Munich, Germany Just weeks before the start of IFAT 2002, scheduled for May 13-17 in Munich, Germany, registrations are already above the level reached as the same point before the last event. In March, 1,968 exhibitors and another 136 additional companies from 39 countries have registered to take part.
The figure for exhibitors from abroad has thus risen from 22.6 percent at the last IFAT in 1999, to 24 percent for IFAT 2002. The space covered by the exhibition has also risen by 5,000 square meters to a total of 170,000 square meters. The organizer, Messe Muchen, has also received confirmation of attendance from ministers of the environment from all over the world and from many high-ranking delegations of visitors from Germany and abroad, in particular from overseas and from Eastern Europe.
For the five days of the fair, exhibitors at IFAT 2002 will be putting on a display of all the latest trends and developments in the field of water supply, sewage, waste disposal and recycling, road cleansing, winter road services, disposal of old industrial waste, soil treatments, measurement, control and laboratory technology, services, exhaust gas and air cleansing, and science and research. The presentations will cover 140,000 square meters in 14 exhibition halls and on the open-air site at the New Munich Trade Fair Center.
IFAT has developed into the world's fair in the fields of wastewater, waste disposal and recycling. In 1999, a new theme area was added, Water Supply, which is a key subject for the future. Now, for the first time, all the companies in the water supply industry will be represented at IFAT 2002. In the section on water treatment, too, there are considerably more firms this time that specialize in commercial and rainwater supplies.
And, another first, at the initiative of the Verband der Arbeitsgerate, und Kommunalfahrzeug-Industrie e.V., the Association of working equipment and local-authority vehicles industry-VAK, there will be a display of machinery and equipment by various manufacturers, on the open-air site, Block 602. Topical themes to be tackled at the fair will include the subject of deposits on cans and the current legislation on water and wastewater.
Taking place concurrently with IFAT 2002 in Munich, is the 12th European Water, Sewage and Solid Waste Symposium, May 13-15, 2002, organized by the European Water Association (EWA) in cooperation with the German Association for Water, Waste Water, and Waste (Duetsche Vereingung fur WasserWirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall--ATV-DVWK).
Presented at the symposium will be a series of lectures and workshops on topical themes such as TV inspection to increase efficiency in operation and maintenance, membrane technology for drinking water and sewage, waste incineration in Europe and the logistics of waste management. Themes of particular interest for the future are waste dumping and closed cycle concepts in local-authority wastewater management (www.atv.de).
On May 15th, in the accompanying program of events at IFAT, there is a session on 'Finances, charges and cost-reduction potential.' In the afternoon, there is a workshop on the theme of 'Central and Eastern European Integration.' On all days of the fair, the German Federal Office for the Environment will be holding 'IFAT Talk' panel discussions on current environmental themes. The talks will also be broadcast live on the Internet (www.umweltbundesamt.de).
Presentations on the theme of 'Meeting place: Global environmental markets' will be held at the joint stand of the International Transfer Center for Environmental Technology (Internationales Transferzentrum fur Umwelttechnik-ITUT), the Chambers of Foreign Trade and the Chambers of Industry and Trade. ITUT is also providing support for entry into international environmental markets, in the form of cooperation forums (ww.itut.de/ifat), at which companies from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia can explore the possibility of setting up cooperations with companies exhibiting at IFAT.
For more information, visit the web site, www.ifat.de or E-mail: [email protected].
