Preserving water resources
Rationalizing withdrawal
Efforts to reduce waste can benefit from technical solutions to improve the efficiency of drinking water networks and consumption of water in facilities. Veolia Water applies a continuous improvement approach on these two elements.
Awareness-raising and education aimed at consumers encourage the rationalization of use and savings of water in regions in which there is pressure on water resources.
Developing alternative resources
Veolia Water concentrates its efforts on the development of alternative resources so as to limit pressure on water supplies
Recycling
Recycling (reuse) of wastewater maximizes the use of withdrawn water before it is returned to the natural environment, creating a lever effect between the volume of water withdrawn and the volume of water used. It can be used for industrial purposes (process water, cooling water, etc.) or for rural applications (crop irrigation, irrigation of golf courses, green spaces), or even some domestic uses for which drinking water is not necessary.
For example this is the case in Adelaide, Australia, where the Bolivar wastewater treatment plant managed by Veolia Water reprocesses 43,000 cubic meters wastewater per day and irrigates horticultural plantations, to recharge groundwater in winter and supply non-drinking water for domestic purposes in a residential area.
Veolia Water thus recycles 3 million cubic meters per day (namely 20% of the current world market).
These reuse solutions require rigorous technical control to avoid any sanitary risk. Psychological and cultural barriers that still limit their use also need to be addressed.
Desalination
97.5% of water reserves on the planet are seawater.
Desalination can considerably increase the available water resource and provide a solution in case of drought or shortages. It also reduces dependence on water from other regions by avoiding water imports and transfers over long distances.
Veolia Water is developing two major types of processes to desalinate sea water.
Thermal desalination is the traditional method, and consists of separating salt from water by evaporation in a distillation system. Distillation artificially reproduces natural phenomena of evaporation and condensation in the form of rain.
Desalination by reverse osmosis is more recent and consists of retaining salts, bacteria and particles in membranes and obtaining very pure water. In all cases, Veolia Environnement is working on making continuous improvement to the energy efficiency of the process and management of the saline concentrate to give better control over the environmental impact and production costs. The extension of these techniques to less extreme situations than those from which they originate (rich countries with abundant and inexpensive energy but with severe pressure on water) requires continuous work to lower process costs and particularly their energy intensity.
Groundwater recharge
Groundwater recharge techniques artificially input water to the water table, in order to protect groundwater.
They use the ground's natural functions, namely its filtration and storage capacity. For coastal aquifers, replenishment also prevents penetration of seawater into groundwater and consequently salination of this groundwater.
Artificially replenishing water tables makes them more productive and provides a solution to chronic or seasonal deficits and limits imports of water from other procurement basins.
As an illustration, the Berlin water service managed by Veolia Water is based largely on the principle of filtration on banks.
