On behalf of the Dutch government, Gregor van Essen and Piet Filet, partners at The Water Agency, were members of the main organising committee of the Water Trade Mission & Study Tour to Australia, taking place from 31 October until 4 November 2016. This unique and high-impact program took over six months to prepare, involving dozens of people from stakeholders across government, private sector and academia in both Australia and the Netherlands.
The mission was led by Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the Netherlands, and consisted of representatives from Deltares, HydroLogic, Arcadis, Bosch Slabbers, Regional Water Authority, City of Rotterdam, Royal HaskoningDHV, Royal BAM, Meever & Meever, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Holland Water Challenge and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Throughout the program, exchanges were organised with Australian partners in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane around locally relevant themes with potential for (more) collaboration between Australia and the Netherlands.
Highlight of the program was the seminar on 4 November in Brisbane, attended by Their Majesties The King and Queen of the Netherlands, featuring the launch of the Smart Scanner for Resilient Cities, developed by Deltares and HydroLogic, and the launch of the MYRESILIENT.CITY program.
