Key water-smart challenges

Increasing water demand in supply area by growing sectors (households, industry, agriculture), limited groundwater resources, and locally untapped water reuse potential.

Key water-smart opportunities

Development of a sectoral and decentralized water supply strategy considering unused local water resources (e.g. reuse of treated process water instead of drinking water in the dairy and food industry, water demand forecasting by using smart metering).

Special Focus

Increasing the carrying capacity of water supply: i) identification of alternative resources, ii) intelligent protection strategies for groundwater bodies, and iii) improved treatment of process water for reuse in milk production.

Current status and ambition

The OOWV (Lower Saxony, Germany) is one of the largest water suppliers in Germany with an area of 7.860 km², providing drinking water from groundwater resources to private, industrial, and agricultural customers (and treating wastewater in ~50% of the area). It is confronted with climate change, which causes hot and dry summer periods with increasing water demand in various sectors. Furthermore, emissions from agriculture affect the usability of water resources for drinking water purposes.

Ambition until the end of the project:
The goal of OOWV is to identify unused water resources and increase the reuse of process water and treated wastewater in water-intensive sectors. For this purpose, a pilot plant is operated at the DMK site in Edewecht to test the improved treatment of process water from dairies for reuse in water-intensive sectors of milk production. A high-resolution assessment of water demand and analyses of available water resources (quality and quantity) will be conducted for the OOWV’s supply area in order to develop a quality-oriented local water supply for selected industrial end-users. The water demand forecasts will be improved by intelligent measurement at strategic locations.

Ambition beyond project (upscaling/transferability):
In the long term, integrated water resource management for the OOWV supply area is to be established using water reuse and alternative supply concepts. The methods and instruments developed in B-WaterSmart as well as the technical know-how gained in the field of water reuse technologies are an important element for this.