B-WaterSmart is a large European project with no less than 35 partners. During this project, six regions and cities spread across Europe will take a closer look at their water (re)use and come up with innovative approaches.

In Flanders, we are involved with De Watergroep, VITO, PCG, Aquafin, Stad Mechelen and KWR for two demonstrations. 

The city of Mechelen and PCG will look to combine irrigation needs for agriculture and storm water collection through the construction and smart hydraulic management of a buffer basin.

Water production centre De Blankaart depends on surface water in the surrounding area. Due to climate change, there is an increasing risk of not enough good- quality water being available during droughts. Therefore, De Watergroep and Aquafin are working on concepts to increase water availability in the future:

• De Watergroep is examining a CCRO plant (Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis) to increase the water supply of water production centre De Blankaart. By expanding the current infrastructure with additional purification techniques, we can take in lower quality water into our reservoir.
• Aquafin built a pilot plant in which various techniques can be combined to further purify the already treated effluent to a quality sufficient to supplement De Watergroep’s reservoir.

Both concepts can contribute to an increased supply of water for drinking water production, even during extreme droughts. This allows us to produce more drinking water and maintain the excellent quality of our drinking water.

KWR coordinates and VITO provides a comprehensive regional analysis and dissemination (via VLAKWA), based on these pilot systems. The project is funded by the European Union’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.

More on Horizon 2020.