Rian Kloosterman
Theme: Integral Asset Management

‘Without resilience water supply will eventually be unaffordable and unreliable’

The water supply infrastructure has a very long lifespan; on the other hand, our environment is changing ever more quickly. Because of new technologies and different behaviour, the water demand may change rapidly. Climate change has a profound influence on the availability of our sources and on the commitment of the infrastructure, as demand patterns change drastically. In this context, the proper design, commitment and control of our drinking water infrastructure is a great challenge on which I work with great enthusiasm, and for which much knowledge is required. For this, Vitens uses the concept of resilience, with the aim that the infrastructure has sufficient resilience to remain functioning under changing circumstances, without major adjustments. In turn, this raises questions as how to introduce resilience in water distribution, in the design of a treatment plant, or in ensuring a sufficiently large licenced abstraction capacity. To apply resilience well, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of our infrastructure. What is the lifespan of our assets? Which performance requirements do we set? Which risks and costs do we have to deal with? Developing this knowledge for having the asset management process functioning well is of great importance for keeping the supply of drinking water affordable and reliable both now and in the future.

Theme ambassador Rian Kloosterman can be reached at Rian.Kloosterman@vitens.nl