May 23, 2024
The first edition of IFAT Brasil, International Fair for Water, Sewage, Drainage and Waste Recovery Solutions, was a turning point for the Brazilian sanitation market, showcasing the most important global technologies that will contribute to the goal of universalizing water and sanitation services for the Brazilian population by 2033. Organized by Messe München GmbH and Messe München do Brasil in São Paulo from April 24 to 26, 2024 the event brought together 162 national and international brands from 16 countries.
During the three-day event, the São Paulo Expo welcomed more than 20,000 visitors from 50 countries. The audience was considered highly qualified by the exhibitors, as it consisted of representatives from city halls, state, municipal and federal departments, agencies and regulatory bodies, environmental engineers, private water operators, wastewater and solid waste operators, environmental engineers, industrial entrepreneurs, development agencies, investors, academia, research and innovation institutes as well as start-ups.
"We have achieved our goal of bringing together the most important environmental solutions and technologies with all the stakeholders in the sanitation and waste management sector, providing the best environment for relationship building, knowledge exchange and business approach for exhibitors and participating professionals alike. Certainly, this exhibition will be an important platform for the sector, generating opportunities to improve the existing infrastructure for the installation of new structures that meet the needs of the population," says Rolf Pickert, CEO of Messe München do Brasil.
Stefan Rummel, CEO of Messe München Global, highlighted the importance of the IFAT network as the largest environmental technology network globally: " The network of IFAT trade fairs offers companies from all over the world the opportunity to present themselves and their products and innovations in a wide variety of markets with different conditions. We are very happy that IFAT Brasil celebrated such a great premiere and that we are also represented with an environmental technology trade fair in this important market.”
As the meeting point for the sanitation and waste management sector in Latin America, IFAT Brasil was the platform to discuss the main issues related to the sector, presenting cases in environmental technologies, revealing market trends and evaluating solutions to the challenges facing the sector. Furthermore, it was the place bringing governments, local authorities, investors and operators closer to manufacturers, various industry verticals, companies and sanitation service providers. In this context, the Congress, the Speakers Corners and the Innovation Pavilion, in partnership with ISLE Utilities, one of the world's largest intelligence agencies on innovation in the water sector, promoted over 71 hours of content during the three days of the event, with the participation of 132 professionals from Brazil and abroad.
The Innovation Pavilion was the epicenter of the latest discoveries and technological advances in the sector, showing the potential for growth and better service provision in sanitation. The IFAT Brasil Innovative Technology Award was held there, honoring various companies for their technologies and contributions that are transforming the market. The initiative was attended by Netherlands Water Partnership and Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua as main sponsors; and SABESP and SANEPAR as institutional sponsors and juries of the competition.
In addition, IFAT Brasil hosted the first edition of the University Challenge, an important global competition for engineering students promoted by the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA), which came to Brazil with the institutional support of the German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) São Paulo.
The eight groups, made up of engineering students, carried out tasks in different disciplines, such as walking around the area of European companies at the fair and selecting two solutions that could be implemented in Brazilian cities. For students Arthur Anhaia, Maria Morais and Murillo Bednarczuk, from the 5th period of the Civil Engineering course at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), participating in the challenge and learning about the solutions proposed by the companies broadened their view of the market by understanding how the technologies are implemented: "We came to learn more about sanitary structuring. And at IFAT Brasil we discovered that the solutions go far beyond sanitary structuring. We found applications in hydraulics, fluid mechanics and other areas we studied in our course," the students said. "The experience was incredible, and we will take a lot of lessons back to our studies," they concluded.
The next edition of IFAT Brasil takes place in the 2nd quarter of 2025.
Further information can be found at https://en.ifatbrasil.com.br/