Polski
Brussels Bets on Water Resilience, While Digital Twins Cut Energy Use at Treatment Plants
This week the water industry sees policy meet technology. The European Commission is launching a new expert platform to speed up implementation of the EU's water strategy, while a treatment-plant technology provider is showing that a digital twin of the process can genuinely cut energy and chemical consumption. We look at what these two developments mean for Poland's water and wastewater sector.
01 · EU Policy
Brussels Responds to Drought: A New Platform for Water Resilience
The European Commission, together with the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, has launched the Water Resilience Stakeholder Platform — a forum bringing together more than 50 senior experts from across the water sector [1]. The platform's job is to identify real barriers to implementing the EU's water strategy and to accelerate progress on three fronts: digitalisation, water-use efficiency and water reuse.
The initiative comes with two concrete support tools: the European Water Academy, aimed at building skills across the sector, and an investment accelerator that will back 20 innovative pilot projects. This is no coincidence — the decision follows yet another year of extreme heat and drought in Europe, which have painfully exposed just how badly the continent needs a coherent water resilience policy. For Polish water utilities and technology companies, it's a clear signal of where EU priorities — and funding — are headed in the coming years.
02 · Digitalisation & Automation
Digital Twins at Treatment Plants: Less Energy, Less Nitrous Oxide
It's in this same spirit of digitalisation, championed by the EU platform, that Aquatic Informatics' latest release deserves attention. The company has launched WIMS Process Manager, a new module within the Hach WIMS platform built on digital twin technology and wastewater process modelling [2]. The tool brings together data from SCADA, the lab and simulations in one place, letting treatment plant operators forecast treatment outcomes up to 24 hours ahead and test operational changes on a virtual model before rolling them out on the real facility.
The results at pilot sites are striking: up to 20% reductions in energy and chemical use, and up to 35% less nitrous oxide emissions — a greenhouse gas that can be disproportionately costly to the environment in wastewater treatment processes. The tool is already available in the Americas, Australia and Europe, meaning Polish treatment plants planning automation upgrades have a real opportunity to take a closer look.
Taken together, the two stories point in the same direction from two different angles — Brussels is building the framework and funding for digitalising the water sector, while the market is already delivering concrete tools that turn that digitalisation into hard savings on energy and lower emissions.
Summary
Summary
EU water policy is accelerating, and technologies like process digital twins are no longer futuristic — they're solutions already on the market, cutting the operating costs of treatment plants. Want to see firsthand how these technologies and EU trends are playing out in the Polish market? Join us at WATER Poland – Targi Technologii Odzyskiwania Wody i Gospodarki Wodnej (Water Expo Poland), where technology suppliers, water utilities and water management experts come together.
Invitation
EU water resilience policy and digital twins for treatment plants aren't some distant future — they're the direction the industry is heading in today. See firsthand the technologies that genuinely save energy and water, and talk to experts about new regulations and EU funding. Join us at WATER Poland and find out how to prepare your company or utility for the years ahead.
WATER Poland 2026Footnotes
[1] Komisja Europejska (DG Environment) — https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-launches-water-resilience-stakeholder-platform-2026-09-21_en[2] Water & Wastewater Asia — https://waterwastewaterasia.com/aquatic-informatics-launches-wims-process-manager-for-wastewater-treatment/