During the last REUSE EUROMED 2024 conference in Montpellier (29-30 October), the coordinators of the Interreg SUDOE Target project, Ámelie Bresson (Etablissement Public Interdépartemental de la Dordogne, France) and I-ReWater, Javier Cancela (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain), held a bilateral meeting to look for points of common interest, pilot actions, legislation or management of urban residual water. The meeting was also attended by CEREMA staff (Catherine Franck-Neel), as beneficiaries of the Target project.
This is precisely the common link between the two research projects. The aim of Target (TerritorAI stRateGy for watER scarcity) is to define a strategy for developing action plans that integrate solutions for the use of non-conventional water, including the reuse of treated wastewater (REUT). The solutions, tested through pilot and demonstration actions, aim to improve water governance, promote social acceptability, find innovative business models and address quality issues related to emerging pollutants.
The aim of the ‘I-ReWater. Sustainable management of water resources in irrigated agriculture in the SUDOE space’ is to integrate the use of urban wastewater in agricultural crops, taking into account the environmental aspects that guarantee its good use in the current climate crisis. At the end of the three years of this applied research, the ‘Strategy for the use of water for reuse in irrigated agriculture in the SUDOE area’ will be presented and the overall results obtained will be made available in an open-access knowledge centre.
Following this first contact between Target and I-ReWater, a next working meeting has been scheduled for early 2025, during which possible avenues for collaboration will be reinforced and positive synergies sought.
In the photo, both coordinators with researcher Isabel Martín (centre), from AMAYA (Andalusian Environment and Water Agency), the partner organisation of both Interreg SUDOE projects and the driving force behind this cooperation.