The topic 'water management: water reuse and wastewater' came forward as a subject of interest from a survey conducted across the Interreg Europe community. Water policy is a cross-cutting issue in the European Green Deal and the alleviation of water stress is an overarching of the Circular Economy Action Plan. Water policy also plays a key role in the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, the 'Farm-to-Fork' Strategy and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Moreover, 2021 will see new key policy documents influencing water policy such as the Zero pollution action plan for air, water and soil and the EU Nature Restoration Plan.
For this reason, the Policy Learning Platform is hosting its first community brainstorming discussion.
The objectives of the session
The brainstorming discussion is held to reach the following objectives:
- To brainstorm on what impact can be expected from different policy measures and good practices for the areas of water reuse (agricultural, industrial), urban waste water management and ground water pollution, thus supporting:
- To collect input for the upcoming webinar on water reuse and waste water management as well as the policy brief on Sustainable Water Management.
Participants are encouraged to propose and share their regional good practices and initiatives during the brainstorming.
What to expect
Policy solutions for Water Reuse
- Manuel Boluda Fernandez, Murcia Region (Spain), will present the inventory of treated water for reuse (AQUARES)
- Silke Mollenhauer, Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (Germany), will share the lessons learnt from the project MULTI-ReUse and alternative sources for agricultural irrigation (AQUARES)
- Sara Uhan, Municipality of Trebnje (Slovenia), will share experiences from Life RusaLCA (AQUARES)
- Iwona Marcinkowska, Marshal’s Office of the Lodzkie Region (Poland), will speak about water reuse in textiles industry (AQUARES)
- Adelaide Mancini, Baltic Coasts Association (Latvia), will speak about rainwater reuse for service vehicle washing (AQUARES)
Policy solutions for Urban waste water / sewage sludge
- Mihaela Frincu, National R&D Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry ICECHIM Calarasi (Romania), will share insights into composting municipal waste water sludge (BIOREGIO)
- Stelios Samios and Timos Lytras, Research & Development Department of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (Greece) will present water quality monitoring with the use of robotic boats WATER (BIGDATA4RIVERS)
- Roland Zinkernagel, City of Malmö (Sweden), will speak about stormwater management in Malmö (EUROCITIES, Chair of the Working Group on Water)
- Louise Coffineau will share about Porto Wastewater Treatment Complex (EUROCITIES, Policy Advisor for Water)
- Sara Uhan, Municipality of Trebnje (Slovenia), will share insights on the pharmaceuticals degradation in waste water (AQUARES)
- Christina Zegowitz, UmweltCluster Bayern (Germany), will present workshop results on urban water management policies and practice to reduce microplastics (PLASTECO)
- Vasileios Binas, IELS-FORTH (Greece), will speak about the use of nanomaterials for the decontamination of wastewater (TANIA)
Policy solutions for Ground water pollution
- Elena Cano Lazaro, Aragon Regional Government (Spain) will share policy solutions on the elimination of water pollution related to lindane production waste (LINDANET)
- Roland Zinkernagel, City of Malmö (Sweden) will share their approach to groundwater pollution in urban planning (EUROCITIES)
- Stefan Abel, Region of Brandenburg (Germany), will speak about the remediation of a closed landfill before groundwater level in Hennickendorf (COCOON)
- Silke Mollenhauer, Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (Germany), will share an overview of the TOPSOIL Project (AQUARES)
The brainstorming discussion is upon invitation only, a follow-up article will be made available afterwards.
