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With the Strategic Agenda Water Loops, we created a challenge bundle on circular water use. This bundle presents all the challenges, and suggests levers (possible solutions) for circular water use from ongoing projects and initiatives.
The bundle offers tips, tools and actions to get started with circular water use or help accelerate it.
Think of the challenges bundle as a blueprint for action, built around 4 themes:
Policy and regulations
Challenges and levers to adapt and enact regulations, legal and administrative obligations.
Water chain
Challenges and levers for practical and technical conditions and aspects of water quality.
Funding
Challenges and levers regarding the financial component and tax regimes.
Water awareness
Challenges and levers for behavioural change, knowledge building and knowledge sharing
Getting started with the challenges bundle
The bundle was updated in mid-2024, and we continuously improve it. The ideal tool for entering into dialogue with stakeholders. And also a source of inspiration for water users, researchers, policy makers, civil society organisations and innovators. It is also a starting point for the strategic agenda itself to set up actions.
We focus on 3 concrete initiatives that we introduced within the strategic agenda.
Thanks to more efficient treatment techniques, we can reuse more water. Good news, but there's a catch: this inevitably produces a concentrate stream. This is a wastewater stream with a highly concentrated pollutant load. What do you do with that?
To find solutions for concentrate streams, we held discussions with the knowledge and research community from the strategic agenda to start a research project. The focus in the first instance is on tackling chloride and phosphorus in concentrate streams. We also organised a successful webinar on the topic.
A concrete project application is currently being submitted.
Within the strategic agenda, we set up exploratory actions for matchmaking stormwater between industry and agriculture. In this context, we organised an inspiring webinar. The webinar covered regulatory bottlenecks and opportunities, communication and forms of collaboration.
We are exploring how to help companies set up water projects. This is by identifying the needs and testing tools with companies and relevant stakeholders.
Link to Blue Deal operations
Link to Blue Deal operations
The strategic agenda water loops is also linked to ongoing initiatives such as the Blue Deal: the package of measures via which Flanders aims to avoid future water scarcity.
The ambitious programme tackles water scarcity and drought on the ground through various actions. The Blue Deal primarily aims for structural solutions by collaboration on various fronts: through practical initiatives, legislation, and research, monitoring, communication and awareness-raising.
Knowledge and best practices
Knowledge and best practices
In various Blue Deal projects, Drought Pilot Projects and other water projects (including these projects), companies, organisations and local governments experiment with new techniques to ensure smarter water use for their (business) activities. These (pilot) projects also provide valuable lessons that can pave the way for water-saving and circular projects throughout Flanders.