A Fresh Lens on OzWater 2026
OzWater 2026 was the biggest and boldest OzWater yet and we are proud to have attended this year! Our MD, Soner Bekir attended, for once not as an exhibitor, but as a facilitator and panellist. This shift in perspective gave us a different lens on the occasion and allowed Soner to engage in conversations he otherwise would likely have missed while exhibiting.
It was a noticeably larger venue with more attendees than previous years, and the energy was buzzing. As Soner stated, the exhibition hall was “quite stunning… and felt much bigger than usual,” and there was a real sense of momentum from the sheer number of attendees and the variety of organisations represented.
But the most valuable moments were the conversations.
One standout was a deep technical discussion with Jerry from Wastewater Services, which ended up covering a whole range of technical aspects of the ALGAESYS solution, and went much more in-depth than a lot of “conference” conversations. We also had a series of conversations at a Siemens-hosted social event that spanned everything from what ALGAESYS does through to automation, firefighting, travel, and life in general. As Soner put it, “The event was a genuine mix of very different people who were all open to an informal social event with strangers.”
Across the sessions we facilitated, especially those focused on Regional, Rural, and Remote Communities, consistent issues emerged. One of the most common themes centred around the lack of resource and budget for upgrading existing assets. Soner states, “Money was typically focused on new projects, with existing assets only prioritised when they fail or have issues. There is an obvious issue, especially in rural & remote areas around ageing assets that are no longer fit for purpose, but that local government can't afford to upgrade or replace.”
These discussions reinforced what we hear again and again: aging centralised infrastructure and local basic solutions cannot provide for the needs of rural industry and communities while delivering acceptable outcomes. This is where ALGAESYS has the opportunity to change outdated practices for the better.
Throughout our discussions about ALGAESYS, we spoke about cost, labour, treatment efficacy, whether we use a specific breed of organism to deliver treatment outcomes, and how we manage the produced biomass. ALGAESYS is designed to work in its unique self-contained environment to match the application and flows each project presents, but it is important to note that we don’t use specific species to populate our plants. We allow mother nature to select the appropriate organisms based on the wastewater source. We do this by using endemic organisms for each individual project gathered from the wastewater we plan to treat .
OzWater 2026 reaffirmed why events like this matter. They bring together the people who are shaping the future of water and create space for honest conversations about what’s working and what urgently needs to change. For ALGAESYS, it was a reminder that simple, nature‑aligned solutions have a powerful role to play in supporting remote communities that are underserved by traditional infrastructure. We left the conference energised, encouraged, and more committed than ever to helping regional and rural Australia build resilient, sustainable wastewater systems for the long-term future.