Creating opportunities to adapt to climate change through innovative ...

This leads us to the topic of discussing what position Rijkswaterstaat should aim to fill in thissituation. RWS is related to the project as water quality is one of the main objectives. This isdone in practice by managing the permits that allow firms to dump water in the waterways,but can’t be said to be a perfect solution.The most extreme position would be for RWS to actively invest in companies that take wastewater management into their own hands. This can be considered far from RWS’s corebusinesses, but seeing as it is the expert organization on water management, it could be apossibility to recommend certain initiatives with the Province of Noord-Holland, whotraditionally sponsor such projects.Alternatively, firms could refer to RWS in terms of policy advice. As a connection betweengovernment and private companies, RWS could define and enforce the terms about tradingwaste water, either as a recommendation or as a rule. This is especially necessary when the“market” for waste water is rising up and unregulated, smaller firms needing some sort ofguarantee against exploitation by established players.The idea of mariculture, another way to say agriculture in the sea, did not get muchattention in the meeting due to lack of representatives, mainly Willem Brandenburg (Ref.5.6). It must be stated though, that the different initiatives and future expected for salineagriculture seem to be a worthy path to study before it actually becomes necessary.Experimental fields could be set up as part of the chain, as just another product, but withglobal relevance.EnecoAfter the first two months on our project, as we mentioned early, we had the chance andthe opportunity to present our vision at the innovation market at Katwijk, The Netherlands.During one of the preparation meetings we were introduced to Mr. Arjan Mast, from Eneco.Our initial contact was about blue energy and the model of the technology. Later on wefound out that he is also a project manager of ACRRES project that is running at the momentin Lelystad.The main goal of the ACRRES’ project, together with gaining knowledge, learning andtesting possibilities, is sustainable energy generation. They are exploring the opportunity ofenergy generation by using gas components which are released after the fermentation ofcrops and fertilizer. Not all of the components are suitable for that process; gases such asCO 2 will be released into the atmosphere. To prevent that from happening, there will be acontinuation of the chain where the CO 2 and warmth will be taken to a nearby artificial pondwhere there it will be used for algae growing. The produced algae will be used for eitherfood or oil production (Ref. 5.13). Here is where we saw an opportunity for integration withour vision. We spoke with the project manager and we discussed the possibilities forcombining that idea with the Verbrakking Polder Westzaan project. After he heard about ourproject and the ideas about cooperation with Corus, he was open to be included in thecooperation. The ACRRES project works closely with Wageningen University and they havethe knowledge and the recourses for research and study. Therefore they are willing to usebrackish water on a later stage in their project if they have a sample of the water that Coruswill give so they could research what type of algae one could grow in it.12