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Gaiker co-ordinates a world-wide project for the reuse of purified wastewater

May 11, 2004

Gaiker is co-ordinating a world project for the reuse of purified wastewater and the aim of which is to study the possibility of using this as an alternative water resource. Just in the European Union, the implementation of strategies for the reuse of purified wastewater would enable the availability of water to be increased by 6%, which would mean a saving of 10 billion m3 a year. The Gaiker Technological Centre - located at the Bizkaia Technological Park - will be working on this project over the next three years. The project has a budget of 2.3 million euros.

Reuse
Wastewater treated at a purification plant can be reused for a multitude of purposes such as irrigation (agricultural, golf links, and so on), municipal uses (lawn sprinklers, fire extinction, ornamental fountains, etc.), domestic use (cisterns), industrial uses (water in refrigeration systems or for cleaning), and environmental/recreational uses (reservoirs, recreational fishing, snow-making).

This reuse will enable part or all the recycled waste water to be taken advantage of for the uses described, depending on the installation of new distributions networks. Thus, the proximity of the user to the reservoirs or water deposits is a key factor. For example, in the USA (Florida and California, for example) this practice uses between 8% and 10% of the water recycled from urban purification plants. In Spain this percentage does not reach 1% and in 2012 it is estimated it will only reach 3%. In the Basque Country, however, concretely in its historic territory of Araba, there is a pioneer installation with the capital city Gasteiz-based Integrated Re-use Plan for Wastewater, aimed at irrigation and refilling reservoirs.
Gaiker is studying the viability of projects for this reuse of water, together with 16 other enterprises and universities from 12 countries: Belgium the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Holland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain. Apart from Gaiker as representatives of Spain, there is also the University of Valencia (International Institute of Economics) and the University of Barcelona (Faculty of Pharmacy).

Water stress
What is being sought by carrying out this ambitious project is to guarantee the success of the ever-increasing number of wastewater reuse programmes to tackle water stress. Water stress occurs when the balance of water between availability and need is disturbed. Specifically, in the zones of drought or of high concentrations of population or industries, the available water is inferior to the demand for water for the various demands (domestic, industrial, irrigation, etc.). Just in the European Union, the implementation of strategies for the re-use of purified water would enable the availability of water to be increased by 6% of the total water available. In Europe, the Mediterranean zone presents a very marked dearth and it is here that re-use projects show great promise for development (Spain, Italy, Greece, North Africa, etc.).

Elhuyar Fundazioa