2020 Sustainability Report |Interview with the CEO | 9 Responding to water scarcity while meeting the growing demand for supply and sanitation, fighting the climate emergency, reducing our water and carbon footprint… What are the company’s biggest challenges when it comes to meeting environmental goals? Speeches on sustainability often focus on reducing We have the duty to emissions. Clearly, decarbonisation is essential, but there take advantage of all the willbe no Green Deal without a Blue Deal: without responsible management of the water cycle. Becoming more sustainable is a major long-term challenge, and at Aqualia every day we are taking steps towards thatworking on the management of moreultimate goal,possibilities that technology than five thousand installations (water treatment plants, offers in order to improve the desalination plants, tanks, pumping stations, treatment plants). The experience gained from many years of work shows that public-private collaboration is the best option for responding to the growing demand, not only forthe supply of water and improved quality, but also forservice we provide to citizens the sanitation service. It is a question of reaching major goals, such as 100% circularity of water, efficiency and investment in high-performance infrastructures, or the The coronavirus has shown the interdependence implementation of technology for smart cities applied to of human beings and the importance of caring for the water cycle. and reinforcing the common good, which we also do through our work. What have you learned from When Aqualia works in coordination with public employees and suppliers during these months? administrations,the results are excellent.The Balearic Islands are a clear example of this.We installed a new A large part of the Aqualia workforce worked on surveillance and remote control system for the high- the front line during the toughest months of the pressure drinking water distribution network on the island pandemic. At the beginning of lockdown, water supply of Ibiza. The system monitors the interconnection of the and wastewater sanitation services were deemed to three desalination plants, and it has allowed us to optimise be essential services in order to guarantee suitable operations and considerably increase the performance of levels of health and hygiene. We are very proud of the the networks, while reducing the breakdown rate by half, recognition we received from the population, which improving efficiency and helping to combat water scarcity. valued our work very highly, and from various entities such as iAgua, which in 2020 awarded us with the Best Company prize. Despite the circumstances, our hard work to ensure the well-being of our employees was successful. The Be Aqualia plan, which encompasses our entire HR policy, was reinforced during these months through various significant actions. We should point out, for example, the renewal of our certificate as a Family Responsible Company. The pandemic and telecommuting tested not only the measures implemented to achieve work- life balance − 86% of our employees think that positive steps have been taken over the last three years in this regard − but also the fluidity of our communication channels with users and employees. We are people who take care of people, and our employees have proved this.