We are proud to sponsor students to join the Wetskills programme. This time it was Sophia Faustermann ‘s turn to participate in Barcelona and this is what she said:
Wetskills Barcelona: Case 2
My case for Wetskills Barcelona was helping the Dutch Waterboards accelerate the use of reuse and reclaimed water in the Netherlands. We had to create a roadmap showing the steps they need to take to work toward a regulation for water reuse. In the Netherlands, the technology to clean water for reuse is not the problem; the regulatory part is. The extra step in wastewater treatment plants is ultra-violet filtration and reverse osmosis, which we learned during our visit to a local wastewater treatment plant.
Since we only had around seven days to work on the case, my three group members and I decided to split the workload. We started by educating ourselves on the government regulations of the Netherlands, Spain, and the European Union. Our case owner was interested in how Spain was able to create regulations for reused water, as they have been reusing water since 2000. We had to understand their process and learn from their mistakes to adapt it for the Netherlands. After understanding each country’s and the EU’s regulations and seeing what the standards were, we looked at how it could be financed. Learning from Spain, we found out that there are different taxes for different regions of the country. There were also examples of farmers and industries making deals on water, saving natural freshwater for drinking and using reclaimed water for other purposes. Taking this information into account, we suggested that the waterboards would have to create new taxes or increase existing ones to fund these extra steps.
The next step was to research social acceptance, because it is a very important step that Spain handled poorly, so the Netherlands could learn from it. I’m still unclear on how successfully the Spanish implemented water reuse, but it doesn’t seem to have been very effective, given that awareness is limited to those working in the water sector. Reused water is mainly used for industry, agriculture, and refilling aquifers. However, during desperate times for water, they could return the reclaimed water to the river right before the collection point of the drinking water treatment plant.
After this, our group needed to figure out how to get this information out to the public, so we came up with a few ideas. First, we suggested running public pilot projects for reclaimed water to show the science behind it. It’s important that these projects are visible so people can learn about them. The next step could be collaborating with some farmers—possibly from Zeeland, due to the need for fresh water there during summer—to test reclaimed water on actual crops. Of course, it would be tested on a few plots of land to see how the water reacts to the environment and if it would affect the crops. Along with this, we suggested having campaigns and programs to help boost understanding of the need for water reuse in the Netherlands.
The third way that we thought the Netherlands could use this water would be refilling the aquifers, similar to what Spain does, which would also help maintain ditch levels. Though all of this is just a suggestion for the Dutch Waterboards to take into account when creating this regulation. At the end, we created a roadmap to outline this information into six steps: research, regulate, finance, implement, upscale, and inform the public. Each step includes extra information to share what should be done.
This project was challenging because we had limited time to research, write a paper, create a pitch, and design a poster, but we managed to complete everything, and I’m proud of my group. For me, as a 19-year-old second-year bachelor student, I felt like this gave me a broader view of what kinds of water-related projects I may have to do in the future. The experience was something new to me, especially in a professional sense, since I had to work with people older than me and more experienced. I really appreciate being able to have this experience and hope that others will take the same opportunity.
-Sophia FaustermannÂ