Objective
The project is expected to result in a sustainable water cycle system which:
- reduces the potable water consumption from 105 to 50 litres per day per person, and therefore
- substantially reduces the quantity of groundwater used for the production of potable water,
- reduces desiccation in the province of Gelderland and future desiccation in the residential area;
- allows to postpone and/or avoid of investments in treatment plants for the production of potable water from surface waters.
The increase in demand for potable water within the European Union results in additional groundwater withdrawal. This entails a disturbance of the natural groundwater balance and leads to desiccation of the environment. The policy of the EU as well as national and regional authorities is to reduce the share of groundwater in the public water supply from 66 to 50%.
At the moment, all the water used in the households of the Netherlands is potable water of a high quality. Such high-quality potable water can only be supplied by using (a) groundwater or (b) extensively treated surface water. However, continuing use of both sources entails disadvantages for the environment: While the use of groundwater may lead to desiccation, the treatment of surface water requires space, consumes lots of energy and raw materials, and leads to the production of (hazardous) waste. Furthermore, about 50% of the high-quality water produced is used for purposes which do not even require such a high quality level (washing, toilet flushing, sprinkling etc.).
In this demonstration project, nv NUON Water in cooperation with the City of Ede, will construct a dual water supply network, so as to supply all households in a new residential area with two qualities of water: potable water and domestic water. All the houses involved in the project are to be equipped with a maximum of water-saving devices. For the production of domestic water, all the rainwater in the residential area will be infiltrated into the underground, while the groundwater level will be maintained steady. The surplus water thus created in the residential area will be collected in a pond, treated by membrane filtration and re-used as domestic water.
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
6880 CA Velp
Netherlands