At a meeting of the European Parliament Water Group, environment commissioner Karmenu Vella said although sound water management is “often regarded as a cost”, it is always an “excellent investment”
The cost of investment, he added, could be “drastically reduced” once investment barriers are removed.
Water is an “intrinsic part of the cycle of life”, meaning it is “critical” that the water sector addresses issues around water recycling.
“Reusing water isn’t just an opportunity to address the issue of local scarcity,” he said. “This is also an economic opportunity that EU companies could take up even more.”
Sound water management is also “crucial” in making urban areas more resilient to climatic disasters such as floods and droughts. “What is very, very clear is that we cannot continue to extract, consume, and discard resources ad-infinitum,” he Vella.
The European Union is due to launch its circular economy package next month, with water use one of the key areas being looked at.
“The re-use and recycling of water, for example in industrial processes, are an essential part of the circular economy,” said Vella.
He added that the “greatest potential” in relation to the circular economy is in the reuse of municipal waste water.
Approximately one billion cubic metres of treated urban wastewater is currently reused, he said. However, this represents just 0.5 per cent of annual EU freshwater withdrawals.