Organization & Structure
About us
AQUA is the Association of European Manufacturers of smart water and thermal energy meters.
Established as an association in 1960, AQUA aims for the highest quality of products are of the highest quality and supports the needs of utilities and consumers.
Mission
To support European
and international institutions with our experts
in water and
thermal energy metering.
Vision
To become the leading European association in the preservation of water and energy resources with smart metering solutions that fulfill the needs of industry and consumers.
Our foundation
The first talks concerning the foundation of a European Association of Manufacturers of Water meters took place in Brussels in January 1958. It was an informal meeting between Marcel Nicaise, managing director of Contimeter SA and Paul Huysmans of EGEA SA. It was decided to organize an inaugural meeting with representatives from Belgium, France, West-Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
The first international meeting took place in Zürich on 4th March 1958. This is when the association was named AQUA. The board of representatives of the founding countries and further a technical and a commercial committee were being installed.
The association of the early 1960s included the largest European water meter manufacturers. However, with the passing of the years and the proliferation of acquisitions by multinationals, a monopoly of votes was achieved by a few biggies.
It was around the 1990s; independent companies were increasingly in the minority and the situation led them, while formally remaining in AQUA, to found a parallel association called Hydreau: the European association of independent water meter manufacturers.
The goals identified at that time focused particularly on discussing product exchange, creating “technical recommendations” and certifying them, and collaborating on new common products.
Thanks to Hydreau’s activities, AQUA revised its positions by agreeing to significantly change the statutes in which each company, even if it was a group with several subsidiaries in Europe, was given only one vote. In the EC, the 3 members from the multinationals were joined by 3 members from the independent companies and the WGs (which at the beginning were Promotion, Standardization, Cooperation and Recommendation) began to be formed at that time!
Around 2010, companies from the heat and thermal energy sector also joined AQUA.
The activities of the Working Groups (WGs) began to be well-defined, with the Water being the primary, followed by the Heat WG, and then the Communication WG.
The Promotion WG saw its activity halted for a few years until the early 2020s when it resumed full activity with the aim of promoting the association’s image. The promotion group has been replaced by a new Marketing WG in December 2023.
The establishment of the Sustainability WG is recent (October 2022), reflecting the growing regulatory interest in this now indispensable issue.