New research to stimulate debate on the reduction of water consumption
The European Commission believes that water consumption could be reduced by as much as 90 per cent in certain industries. This new analysis is based on the findings of three European Union funded research projects on integrated water management that will be released at a media briefing on 2 May in Barcelona. The Commission stresses that significant progress in the sustainable use of water has already been achieved by European industry over the last decade. However, the new test results indicate that much more is possible and the Commission is advising industry to further reduce their consumption of water through internal recycling. The three projects, funded under the Four and Fifth Framework programmes, have integrated various small research projects that were tackling specific and complementary parts of water cycle treatment. The idea was to put their findings together in order to build up a broader or 'global perspective' on the water management process. The projects were concerned with tanneries (TANNET), abandoned industrial sites (INCORE) and the treatment of waste water (WASTE WATER CLUSTER). Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano of the Confederation of National Associations of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community believes that the application of recycling technologies promoted in the TANNET research network could lead to a reduction of water pollution not only in the tanning and leather industry, but also in other industrial branches. 'This is due to the high transferability of the results obtained in this project', he says, 'they could be useful to industries such as textile, pulp or paper industry'. The result of the three projects will be presented in more detail on 2 May in the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, at a media briefing organised by the European Commission.