New insights after attending Water Reuse Europe Conference and Exhibition
Article written by Lina Lindahl, Researcher.
Let’s act now, it is so complex when water scarcity gets severe.
Lina Lindahl from RISE, Research institutes of Sweden, working with Circsyst Demonstrator 4, attended the Water Reuse Europe Third Conference and Exhibition on Innovation in Water Reuse on the 24-25 of September in Les Sables-d Ólonne, France. The conference gathered experts, researchers, policy makers, and industry leaders from around the world to address challenges on sustainable water management and reuse. It covered various aspects of water reuse, including agricultural applications, industrial water reuse, potable water reuse, and innovative solutions. The event featured many interesting presentations and provided valuable insights through discussions with participants.
One of the highlights were the impressive work presented by the French national working group on non-conventional water reuse of the French Scientific and Technical Association for Water and Environment (ASTEE). The outcome of their work is four reports on drivers and common recommendations for water reuse as well as new French legislation on Wastewater reuse for agriculture and urban uses, Non-Potable water for certain domestic uses and Wastewater reuse in food industry. Another highlight of the conference was the technical tour to the JOURDAIN demonstrator by Vendée Eau demonstrating indirect potable water reuse. The demonstrator takes in treated wastewater and further purifies it using coagulation and ultrafiltration, Low pressure RO, UV disinfection and final chlorination. The treated water is then transported via a transfer pipe to a water reservoir, where it is let out through an artificial wetland to allow diffuse discharge into the reservoir. It was great to see it live and get a better understanding of the technical challenges.
My main takeaway from the conference was that tackling water scarcity is far more effective when addressed proactively, rather than waiting until resources are critically depleted, which makes it much more complicated. For Sweden, it is important to act now to improve water efficiency and reuse, instead of relying too heavily on our current water supplies. I also realised that Sweden’s situation, characterised by having many industries, few inhabitants and limited agriculture that is also not irrigated, to such an extent makes the situation look different in Sweden than in many other countries. It appears that while water reuse efforts in other nations focus heavily on agriculture and household supply (although industries reuse quite a lot as well), in Sweden, the primary water user is industry.
For the Circsyst project, attendance at this conference has provided us with insights on other guidelines on water reuse that are valuable for our work. It has also confirmed that better understanding microbial risks and prevention solutions for stored water is a real need, which we will explore further within the project.