WATEREUS-MED · Water reuse in Mediterranean Countries

Periodic Report Summary 1 - WATEREUS-MED (Water reuse in Mediterranean Countries)

Water is a natural wealth and it has to be protected and reused to guarantee the sustainable satisfaction of all needs of citizens and economic sectors. The water is becoming limited. There is no water to “waste”. In the Mediterranean Countries water shortage generally limits the development of industry, agriculture and tourism. Potential conflicts in the Southern Mediterranean due to water are higher than anywhere in the world, undermining efforts for global peace and stability. Europe benefits from a privileged situation on water resources and has made important progress on water management, infrastructure, technologies and legislation over the past decades. However, water scarcity, droughts, floods, lacking access to modern and safe sanitation, ageing infrastructure, increasing energy demand and pollution are growing concerns in countries all over the continent. Global challenges such a climate change, population growth and urbanisation further intensify the problems. During the last three decades the European water industry has built up a great competitive strength and the main objective of the WATEREUS-MED project was to strengthen research cooperation and knowledge sharing between Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) and Europe within the water related sciences. The scheduled collaborative exchange, programmed within the WATEREUS-MED project, provided training opportunities to early stage researchers (ESR) and to experienced researchers (ER). One of the main challenges was to make better use of the existing research and technological innovation in terms of new skills and new techniques on water reuse. On this basis, the WATEREUS-MED collaborative exchange programme was developed with the goal to reach the following two main objectives: • Research objectives: to raise the knowledge concerning the technical feasibility of water reuse in the involved countries and to raise the opportunity to optimize the control of water availability; • Training and sharing of knowledge objectives: to train scientists on crucial aspects concerning actual feasibility of water reuse technologies and pertinence of technical and plant-related factors within the existing water system within the specific geographical area. The WATEREUS-MED mobility program allowed to develop dedicated research activities and trainings as well as to build new and additional competencies via cross-collaboration between Mediterranean partners and European teams.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union