Carlos Cosín, CEO of Almar Water Solutions, spoke on the first day of INVESTAGUA with a presentation on public and private investment for the development of water infrastructures, especially in Spain and Latin America, and on other issues such as innovation, education and the value of water.
Carlos Cosín began by talking about the Spanish scenario: “Spain is in the ideal opportunity scenario to achieve a balance between water security and environmental protection that we have never seen before”, and for this, three pillars are necessary.
The first pillar, according to Cosín, is “The progressive hydrological planning, which gives us an updated x-ray of the great challenges of water management in Spain”.
“We have a diagnosis of the health of our ecosystem”, and this tells us “that we are sick and we have to heal” in a context of adaptation to climate change. Add that we have not been able to make use of the tools of hydrological planning.
The second pillar that he identifies is “the difficulty in channeling economic resources to implement the measures indicated in hydrological planning.” And he clarifies that “in the private sector there are funds”, in addition to making reference to European funds outside of recovery funds. “These European funds represent an injection of resources, and should serve as a lever effect so that others come to help and together we can go further.” Cosín has invited to act in line with the commitment of the 2030 Agenda: “We must move forward, because water acquires a leading role in the multicultural political agenda that it did not have before, and it is positioned in all the messages of the environment ministers and they are associated with finance and economy ministers, as happened to climate change ”.
The third pillar is the role of water on the political agenda. “Countries like Israel or Singapore have put water at the top of their political agenda, something that Spain has not done (…). In Spain we have not been able to give importance to water investment, despite our hydrological situation and the capital weight it has in Spain ”, with a climate change scenario in the making. And he compares the regulatory situation: “I don’t think these countries have had fewer problems than Spain; They have not made excuses for not addressing it ”, but they have opted for it. These countries are in a position to lead the sector, in contrast to Spain. “In Spain we have not had the political will that other countries have had to implement water policies to safeguard the resource.”
Finally, Carlos Cosín has set his sights on the future, mentioning, for example, ecological flows: in a few years, it will be more difficult to recover them. He has also spoken of regeneration in pioneering Spanish regions, such as Murcia, or in countries such as northern Chile and Peru, Egypt, or the islands of Asia-Pacific, which are “changing the traditional way of doing things.”
“Only with political will and citizen awareness” will progress be achieved, has said. In relation to this last point, he has insisted on education, specifically on the differentiation between value and price of the resource.
Innovation is another tool to achieve this breakthrough. In his opinion, “we are very far from the levels” of investment in innovation that the water sector should have, which should be between “1 and 3%”. Here he has referred to digitization and renewable energy, where “more can still be done” because “it is key to lower costs” of water distribution.
In conclusion, he summarized that the funds must “be spent and carry private financing”, that they are “short-term resources and long-term solutions are needed.” Secondly, “technology is our ally, but without political will we are going to stay as we are.” Carlos Cosín has called on Minister Teresa Ribera to address the regulatory framework for energy, and thus promote the generation of renewable energies, lower costs, improve competitiveness and guarantee water at reasonable prices ”. Finally, he commented on the role of private companies: “we are going to accompany you on this trip.”
Subsequently, before the questions of Alejandro Maceira, director of iAgua and host of the event, Carlos Cosín said that “Spain does not have a clear situation for private companies to help public companies to work”, and “without a clear will to change that, we will not be able to do anything.” “That is the bottleneck that Spain will have for Next Generation funds and for these investments to be effective.” It has also advanced that Seville is a candidate city to host the congress on water reuse soon.
Almar Water Solutions is a company specialized in the development, promotion, financing, design and operation of water infrastructures for the municipal and industrial markets.
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