Carlos Mario Gómez, professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of Alcalá and associated researcher in IMDEA Water, has led the conference Los retos sobre el futuro del agua (Future water challenges) sponsored by the Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies (COSCE) in collaboration with the Ramón Areces Foundation. Throughout the session, held yesterday Monday in Madrid, experts debated the challenges posed by Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG) related to the availability of water and its sustainable management and sanitation for all.

The event was inaugurated by Teresa Ribera, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. Researchers Eloy García Calvo, former director at IMDEA Agua, and Lucila Candela Lledó, an expert in hydrogeology, were also present (both are associated researchers at IMDEA Water).

During the presentation, Professor Gómez highlighted the uncertainty surrounding the future of water, and demanded “adaptable solutions” to challenges that are not yet known. To this end, he has stressed that it is necessary to “design an innovative research agenda that resolves these problems” and raises the consequences for society.

In the round table dedicated to the changing framework for water resources, Eloy García Calvo emphasised water as a subject for multidisciplinary approach, without forgetting “the importance of emerging contaminants, PFAs, nanomaterials and their treatment”. Lucila Lledó has stressed that among the main management challenges are the processes of overexploitation of aquifers and the adaptation of regulations.