Our Publications

Although the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) does not specifically address the water sector, the water cycle has renewable energy generation potential, i.e.: the generation of electricity from hydraulic turbines, biogas from sewage sludge, electricity and thermal energy from sewage sludge mono-incineration, electricity from on-site windmills and solar panels, heat pumps and thermal energy from waste water at several stages of the water cycle. Hence, the water sector substantially contributes to the renewable energy targets and climate policies.

EurEau supports the general objective of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) which is to promote energy efficiency next to using renewable energies with the overall goal to achieve energy and climate neutrality. The EED and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) must accompany and support this process, taking into account the GHG emissions as the main indicator.

Waste water treatment plants (WWTP) remove pollutants from domestic waste water through mechanical and chemical processes and the biological activity of the biomass contained in the reactors. Chemicals coming from industrial waste water discharges into sewers can pose threats to waste water treatment, human health and the environment.

Therefore, controlling hazardous industrial discharges into sewers is an essential measure for protecting the environment, for the effective and sustainable operation of WWTPs, and to allow operators to comply with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Any sustainable policy framework must start from the Precautionary Principle, the Control at Source Principle and the Polluter Pays Principle, according to Article 191.2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

EurEau supports the setting of Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for pharmaceuticals provided several pre-conditions are met to avoid that the water sector will be the first and/or only stakeholder to take the burden for ensuring compliance.

European waste water service providers see the revision of the 1991 Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) as an opportunity to develop an ambitious, innovative, supportive and straight-forward new policy framework enabling operators to meet the Green Deal goals and make waste water collection, treatment and management fit for the decades to come.

Enabling the circular economy for waste water services requires the alignment of a set of directives regulating the sector. The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD), the Industrial Emission Directive (IED), the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and the Sewage Sludge Directive (SSD) are key to the collection and treatment of urban waste water and subsequent treatment and re-use of urban waste water treatment sludge (UWWTS).

Small agglomerations have been identified as a source of pollution in the evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Despite that small agglomerations need to be better defined in the UWWTD, this source of pollution needs to be robustly addressed for the protection of biodiversity, ecosystems and for the protection of drinking water resources.

EurEau would like to see more guidance on monitoring and control of small or even individual systems at EU level through a thorough assessment and planning for the registration and monitoring of individual sanitation systems included in River Basin Management Plans. These elements should also be easily accessible to the local drinking water operators so that they can include them in the risk assessment and risk management of the catchment area as required in the recently recast Drinking Water Directive.