Impact of Covid-19 crisis in F4W activities

F4W is on its first year of activity. The project’s 1st anniversary will be celebrated on 1st June 2020, under quite strange conditions because of the current global health crisis.

Fortunately, no huge impacts are for the moment foreseen. The Fiware4Water architecture (WP2) is under development and will be ready in September 2020 as initially planned. In fact, as its development could be done remotely, no real incidence is to be feared unless one of the partners gets sick.

In the same time, the four demo cases (DC) of the project are working on the APIs and on sensors deployment (WP3 and WP4). It is this activity which could be slightly delayed, especially in two of our four demo cases: in Greece and in France. Concerning DC#1 about water provision for Athens, the current confinement has led to slow public procurement purchases for sensors. In DC#2 about water distribution network in Cannes (South of France), 4 multiparameter nano-platforms will be installed soon but there is some uncertainty concerning the CNRS nano-probe. This innovative multiparameter sensor (TRL5-6) was supposed to be finalised 1st year, tested in near-real conditions in TZW bench 2nd year and implemented on the field in France 3rd year. However, CNRS lab is currently closed, which interrupted the sensor validation phase. On the contrary, in DC#3 which aims at improving the functioning of the West waste water treatment plant of Amsterdam, the sensors have already been installed and the local team is working on data transmission and on the proper functioning of the sensors. Finally, DC#4 in UK is not at all impacted because the 150+ smart meters used to engage citizens in reducing their water consumption were installed at the very beginning of the project (June 2019).

Concerning the other activities, notably socio-political engagement (WP5) and communication (WP6), even if some big events (like FIWARE summit, IFAT…) have been postponed, activities are ongoing without major difficulties, notably thanks to social medias and visio-conferences. For example, the ConCensus protocol which was initiated with the City Council of Great Torrington will continue and different options are currently being studied.

Image par Pete Linforth de Pixabay

Author : Sonia Siauve (OIEau)