Drinkable Nature

Clean drinking water and healthy natural environments are under increasing pressure from climate change, pollution and spatial development. At the same time, this vulnerability remains largely invisible to many people as long as clean water continues to flow from the tap. PWN is therefore exploring how the relationship between water, nature and society can change, and how a healthy ecosystem can once again form the basis for a reliable drinking water supply.

PWN is responsible for both drinking water production and the management of natural areas in North Holland. Healthy nature is therefore not only important for the living environment, but also directly connected to the quality and availability of drinking water.

How can we make visible what is currently invisible, so that people reconnect with water and nature and take shared responsibility for a healthy living environment? The research focuses on the hidden parts of the water system, such as the quality and vulnerability of the water source, the role of nature, the infrastructure required and the effort involved in producing clean drinking water.

Rather than focusing on a single technical solution, the aim is to make the interdependencies between nature, infrastructure, organisations and users visible and open to discussion. The project explores new forms of collaboration, ownership and ways to take action.

Designer Katinka Versendaal was selected as quartermaster for this Co/Lab. In her work, she explores how complex societal challenges can be brought closer to people by making them tangible and experiential. She sees a particular challenge in a subject such as drinking water: many people experience water as something self-evident, while a complex ecosystem lies behind it.

According to Katinka, there is an opportunity to encourage people to look differently at their relationship with water and the landscape. Not by simply providing information, but by creating experiences that invite a different perspective, self-reflection and open conversation. Which stories currently remain unseen? Which relationships do we fail to notice? And what changes when we look not only from the perspective of human needs, but also from the perspective and needs of water itself and more-than-human water users? These are questions she wants to explore throughout the project.