Water reuse in Europe – EC opens public consultation

Europe is facing increasing water scarcity and droughts episodes mainly due to climate change impacts. Water reuse is regarded as a sustainable solution to address it, however only a small proportion of reclaimed water is being reused in today’s Europe and across the world. Arctik is therefore supporting the newly launched consultation of the European Commission on how Europe can better use its water resources.

The European Commission has launched this public consultation, with the aim of finding ways to encourage the reuse of reclaimed water in Europe. As a result, an Impact Assessment will be prepared, identifying all areas where the reuse of water is possible. The consultation is available here and will be opened till 7 November 2014.

Arctik supports increased use of reclaimed water as an important tool to utilise our resources more intelligently. Arctik contributes to the cause through its work on projects such as The European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) that consider water management and innovation as one of their priorities.

“The EU is taking an active step to promote wastewater management and water reuse through this consultation. Only 23% of waste waters are treated today and only 2% are recycled worldwide so the potential is huge”, says PhD Céline Hervé-Bazin, Arctik consultant and invited teacher in water communication.

“Better use of water resources would have a positive effect on public health, the environment, our food production and at the same time provide a solution to water shortages and production of sustainable energy”, she continues. “The issue of water re-use is technical and public knowledge needs to be improved through information and communication campaigns. Studies show that analysing public perceptions towards water reuse is capital to successful implementation of new legislative standards, new infrastructure and investments in new technologies. The consultation process that the European Commission has launched is therefore an important step”.

Background documents on water reuse
Policy options to optimise water reuse in the EU

OECD report: Alternative Ways of Providing Water

Access the EC consultation

More information on Arctik’s related projects can be found here.

Image Copyright: Sergey Novikov