Dutch water utility Vitens has recently publicly set out its innovation agenda for the coming five years. ‘We want to openly share the agenda for the coming five years to see if there are projects where we can cooperate with other utilities,’ says innovation manager Jan Gooijer.

The agenda goes beyond the area of smart water management, an important theme for innovation, featuring eight different topics.

‘One of the important topics is everything to do with soil protection,’ says Gooijer. The company depends on groundwater sources, and threats to these sources include pesticides from farming, for example. Traditionally the company has been very protective in terms of what it permits within its catchments. ‘That doesn’t work any more,’ he says, because of pressures from competing activities.

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