The ISA-developed SMAlert is a reliable solution, easy to install and operate, ideally suited to provide the Water Utilities with remote monitoring of their Water and Waste Treatment Plants. The supervisory activities and autonomous alarm notification are performed using GPRS communication. The GPRS-relayed alarms are processed by the command software, which later relays a SMS to the technician’s cell phone, with location and alarm ID. It can monitor the triggering of alarms, relaying to the technical staff any malfunctions or intrusions; it allows the time-set GPRS transmission of the necessary data both to the technician in charge and to central command.

 

 

Water is the main raw material for The Coca-Cola Company. Its availability, quality, cost and efficient use are decisive factors for the world’s largest beverage producer. Therefore, saving water is one of the main principles of Coca-Cola’s philosophy.  
 
As part of the wider “Water Efficiency Project” Coca-Cola and denkstatt are now tracking possibilities to reduce water consumption and optimize water usage in bottling plants with the “Water Saver” tool. This benchmarking tool was developed by Coca-Cola in cooperation with its bottling partners and WWF.  
 
At present, the Coca-Cola’s system uses worldwide 2.48 litres of water per litre of beverage produced (as for every litre of beverage produced, additional water is required for quality, hygiene and cleaning processes), which is a significant saving of over 20% since 2002. The Water Efficiency Project with denkstatt will contribute to a further 20% efficiency improvement by the year 2012, compared to 2004 levels.
 
“There is water saving potential in almost every bottling plant”, says denkstatt consultant Fátima Bertrán de Lis. “Water can be saved in bottle washers, cooling or water treatment systems.” denkstatt has provided each of the participants (meanwhile 26 plants in 11 countries) with an ultrasonic measuring device to measure water flow in several relevant processes. During the measuring period the contact persons of the bottling plants are supported by denkstatt’s consultants, who collect and evaluate the data. These are finally fed into the “Water Saver” tool in which saving potentials in the plant are revealed.
 
“The possibilities to save water in bottling plants are in fact very diverse”, explains Hans Wilfling, Environmental Manager of The Coca-Cola Europe Group. “For example, water that has been used to rinse the bottles can be used again for the conveyor lubrication or the general cleaning of the plant. It can also be partly redirected to the water treatment process. Also, technological improvements in bottle washers can reduce the water consumption considerably”.
                                                 
“Improving water efficiency by 20 per cent in a system like Coca-Cola has a huge impact on the environment. Resources are preserved and the company itself becomes a role model for others”, emphasises denkstatt-Consultant Fátima Bertrán de Lis. The extension of the project to other bottling plants is already planned. 

 

 

Working with Water For People, ITT will provide support to enable the development of new local infrastructure to bring water and sanitation to remote schools, provide resources to repair existing systems, and assist in the creation of innovative hygiene education initiatives. During the balance of 2008, ITT will support 50 schools in Latin America and Asia, including schools in West Bengal, India; Quiche, Guatemala; and Yoro, Honduras. ITT will extend its support to an additional 100 schools in 2009, and another 150 schools in 2010.

Sustainable Approach
ITT and Water For People will deploy a sustainable model that creates local water committees in the communities where the schools are located. The committees will take ownership for the projects and maintain the facilities long after the infrastructure is built. In addition, ITT and Water For People will return to each school one year after implementation to monitor the safe water systems and three years later to evaluate their success.

Emergency Response Capability
Through ITT Watermark, ITT has also established an Emergency Response Committee responsible for the proactive and coordinated deployment of ITT resources directly to disaster sites during water-related emergencies. This component of the ITT Watermark program builds on ITT’s legacy of supporting communities in need with its products and expertise to remove unwelcomed flood water and provide access to safe drinking water.

ITT has learned much about the needs of natural disaster victims since its experience in Sri Lanka following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The company’s experience led to the deployment of mobile water treatment units capable of producing safe drinking water from surface water sources in emergent conditions where there is an absence of electricity. These units had been developed for military purposes, and are ideally suited for civilian emergency situations. Most recently, ITT donated several of these units and deployed technical resources to southwest China and Myanmar to support the recovery efforts following the natural disasters devastating those regions.

ITT Watermark Discussion Series
To further educate its stakeholders on ITT Watermark and the issues it was designed to address, ITT has organized a several-part discussion series featuring the company’s executives, non-profit partners and other industry experts.

The first event in the series will examine why schools are the focal point for safe water distribution in underserved communities and be held this evening in conjunction with the Stockholm Water Symposium. The panel will include Gretchen McClain, president of ITT Fluid Technology, Ned Breslin, director of international programs at Water For People and John Elkington, co-founder of SustainAbility, an independent think tank specializing in corporate responsibility and sustainable development. The panel will be moderated by Keith Schneider, special correspondent to The New York Times and co-founder of Circle of Blue, a media project of the Pacific Institute, a non-profit water policy think tank.

