WaterProtect News: Water reuse to avoid shortages, Report on Belgian television, sustainable water use and the food sector, nutrients monitoring in Romania, solutions for point source pollution in Italy

Enabling Drinking Water Protection in Rural and Urban Environment

Newsletter #5 - January 2020

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Message from the Project Coordinator

Ingeborg Joris (VITO)

Dear reader,

Welcome again to our new newsletter on the WaterProtect project. First of all I would like to take the opportunity to wish you a wonderful 2020!

It is the time of the year to look back and reflect on what happened in 2019 and you will find in this newsletter that for WaterProtect that was a lot. In our action labs, efforts continued in raising awareness and capacity building. Our team in Italy is bringing measures such as the mobile cleaning place to the farmyard to demonstrate to other farmers and the Polish and Romanian teams continue to reach out to local actors, from school children to farmers and food producers.

Continued monitoring has increased our knowledge and understanding of what is going on in the catchments and this is shared with local actors in meetings and using our newly developed apps.

We had the opportunity to exchange experiences and learn from each other in a series of workshops we had in Ireland, Romania and Spain. In our action labs, our teams are starting to look beyond the project timeline and discussions have started on how to find ways to sustain the local actor involvement after the project, for instance by creating a Water Fund as is explored in our Danish action lab.

Now we are entering the final months of the project and you can expect to hear more from us as we will be sharing our achievements and findings with you.

I wish you a pleasant reading!

Sincerely,

Ingeborg Joris

Scroll down to discover the approach and the activities

in our action labs.

Action Lab Spain

WaterProtect Workshop in Baix Llobregat

“Only water reuse can avoid shortages in the future”

At November 21st WaterProtect organised its Spanish Workshop at the historical water production site of the local water company Aigües de Barcelona.

Experts and WaterProtect partners working in the Lower Llobregat Action Lab presented the local situation and challenges and the developed strategy to make the water supply and system more sustainable and resilient to climate change.

Read the full article.

Action Lab Spain

A Sanitation Safety Plan (SSP) for use of regenerated water in agriculture in the Baix Llobregat

Agriculture is threatened in Mediterranean climate areas such as Baix Llobregat, our Spanish action lab.

Here, the water demand is expected to increase linked to urban development, and water resources are expected to fall linked to climate changes. In these scenarios, finding additional water resources is essential. One of those resources could be regenerated water. The local stakeholders are working hard on developing appropriate tools for effective water reuse and try to develop the social acceptance.

Read the full article

Action Lab Belgium

'Countryside Television' brings report on WaterProtect

‘PlattelandsTV’ a Flemish thematic channel with focus on agriculture and countryside life broadcast a report on the Bollaertbeek action lab. The report shows the risks and consequences of contaminating drinking water sources in the area and explains the WaterProtect approach. Local partners and a farmer were interviewed.

Watch the video here

Action Lab Ireland

WaterProtect Workshop in Wexford:

Fruitful exchanges and insights in sustainable water use for the food sector and MCPA monitoring

The fourth up-scaling workshop by Water Protect was hosted by the Irish Action Lab on the 17 ^th June 2019 in Wexford County Council, Wexford, Ireland. The theme was “Science, water governance and policy implementations: Scaling up to European level” and the day included talks from a number of stakeholders, local water authorities and international experts demonstrating the Irish and European strategy and action for improving drinking water quality.

Read the article

Action Lab Denmark

Exploring the potential of a common water fund

The Municipality of Skive, partner in the WaterProtect project, has taken initiative to explore the interest to set up a common water fund among the 24 water works supplying the drinking water in the Municipality.

Read the article

Action Lab Romania

WaterProtect workshop in Ocna Sugatag clarifies need for an integrated approach

Mara Action Lab welcomed participants (stakeholders from Maramures and colleagues from WaterProtect action labs) in an interactive workshop to develop a local action plan for the prevention of water pollution.

Read the article

Action Lab Romania

Results of nutrients monitoring available, awareness campaign also target youngsters

According to official information, the water quality of the Breboaia River is good with some vulnerabilities due to the (moderate) presence of nutrients. In this Action lab of WaterProtect, the rural type communities practice traditional semi-subsistence agriculture. P esticides or chemical fertilizers are not used in the region. Problems only occur due to household waste, the use and storage of manure and their defective management.

Read the article

Action Lab Italy

WaterProtect gives detailed insight in groundwater quality, point source pollution prevention measures in preparation

A long and detailed monitoring campaign established by WaterProtect delivered detailed information on the groundwater quality in Val Tidone. The presence of residues of plant production products can be linked to the improper filling and cleaning of spraying equipment.

A constructive dialogue with winegrowers and farmers in the area regarding spraying practices was set up. The local project partners are now striving for a mobile cleaning and filling station for the farmers in Val Tidone.

Read the article

Action Lab Poland

Intensive contacts with farmers and local stakeholders

The past year was very intensive for the Polish team of WaterProtect. During that time several workshops for farmers and stakeholders were organized in the Gowienica Miedwiańska river catchment which brought a new light into developing an optimal way of water resources management.

Read the article

About WaterProtect

WaterProtect has received funding from the

European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 727450.

Disclaimer: this publication only reflects the authors’ views and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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