Wider Uptake partners and stakeholders met in a “mobile lab” in Palermo, Italy, October 17-19, 2022. The focus was on reuse of wastewater resources in the towns of Corleone and Marineo.

Wider Uptake partners and stakeholders met in a “mobile lab” in Palermo, Italy, October 17-19, 2022. The focus was on reuse of wastewater resources in the towns of Corleone and Marineo.

It was an opportunity to study the solutions that are demonstrated in Sicily, with focus on challenges and opportunities for further development and implementation of water-smart solutions in the participants’ own and other cases.

Workshop with stakeholders

The partners in Wider Uptake met with AMAP (operator of the wastewater treatment plants) and local stakeholders from Corleone and Marineo. Face-to-face interaction facilitated social learning and provided opportunity for new relation-building.

The aim was to discuss different solutions (e.g., wastewater reuse or resource recovery) and/or dimensions (societal, environmental, economic, organizational, regulatory, and technical challenges), before sharing and summarizing joint insights.

The following research questions were addressed:

What are the potential and challenges/barriers for implementing water smart solutions considering present and future conditions (societal, environmental, economic, organizational, regulatory, and technical) experienced by project participants and different local stakeholders?

• Commonalities and differences between the different demo cases

Are there common steps/actions/measures needed in all cases to overcome identified challenges/barriers and realise the potential?

• Required steps/actions/measures
• Time distribution of required steps/actions/measures, e.g., present, near future, long term

Outcomes

Individual reflections and group findings will be summarised in a report, aiming to provide:

• important take-home messages for the visiting participants
• new insights for the local stakeholders based on the perceptions, experiences and ideas/suggestions shared by the visiting participants
• basis for a publication co-authored by the participants

The outcomes will be relevant for the roadmap (WP6) and the “forecasting step”. Moreover, feedbacks from stakeholders will be used for business model development (WP4) and for the assessment of water smartness (WP5).

Book launch and opening of wastewater Resource Recovery Facility laboratory

The participants also got to attend the official opening of the Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility laboratory at the University of Palermo (UNIPA).

Finally, the event included launching of a book on water-smart solutions, edited by Ashok Pandey and Giorgio Mannina.