The Swiss water turnaround: wait and see or take a proactive approach?

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - New technologies in the water sector can contribute to the flexible and sustainable development of urban water management and the sustainable utilisation of water as a resource. In a recent article in the journal Aqua & Gas, a team of researchers from the aquatic research institute Eawag shows what opportunities and risks are associated with this. Urban water management is facing a turning point: modular technologies are intended to make existing water and wastewater infrastructures more flexible and contribute to the sustainable development of urban water management. Today, a few large treatment plants with a widely diversified sewer network manage the flows of water in urban areas - highly efficiently, but often also at high cost. In the future, smaller, modular installations could increasingly be integrated into the existing water system in order to close water cycles locally where it makes sense to do so. The technologies for this are already available. They make it possible to clean and treat wastewater locally and to recover nutrients from wastewater, i.e. directly in individual buildings or neighbourhoods.