B-WaterSmart Policy Brief - Accelerating Water Reuse

Water is fundamentally connected to essential areas like health, agriculture, and energy, acting as a vital resource that supports life, sustains ecosystems, and drives economic development. However, freshwater resources worldwide are increasingly under pressure. To safeguard these resources, enhance resilience, and ensure an adequate and high-quality water supply for all stakeholders, a transition to water-smart societies and economies is imperative. In response to the growing pressure on freshwater resources across the EU, the European Commission adopted the EU Regulation on Minimum Requirements for Water Reuse. This regulation, which has been in effect in Member States since June 2023, aims to foster the safe use of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation across the European Union.

This policy brief highlights challenges and enablers for the national implementation of water reuse in Portugal, examining both the national legal framework and selected success practices for water reuse. It offers recommendations to address these challenges and promote enablers, targeting EU Member States to assist in their national implementation and the EU Commission to continue fostering and reinforcing an enabling environment for water reuse. These recommendations are informed by insights gathered from the Living Labs of the Horizon 2020 project B-WaterSmart (located in Lisbon, Portugal; Alicante, Spain; East Frisia, Germany; Flanders, Belgium; Venice, Italy; and Bodø, Norway) and from the WATERMINING project. One of the Living Labs is specifically highlighted in this policy brief, detailing the associated success practices, enablers, and challenges. B-WaterSmart and WATER-MINING have developed innovative technological and data application solutions to enhance circularity in the water cycle.