A useful and interesting recent contribution around integrating water management into broader economy and urban planning.

From Aquatech Trade News

The UNESCO circular water strategies report highlights how four European cities and one region are incorporating water and sanitation into wider circular economy initiatives.

Reusing water has the potential to fill the gap between availability and demand for agricultural, industrial and domestic purposes.

While the benefits are largely recognised and are fundamental to help achieve a Circular Economy, it remains mostly unexploited with the uptake continuing to remain low.

Yet, four European cities and a region are being more progressive when it comes to incorporating water and sanitation into wider circular economy initiatives.

That’s according to a new 218-page report published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), entitled ‘Water reuse within a circular economy context’.

The report highlighted successful examples across Europe that have initiated a new socio-economic paradigm, aiming to foster more efficient use of resources by minimising waste.

This follows an OECD Survey on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions that showed 66 per cent of the surveyed initiatives identified the water and sanitation sector as key for the circular economy.

From those contributing to the OECD Survey, four cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Barcelona Metropolitan Area and Paris and Flanders as a region have incorporated water and sanitation into their circular economy initiatives.

The cases analysed demonstrated a “mix of technical and governance approaches”, according to UNESCO.