Among our annual events, the Designers’ Meeting holds a special place. Year after year, we organise this event for one of our most important professional target groups: the civil engineers. By now, the event has become one of the key pillars of Pureco’s professional community-building activities and is also unique in its own right: a conference of this scale, organised by a market player specifically for the engineering design community, remains rare in Hungary’s water utility sector.
This year, professionals once again travelled from all parts of the country to attend the 7th Pureco Designers’ Meeting. As in previous years, the purpose of the event was not simply to present Pureco’s latest developments, products and technological innovations. We consider it equally important to create space for genuine professional dialogue, which is why participants were invited to engage in interactive discussions and joint thinking on current issues in engineering design, the opportunities facing the profession, increasingly stringent sustainability expectations and the challenges of a changing market environment.
One of the strongest messages of the event was clear: a great deal of work lies ahead of us. The impacts of climate change, increasingly extreme precipitation patterns, periods of drought, flood risks and the challenges facing drinking water and wastewater infrastructure all require technological innovation, a shift in mindset and consistent professional cooperation.
The morning presentations focused on strategic issues in water management in Hungary. Participants heard expert presentations on the present and future of water management, including the interconnections between water retention, drought management and flood protection, international trends in stormwater management, recommendations from the Hungarian water sector, as well as issues concerning the future of Lake Balaton.
One of the key themes of the professional dialogue was water retention. In the water management of the future, we can no longer afford to regard precipitation merely as water that needs to be drained away. The objective must be to retain, store and utilise water locally and, wherever possible, to support water replenishment. Achieving this, however, requires not only appropriate infrastructure but also changes in regulation, financing and public attitudes.
Participants agreed that in a changing environment, the professional expertise of designers is becoming increasingly important. When selecting technical solutions, it is no longer sufficient to consider investment costs alone. Sustainable products, technologies designed with the entire life cycle in mind, and systems that can be operated reliably, economically and efficiently over the long term are becoming increasingly important.
Resilience, operational reliability and resource efficiency are therefore becoming fundamental criteria in engineering design decisions.
The second half of the professional day focused primarily on practical solutions. Through case studies, we presented options for high-capacity industrial stormwater treatment, stormwater storage solutions using large-volume corrugated steel tank systems, and the characteristics of pipe materials used in utility construction. Specific wastewater treatment technologies were also presented, while another topic addressed drinking water treatment based on regenerable adsorbents.
The programme also featured innovative solutions from our professional partners for drinking water and wastewater systems, as well as technologies supporting the development of smarter and more resource-efficient networks.
The day concluded with an interactive discussion entitled “Current issues in sustainable water management from a designer’s perspective.” The discussion clearly demonstrated that, alongside technical solutions, the ability to adapt, cooperation between different professional disciplines and the ability of water management stakeholders to communicate the value of water to society in an accessible way are at least equally important.
For the seventh time, the Pureco Designers’ Meeting demonstrated that the complex challenges facing water management can only be addressed effectively through knowledge sharing, open professional dialogue and jointly developed solutions.
The task ahead is substantial. Water has value. The knowledge is available. Now is the time for adaptation, cooperation and action.
