Pioneering a circular future for sanitation, wastewater treatment, and reuse
The vision for a circular water future is urgent, driven by climate change, water scarcity, and contaminants like PFAS. The EU’s Water Resilience Strategy, endorsed in May 2025, offers a framework for transformation. We spoke with Professor Blanca Antizar, Director at Isle Utilities and iAgua Mujer del Año 2022, to explore how collective action, education, innovation, and business creation can deliver a resilient water system focused on sanitation, wastewater treatment, and reuse.
Why is collective action vital for the EU Water Resilience Strategy’s success in sanitation and reuse?
The strategy is a game-changer, recognising water as a shared resource needing a shared response. With 70% of EU regions facing water stress, as 470 MEPs noted, no single stakeholder—utility, municipality, or regulator—can address these challenges alone. Sanitation and wastewater treatment are critical, intersecting public health, environmental protection, and resource recovery. Wastewater is a potential source of water, energy, and nutrients, but circularity requires policymakers to set enabling regulations, industries to adopt innovations, researchers to develop solutions, and communities to embrace reuse.
Isle’s Water Action Platform connects global utilities, tech providers, and regulators to share knowledge and accelerate circular practices
Isle’s Water Action Platform connects global utilities, tech providers, and regulators to share knowledge and accelerate circular practices. Projects like Horizon Europe CircSyst demonstrate this, with utilities testing reuse technologies, researchers optimising nutrient recovery, and policymakers ensuring safe reuse.
Can you share examples of how Isle is driving innovation in sanitation and reuse?
Innovation is the engine of progress in the water sector. Isle’s Trial Reservoir, a £1 million loan fund launched in 2021, supports trials of technologies at TRL 8-9, ready for real-world use. We’ve backed advanced PFAS filtration systems to address “forever chemicals” in wastewater, with our Technology Approval Group ensuring only effective solutions reach utilities. Smart wastewater systems, using AI to optimise treatment and reduce energy use, are vital for circularity—turning wastewater into a resource for irrigation or industrial use. Horizon Europe BOOST-IN, co-funded by the EU and UKRI, empowers SMEs to scale such technologies with funding and market access, ensuring innovations reach communities.
Why is education critical alongside innovation, and how does it shape the water sector’s future?
Our services help de-risk the development and commercialization of technologies, creating value and accelerating innovative solutions
Education, innovation, and business creation are interdependent. The water sector’s risk-averse nature requires a skilled workforce adept in circular practices. Through the IWA Leap Partnership Programme, we train water professionals in PFAS mitigation, reuse technologies, and adaptive governance. The Water Europe Skills and Human Resources Expert group addresses workforce development and talent retention. These programs foster a circular mindset, viewing wastewater as a resource. Webinars with Professor Jan Hofman, accessible via IWA Connect Plus, cover regulatory compliance and community engagement, equipping professionals to navigate technical and social challenges.
Public education is equally vital to overcome misconceptions about water security, such as the paradox in Spain, where visible water abundance masks scarcity. A clear, sustained public outreach campaign—through schools, media, and community programs—can build trust in reuse and clarify the urgency of water conservation. This is a call to action: governments, utilities, and educators must prioritise public awareness to align perceptions with reality and drive sustainable behaviours.
How does supporting entrepreneurship advance sanitation and wastewater treatment?
Entrepreneurship bridges innovation and impact. Great ideas do not automatically become solutions—someone needs to bring them to market. SMEs are often the ones driving cutting-edge water technologies, but they face barriers like funding, market access, and regulatory barriers. That is where initiatives like Horizon Europe BOOST-IN come in. By providing SMEs with resources to scale, we are ensuring innovations like advanced membrane systems or nutrient recovery technologies reach utilities and communities.
By leading exploitation in EU-funded projects, we are building a pan-European ecosystem that drives innovation and new businesses
Take resource recovery as an example. Startups are developing ways to extract phosphorus or nitrogen from wastewater for use as fertilisers, supporting circularity and reducing reliance on finite resources. But without support, these companies struggle to get past the pilot stage. By fostering entrepreneurship, we are not just creating businesses; we are creating ecosystems where innovation thrives, jobs are generated, and circular solutions become mainstream. This is especially important in sanitation, where scalable, cost-effective technologies can transform how we manage wastewater globally.
How will the circular economy shape sanitation and reuse, and what’s collaboration’s role?
The circular economy redefines wastewater as a resource, recovering water, energy, and nutrients. Horizon Europe CircSyst develops bioreactors for energy recovery and modular reuse systems, reducing waste and carbon footprints. Collaboration is key: CircSyst unites utilities, researchers, and industry, while our Water Action Platform enables global knowledge exchange by allowing, for example, a Spanish utility to learn from an Australian reuse project. This type of projects and strategies supported by community engagement, build trust, essential for reuse success.
What are the main challenges to a circular water future, and how can the water sector address them?
Fragmentation—silos among utilities, regulators, and industries—slows circular solution adoption. Risk-aversion, public misconceptions, and funding gaps for SMEs are barriers. Collaborative platforms like Isle’s Water Action Platform align stakeholders, while initiatives like Trial Reservoir de-risk innovations like PFAS filters. Education, including public outreach, builds skills and trust. Policymakers must create enabling regulations and funding. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) upcoming Water, Marine, and Maritime Knowledge and Innovation Community (EIT Water), launching in 2026, will unite business, education, and research to drive innovation, support startups, and promote skills in areas like data analytics and sustainable blue economy practices, aligning with the EU Water Resilience Strategy to strengthen circularity and resilience.
What is your vision for the water sector in 2030 in sanitation and reuse?
Small and medium-sized enterprises often drive cutting-edge water technologies but face barriers like funding, market access, and regulations
By 2030, sanitation and reuse will anchor a circular economy. Wastewater plants will be resource hubs, producing water, energy, and nutrients at scale. AI-driven monitoring and advanced filtration will make treatment efficient and reuse accessible. Skilled professionals and informed communities will embrace reused water as a sustainable alternative source of water. This requires action now: policymakers advancing the EU strategy, industries adopting innovation, and educators preparing professionals and the public. At Isle, we drive this through trials, platforms, and partnerships, staying responsive to global water needs.
In summary
Professor Blanca Antizar’s insights highlight the urgency of transforming sanitation, wastewater treatment, and reuse. The paradox of water abundance amid scarcity, as seen, for example, in Spain, underscores the need for public education to align perceptions with reality. The EU Water Resilience Strategy offers a roadmap, but success hinges on collective action, education, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A robust public outreach campaign is essential to foster trust and sustainable behaviours. By uniting stakeholders, empowering professionals, and scaling technologies, the water sector can build a circular, resilient future. As Antizar says, “The journey is complex, but a world where water is valued and sustained is within our reach.”