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Finland's high environment standard means better water services

February 21, 2002

The results from Finland's Water Services Technology Programme 1997-2001 is in tune with the country's current no. 1 ranking amongst 142 nations in the Environmental Performance report published this month during the World Economic Forum. The programme reiterates the country's commitment to effective environmental management especially in the water services sector.

Helsinki -- The national technology programme in Finland had successfully enabled the competitiveness of water services available in the country for domestic and international markets, according to an external evaluation in November 2001 by Professor Hallvard Ødegaard (NTNU, Norway) and Dr. Nicholas Booker (CSIRO, Australia).

The evaluation made by the two esteemed researchers from the water and wastewater field addressed the following issues: the extent to which the objectives of the programme have been achieved, the technological and industrial relevance, quality of the scientific environment, and the achievement of the programme as a whole.

A collaborative work by Finnish research institutions and the water industry, the programme's main idea is to improve technological expertise of businesses working in the field of water services. Targeted impacts include increasing the preparedness to introduce new technologies at water and sewage works, introduce new products designed to satisfy water service needs of rural areas, as well as promote related research and development activities.

With a budget of EUR 11.4 million, the research projects involved valuable collaborative work amongst 14 research units and over 90 companies in Finland, resulting to 19 applied technical research projects and 20 industrial R&D projects.

Altogether, the five-year programme comprised of 39 different projects, approximately 50 percent of which were industrial R&D projects while the remainder was in applied research projects.

A country with close to 200, 000 lakes

Finland is a small Nordic country occupied by 5.2 million inhabitants dispersed in a vast land area of 338 000 sq. km. Tucked away on the European Union's eastern border, the country has abundant supply of water resources. Some 10 percent of its surface is covered by inland waters, most of which finally empty into the brackish Baltic Sea.

Finland had earlier scored well in keeping water pollution to a minimum, according to the researchers from Yale University and Columbia University, which also published the Environmental Sustainability Index along with the Davos-based World-Economic Forum.

The programme in grassroots level aimed to provide high quality drinking water, improve maintenance of water and sewerage infrastructure, and find ways to treat and dispose municipal wastewater and sludge. As a result, it has effectively highlighted the water service needs of rural areas as well as control local pollution sources that affect community water services.

"Some of the projects aimed to identify the most appropriate solution to water industry problems," Booker and Ødegaard observed. "In most cases, the smarter application of currently available technology is used since the 'new' technology approach was not always the best to take in the water services industry."

According to the two external evaluators, the projects have so far made significant impact on informing public debate or enabling the water industry to make decisions that are cost effective, while resulting in improved service provision and reducing environmental impact.

For instance, a prominent project implemented was to develop life cycle analysis and eco-efficiency tools, which enable the Finnish water industry to assess the impacts of potential investment decisions.

Catalyst for cooperation and commercialization

Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland, meanwhile, led the cognitive and operational networking. As a funding agency, Tekes required research centers to identify and collaborate with suitable industrial partners to catalyze interaction. "The benefits from our 'forced' collaboration outweighed any perceived drawbacks," a number of participants from research institutions claimed.

"There was strong emphasis on working with industry and business throughout most of the programme", Booker and Ødegaard also noted.

According to Riku Vahala, project manager of Finnish Water and Waste Water Works Association (FIWA), the programme activities is much broader than merely maintaining project activities and reaching set objectives. The programme also resulted in increased expertise in the industry, enhanced networking, competitiveness, and image building of the water services sector.

Vahala also emphasized the programme's strong emphasis on commercialization of the outcomes. "Up to 90 percent of the research projects identified areas where commercialization of know-how, products or processes may be possible and a number of the projects were actively seeking commercialization partners at the time of the review."

The programmes are expected to generate R&D contacts, interaction, joint activity and chains, made especially easy due to the cooperative attitude amongst Finland's private and public sector.

Meanwhile, the individual project evaluations, which served as benchmark against international research in this field, were analyzed according to project summaries, interviews (presentations and discussions with research staff), publications, and written material. A post-programme evaluation will be conducted in 2004.

"This programme has a very broad coverage and most of its projects will hold interest for water professionals in many parts of the world," noted journalist Bill McCann in February 2001 issue of IWA's Water21.

"There is no doubt that the quality of most of the research performed under this programme was world class," Booker and Ødegaard summarized, while observing that Finnish water and wastewater research deserves a broader international audience.

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation