On March 26th, within the frame of the University Consultancy Program of the International Affairs Department, six students of the Master of International Development: Amandine Cherdel, Angela Salmerón Contreras, Jean Joo, Madison Jacks, Stephanie Bischel y Thomas Liu, did the final presentation of the consultancy project titled : “ The State of the Art in Virtual Water. How AySA could benefit”
Water is the key factor for food production and therefore to the economic development and AySA has the leadership and potential to become a relevant actor to improve the interrelation between the water and wastewater industry, the scientific world and the economic - productive sector.
The LSE, ranked among the 40 most prestigious universities of the world, selected AySA for the third consecutive time, after a highly competitive and rigurous process in which organisations from all over the world participate so that its master’s students can put into practice the academical concepts acquired during their educational process.
The objective of the Consultancy Project carried out by the International Affairs Management at AySA, is to liaise between the company and international academic entities for the development of international cooperation actions that allow mutual growth. Within these frame, they have guided the LSE team in its global survey work on concepts such as virtual water, agro- economy and exports.
More than 25 leading researchers and specialists from prestigious institutions and Think Tanks worldwide have been interviewed, such as CONICET (Argentina), Aquafondo, (Perú) University College London (UK), Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden), University of Warwick (UK), IRAM (Argentina), Dartmouth College (USA), University of London (UK), University of Nebraska (USA), World Wildlife Fund (Switzerland), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), University of Georgia (USA), University of Nebraska (USA), Tulane University (USA), Oregon State University (USA), among others.
In their publication, they have adressed the issue of virtual water and the identification of opportunities at AySA to synergize with other strategic actors of the economic and scientific communities, as well as identifying different opportunities that AySA could capitalize on in an innovative way regarding virtual water in the water sustainability management, possible applications in tax policies for production in the agriculture sector and other iniciatives as gray water remediation
Finally, they emphasize the importance of impact measurement and data collection to develop better virtual water practices and the importance of a greater integration in terms of national water politics, in which AySA plays a fundamental role.