Enr environmental publisher, Pam McFarland, spoke with Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Global Water, Waste and Energy Management Services, Giant Veolia, a Fortune 500 company based in Aubervilliers, France. A obtained his studies in Physics, Mathematics and Engineering, she has been CEO of Chief since 2022 and formerly she has been in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Brachlianoff He was recently in the United States to meet with local officials in Los Angeles about gunpowder mitigation and give speech to students at Arizona University. The exchange has been edited for more clarity
Enr: You were in California this week to talk to leaders and teams about the fires of the. California has numerous water tanks in different parts of the State and more supply projects under construction. Could you talk about what is needed?
Brachlianoff: My thoughts are first targeting people who had an impact directly on those fires and the firefighters who still fight them. We have the short -term immediate crisis and then the long -term half -term, that is, how do we build resistant cities? Resistant meaning, where you can have something as critical and crucial as water provided 24 hours throughout the year at an affordable price, and whatever the circumstances, included in cases of large fires. We need to support the [crisis teams]And I passed this message to the authorities on mobile units to provide water if needed, or how to help the cleansed ones, because they will be large and you will also have dangerous materials inside the rubble. So this is the most immediate crisis.
But what is so important is what we do later. Since these types of extreme events are repeated again and again, more often and more intensity, and because we see the direct consequences of climate change, the question is, as you planned, so that the consequences next time are more time Do you go down and how do we build sustainable cities? This is where the water goes straight to its place. We have solutions to help water conservation, water recycling, even desalination. This is probably a combination of solutions. There is no magic wand. There is a combination of things we can do to plan and limit the consequences of climate change. Therefore, we must help in the adaptation of large cities like Los Angeles.
As a larger company working in 45 countries, we have dealt with crisis situations worldwide, from Bush fires in Australia to large floods in Spain. This is hitting everywhere, basically on the planet. The United States only last year, 80% of the population was directly affected by the shortage of water.
Enr: Water utilities often say they are overwhelmed between water quality standards and that they only maintain the updated infrastructure. Do you have any concerns about the piece of money and funding and what are some ways to meet the financing needs?
Brachlianoff: I think solutions need to be affordable. We need to raise the standards of drinking water for everyone, not just the richest. You don’t want water to become a luxury product. That is why, when I talk about innovation, it is not only the innovation of technology for this; It is actually making water supply more efficient and, therefore, more affordable in solutions provided. An example is to reduce leaks in the water distribution network. You can do it oldly, which is to replace the pipes in a very systematic way. Or you can make a replacement of pipes just when necessary and where it is needed in the specific section. How do we do it? Using sensors, AI and digital tools to detect leaks when passing. This is innovation, which is an accessibility and efficiency service.
Enr: What are some technologies that you think will really take off in the water sector in the coming years?
Brachlianoff: I think a technology available now, but it has to be faster, is recycling: Recycling water and recycling of wastewater. It is a very good way to deal with scarcity and it is a resource that grows as the population does.
Enr: Desalination is a technology that is still expensive. Do you see that water recycling ends up dominating more from the water sector market or is there some place for desalination?
Brachlianoff: Recycling is usually much less expensive, though with innovation companies such as Veolia have been able to reduce the cost of desalination by a [factor of] Five over the past twenty years. The IIT is even more expensive, but much less than it was because it is now much more energy efficient. So again you see innovation at the service of accessibility.
Enr: How important are the collaborations between the academic, industry and communities to foster innovation?
Brachlianoff: The collaborations are paramount in various stages, such as between public and private sectors. As companies provide efficiency, they offer the ability to take what is learned elsewhere to provide solutions around the planet that we already know they are already working. Therefore, this is a type of collaboration. Another type of collaboration is only to base the community, because there is no shape. The solutions must be adapted to specific needs. They may not be the same in Arizona as it is in Maine. The solutions must be developed between elected officials, NGOs, universities and private companies.
Universities play an important role, not only for technological innovations, but also to develop the next generation of experts who will be here to face new solutions that we need to find. It is a very interesting challenge for universities and students because we talk about multidisciplinary learning. Students would need engineering training, but also knowledge of social sciences or financial services, etc. It is a healthy multidisciplinary approach, which is quite new compared to the type of university program you had ten years ago.
Enr: Can you say more about this? I know there is a shortage of engineers entering the field.
Brachlianoff: What we have to do is attract more and more students to work in engineering because everything we do is useful. To deal with the biggest problems on our planet, such as space and population, also has attraction. When I spoke at the University of Arizona, I met dozens of students. They had great questions and were very enthusiastic about the perspective of this industry. So yes, we have to attract more talent, but I think we have a very important attraction power for our mission, which is to help cities and industries prosper.
Enr: What are some areas of opportunity you see for Veolia in the coming years?
Brachlianoff: I see many opportunities for the water technologies we unfold. We are talking about Supry in Arizona and the West Coast now, but I could tell you about the Middle East, Australia and even southern Europe. There are unique opportunities through a large piece of the planet. The other would be to eliminate pollutants: what we do in nitrogen treatment to eliminate pollutants and decontamination, because it helps to protect human health.