 

 

 

 

It has also asked for information on how unused pharmaceuticals are disposed of from hospitals, care homes, hospices and vets. The information will be used to shape future regulation and identify best practice when it comes to proper disposal.

The agency is also expanding its ongoing study of fish tissue to build up a national sample to determine whether residues from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics may be present in fish and waterways. On top of this it is mapping the occurrence of cosmetics residues in sewage sludge and wastewater. To facilitate these efforts, the agency has developed analytical methods capable of detecting various pharmaceuticals, steroids and hormones at very low levels.

EPA also is participating in an international effort with the World Health Organisation to study appropriate risk assessment methods for pharmaceuticals as environmental contaminants.

 

 

 

WOPs have proven their value in many parts of the world by successfully pairing, or "twinning," water operators in search of solutions with other operators who have addressed similar challenges. These twinning arrangements have helped recipient water operators improve their efficiencies and capacities, resulting in more people gaining access to safe drinking water

and sanitation.

 

The rationale behind the WOPs is that most of the capacity for improving water and sanitation services lies with the operators, 90% of which are publicly managed. The United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation proposed the development of WOPs as structured programs of cooperation among water operators, based on mutual support

and on a not-for-profit basis, in its 2006 Hashimoto Action Plan. Mandated by the United Nations Secretary General to promote and coordinate activities related to WOPs, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT) has established a Global WOPs Alliance Centre and identified the need to establish Regional Partnership Networks for WOPs.

 

The agreement with WaterLinks supports the WOPs initiative through:

• Brokering and facilitating twinning partnerships between expert water operators and Asian utilities and municipal agencies on selected water and sanitation operations;
• Organizing water operator capacity building activities such as workshops, conferences and training events; and
• Developing and maintaining a knowledge hub web portal (www.waterlinks.org) on WOP initiatives and best practices. The portal collects and disseminates WOP approaches, training, toolkits and other capacity building materials, and WOP-related scheduled events organized by the partners

 

Participating development partners combine efforts and contribute to WaterLinks based on their own strengths and interests. IWA takes the lead in dissemination and knowledge sharing and works through its member network to broker new WOPs. USAID, through its Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia) program, focuses primarily on the facilitation of WOP arrangements, while contributing to regional capacity building initiatives led by the ADB.

 

ADB provides technical assistance to water operators in Asia by financing twinning arrangements, supporting water utility networks, and organizing technical workshops. USAID and the ADB also leverage their resources by jointly supporting selected WOP arrangements.

 

WaterLinks currently operates as an unofficial collaborative network of development partners, although plans are underway to create a permanent WaterLinks secretariat in the near future.

 

 

Professor Mark van Loosdrecht (picture left) is a globally recognised pioneer of new techniques that synthesise environmental biotechnology and good engineering practice. From his base at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, he has been instrumental in developing wastewater treatment, biofilm processes, nutrient removal and the production of chemicals by open microbial cultures. These techniques have contributed worldwide to major improvements in the effectiveness and energy efficiency of water treatment.

 

Dr. Jim Gill (picture right) is CEO of the Water Corporation of Western Australia, which has been faced with serious challenges in the provision of water services due to climate change. At a time when many had not yet recognized the serious implications of climate change for water supply, Dr. Gill and his team were literally saving Perth and other areas of Western Australia from running out of water. "Security through Diversity' was the key, leading to a portfolio of new climate-independent solutions that complemented the simultaneous improvement of existing dam and groundwater sources. These included renewable-energy driven desalination, water recycling and injection into the aquifer, as well as water trading with irrigation cooperatives through improved

irrigation efficiency. Accompanying these developments was a widespread public awareness campaign to alert people to the issue which secured water savings in the magnitude of 45 gigalitres per year.

 

Dr. David Garman, IWA's President and Chairperson of the Award Committee, stated ‘these two individuals have demonstrated outstanding excellence and leadership in science, technology, and water management. Their achievements have been recognised internationally throughout the

membership of IWA. They have led their fields with vision, applied the best expertise the world has to offer and shown extraordinary persistence, often in the face of great adversity, to create new directions and open new fields. They are worthy dual winners of the Grand Award this year.'

The awards will be presented during the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition from 7^th to 11th September 2008 in Vienna, Austria.

 

 

The new IPS equipment will replace the plant's existing 10-year-old Siemens' composting agitators. Two agitators will be delivered this year, with the other three installed in early 2009. This schedule will allow the capital cost to be spread out for two fiscal years, and the entire order delivered within the shortest time frame so as not to impede plant operations.

