Covid-19 - action plan for Dutch water sector’s post-crisis re-launch

With Covid-19 putting society to the test, Bianca Nijhof, Managing Director of the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), is calling for reconsideration and a greater focus on sustainability.

According to Nijhof, the Dutch water sector is also being hit hard by the corona crisis – exports have declined dramatically, with 70% of companies expecting to have insufficient work in one or two months. Payments are being postponed, projects cancelled, and the international supply chain is “falling apart.”

The NWP Chief commented:

“The sector can take a beating, but it deserves all the help it can get. The recovery of the private sector is inextricably linked to the recovery of society as a whole: social and economic stability go hand in hand. So it is key to acknowledge the role of water as an enabler in leveraging resources and in re-booting society, and to acknowledge the essential connection between water, energy and food.”

Sector’s re-launch
To help the sector re-emerge from the corona crisis and become even stronger than ever before, NWP is assessing the impact of the crisis on the Dutch water sector and is aiming at presenting a practical action plan for a post-crisis re-launch in a month’s time. The Partnership is currently identifying key activities and business opportunities that have been changed, postponed or cancelled due to the corona crisis.

The NWP will then map the priorities based on what is still relevant today and, above all, what can be done more smartly, efficiently, and innovatively.

After that, it will identify the best match between these priorities and the instruments offered by the Dutch Government.

NWP is working on the action plan, funded by NLinBusiness, as part of the Top Sector Water and Maritime. Maritime by Holland, part of the Top Sector, is working on a post-crisis action plan at the same time

Bianca Nijhof commented:

“Our findings will result in a concrete and ambitious, yet realistic, action plan. It will include a proactive role for NWP to connect the Dutch water sector to the many post-corona investment initiatives in the most effective way possible, in the Netherlands and abroad.”

The concrete action plan for a targeted post-crisis re-launch at the end of June is aimed at supporting the Dutch water sector increase its global reach.