. This might solely be addressed by tapping new funding by encouraging formal public-private partnerships (PPPs), it urged: “Such a framework would allow the event of sustainable financing fashions that harness non-public sector innovation and capital, whereas making certain sturdy public oversight and accountability.”
Nonetheless, higher water administration would additionally require real-time information gathered via networks of IoT sensors coupled to AI analytics and prediction programs. To that finish, cloud datacenters had been much less a drain on water assets than a part of the reply:
“A cloud-based strategy would enable water utilities and industrial customers to centralize information assortment, automate operational processes, and leverage machine studying algorithms for improved decision-making,” argued CISPE.