IFAT Munich 2026, held from 4 to 7 May, was particularly relevant from a Central Asian perspective.
The region is facing a combination of challenges that are becoming increasingly difficult to separate: ageing municipal infrastructure, water losses, wastewater treatment requirements, growing waste volumes, recycling, industrial residues and the need to use resources more efficiently. These are precisely the areas covered by IFAT under its core themes of water, recycling and circularity. Around 3,400 exhibitors from more than 60 countries and regions presented technologies ranging from pumps, water and wastewater treatment to waste sorting, recycling, resource recovery and environmental engineering.
Central Asia was not absent from this discussion. A Kazakh delegation officially participated in IFAT Munich 2026, including the Chairman of Kazakhstan’s Centre for Modernisation and Development of Housing and Communal Services. According to Kazakhstan’s government, the delegation used the exhibition to engage with solutions in water supply, wastewater treatment, waste recycling, circular economy and resource efficiency. This is an important signal. For countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, environmental technology is increasingly becoming part of the broader industrial and infrastructure modernisation agenda.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to export individual pumps, recycling machines or treatment systems. It is to connect specific Central Asian infrastructure needs with suitable European technology, engineering and implementation partners. For AETEK, IFAT represents exactly this supply side. Central Asia provides the demand: modernisation of water systems, wastewater treatment, waste processing, recycling and resource recovery. Europe provides a deep technology base.
The business-development task lies in bringing the two together around concrete projects rather than around products alone.