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Challenges and Objectives

Water reuse offers significant benefits to integrated management of stressed water countries and regions as a dependable alternative water source. There is a substantial range of water reuse practices already applied worldwide, many of these in Europe. The freshwater replacement potential through water reuse was estimated to vary between 1-17% in European countries with even higher effects on local and regional scale.

Water Reuse EuropeWater reuse offers significant benefits to integrated management of stressed water countries and regions as a dependable alternative water source. There is a substantial range of water reuse practices already applied worldwide, many of these in Europe. The freshwater replacement potential through water reuse was estimated to vary between 1-17% in European countries with even higher effects on local and regional scale.

However, there remain a number of barriers to more widespread development of water reuse and to the exploitation of the significant eco-innovation potential associated with it; potential with major implications for European leadership in the technologies and services around water recycling in the industry, agriculture and urban sectors. Preliminary work already conducted by DEMOWARE consortium members has identified a number of particular challenges relating to:

  • Inconsistent and unreliable methods for identification and optimization of appropriate wastewater treatment technologies for reuse applications which are able to balance the competing demands of sustainable processes.
  • Difficulty in specifying and selecting effective whole system monitoring techniques and technologies.
  • Significant challenges in reliably assessing the environmental and public health risk / benefit of water reuse across a range of geographical application scales.
  • Poorly developed business models for water reuse schemes and markets for recycled water.
  • Low levels of public and government enthusiasm for water reuse.
  • Lack of a unifying identity and professional image for the European water reuse sector.

Objectives

The DEMOWARE project aims to overcome the above mentioned barriers which constrain the widespread implementation of water reuse around Europe and worldwide. The specific objectives addressed in the project are: 

  • Objective 1. To demonstrate the technical feasibility of innovative technologies for wastewater reclamation and reuse (WP1)
  • Objective 2. To demonstrate advanced monitoring and control options for the assurance of desired routes/fate of water constituents (pathogens, contaminants and nutrients) in various water recycling schemes (WP2).
  • Objective 3. To demonstrate how through the assessment and management of environmental and human health risks the socio-economic and environmental benefits of water reuse schemes can be maximized while negative health and environmental impacts are kept to a minimum (WP3).
  • Objective 4. To increase and promote the marketability of water reuse schemes (WP4).
  • Objective 5. To improve the ability of reuse scheme operators to deliver socially acceptable projects within collaborative and effective governance regimes (WP5).
  • Objective 6. To promote a wider understanding and awareness of water reuse practices among public administrations and end-users (WP7).
  • Objective 7. To create and nurture an identity and knowledge base for the nascent European water reuse sector (WP8).