Representatives from Spain, France, and Portugal involved in the GestEAUr project met on June 11 and 12 in Pau (France), where they took the opportunity to visit two water treatment plants in the region and held several meetings with local partners to learn about the state of water resources in the area.
The European project GESTEAUR held a new working meeting on June 11 and 12 in the French city of Pau, where representatives from the nine consortium partners from Spain, Portugal, and France shared the technical, scientific, and strategic progress of this transnational initiative aimed at sustainable and digitized water management in rural areas of the SUDOE space.
During the meeting, which took place as part of the project’s regular activities, the progress of the various work areas was reviewed, with special attention given to the development of cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions for the treatment, reuse, and improvement of water quality. The current status of the technology catalogue was also presented—a key document that groups and evaluates techniques based on their applicability, ease of maintenance, and suitability for the reality of small rural municipalities.
One of the most relevant moments of the meeting was the sharing of the results of the five diagnostics carried out in the project’s pilot areas: La Moraña and Guadiana-Extremadura in Spain, Miño and Alentejo in Portugal, and Béarn in France. These studies, focused on identifying the water needs of each territory, will serve as the basis for adapting technologies and developing the digital tool SID_AQUARURAL, which will act as a “digital twin” to optimize decision-making regarding the integrated water cycle through artificial intelligence.
The meeting also served to review the development of the technological pilots. Progress was presented on the modular drinking water purification systems in Tiñosillos (Ávila), Nogales (Extremadura), and Elvas (Portugal), as well as on the wastewater treatment solutions using electro-stimulated wetlands in Fontiveros, Cartaxo, and Torres Vedras. Initial results were also discussed regarding the innovative solar photoreactor installed at the Lescar wastewater treatment plant (Béarn region), developed by the French CNRS, which aims to improve disinfection and the removal of emerging pollutants using solar energy.
On the second day of the meeting, technical visits were made to the Guindalos drinking water treatment plant and the Lescar wastewater treatment plant, facilitating a valuable exchange of experiences with regional French water authorities and operators. These visits highlighted the project’s practical dimension, its territorial implementation capacity, and its replicability potential.
The consortium agreed to continue working in a coordinated manner on the validation of technologies, data collection to feed the digital tool, and the preparation of communication and dissemination actions. The next in-person meeting is scheduled to take place in 2026 in the city of Ávila (Spain), where the project’s closing event will be held.
