Circularity – resilience, our challenges

The need to incorporate incentives for rational use in water tariffs, “so that we don’t continue to wash the sidewalks with treated water, which is an environmental crime”, pointed out, among others, the president of EYATH SA, Agis Papadopoulos, from the stage of the 3-day event conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled “Energy Security and Green Development”.

In the panel on “Circular economy and sustainable resource management”, Mr. Papadopoulos presented EYATH’s best practices in the field of circular economy: among others, utilization of secondary water in the facilities, exploitation of biomethane for the co-generation of heat and electricity in the Processing Facility Thessaloniki wastewater, as well as disposal of the dried sludge in the logic of waste to energy. At the same time, however, he pointed out the need for the price of social goods such as water to “reflect a significant part of their cost”, so that the sustainable development of the companies that manage them is possible.

More generally, for the water supply and sewerage companies, he distinguished two axes or challenges for the future: circularity – sustainability and the resilience of the infrastructures. “The two are not competitive. An infrastructure that will be designed or upgraded to be resistant to more extreme weather events such as heavy rains or drought will be more sustainable and more environmentally acceptable overall in its life cycle”, explained the president of EYATH.