 

The IPS Composting System is an enclosed in-vessel, agitated, aerated, automated composting process with biofiltration odor control. It transforms dewatered biosolids, municipal solid waste and source-separated organics (SSOs) into high-quality compost products. The system also stabilizes residual waste in Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT). A sustainable solution to today's climate concerns, the IPS system provides landfill diversion, composting process control and responsible use of organic residuals.

 

At Burlington County, Siemens conducted on-site composting system studies to help determine the best plan for implementing the upgrade while meeting the county's budget. Siemens also worked with its suppliers to meet the challenge of a relatively tight timeline.

 

The new IPS equipment will allow the county to continue its success managing biosolids from the wastewater treatment plants, thus providing beneficial use of the compost product and reducing greenhouse gases to the environment.

 

 

The Water Industry Forum offers business brokerage facilities; support & advice for industry training schemes;  Networking/meet the buyer events;  advice on exporting opportunities;  a database of regional UK water wastewater suppliers. The organisation also is supporting "Children Challenging Industry" by providing primary school education modules on the water cycle & impact of water usage.

The Water Industry Forum has brought three members as co-exhibitors to Aquatech.  Each company offering specialised service and product range.

 

AquaEnviro, award-winning  consultancy and specialist training provider in environmental engineering and science. The company have notable expertise in domestic and industrial waste water treatment ranging from flow and load surveys through to plant optimization and management.

 

Longwood Engineering, established for over 100 years, Longwood Engineering manufactures bespoke effluent treatment screens and handling equipment.  High quality products and satisfied customers have been the philosophy behind the company's continued success.  At AquaTech 2008 Longwood Engineering will be exhibiting their latest product range including: Combi-Wash, Escalator, Back Raked RM, D-Screen, Rotapak,  Stormguard & D-Compactor.

 

Pulsonic Technologies Ltd, founded in 1993 Pulsonic Technologies Ltd is a UK owned manufacturer of measurement systems and solutions for water and wastewater industries. The company is ISO 9001:2000 accredited and is renowned for excellence in design, manufacture, and service. The company is a supplier in ultrasonic instrumentation, along with all waste water electronics and instrumentation.

 

 

The report, "Ground-Water Availability in the United States" examines what is known about the Nation's ground-water availability and outlines a strategy for future national and regional studies that would provide information to help state and local agencies make informed water-availability decisions.

The approach outlined in the report is designed to provide useful regional information for State and local agencies who manage ground-water resources, while providing the building blocks for a national assessment. The report places the regional studies by the USGS Ground-Water Resources Program as a long-term effort to understand ground-water availability in major aquifers across the Nation. The report contains information about 30 regional principal aquifers and five case studies to illustrate the diversity of water-availability issues. The report is written for a wide audience interested or involved in the management, protection, and sustainable use of the Nation's water resources.

Ground water, a hidden resource found below the surface of the Earth, is among the Nation's most important natural resources. Extensive use of ground-water resources and other effects of pumping has led to concerns about the future availability of ground water to meet domestic, agricultural, industrial, and environmental needs.

Determining ground-water availability is a complex process. Issues affecting ground-water vary from location to location and commonly require analysis in the context of ground-water flow systems to achieve a meaningful perspective. Even if water resources are abundant regionally, heavy water use in centralized areas can create local stresses. As water-related problems evolve in complex ways, an up-to-date and comprehensive evaluation of ground-water resources that builds on the foundation of previous studies is needed to meet society's ever-changing water demands.

This report is an outgrowth of a pilot study, National Assessment of Water Avail­ability and Use, that began in 2005 at the request of Congress. The report also builds on regional ground-water availability studies recently undertaken as part of the USGS Ground-Water Resources Program. The approach to national ground-water assessment is a key element of the water census of the United States, which has been proposed as part of the proposed Federal science strategy to meet nationwide water chal­lenges by the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality.

 

 

Sasyk is an estuary in the north-western Black Sea, with the status of a wetland (VBU) of international importance and Ramsar status. The idea was to create a new lake that was supposed to provide irrigation for the surrounding villages. The lake remained salty and the ecosystem toppled. The project ended in a ecological, social and economical disaster. The environment and as a consequence, the health conditions of the population have alarmingly deteriorated. Despite having no function at all, the dam is still not decommissioned, due to corruption and ignorance of the responsible authorities.

 

The deterioration of the bay has not only had effect on health and biodiversity, but has also had an enormous socio economic impact on the population. Tourism in the region disappeared and the formerly popular beach at the lake cannot be commercially exploited anymore.

 

The effects can be reversed by decommissioning the dam, as has been sufficiently thoroughly researched by numerous scientists. According to a survey carried out by the organization, 97% of the population is in favour of opening the dam.

 

 

In addition to providing two different water treatment technologies to the National Stadium, GE is providing reverse osmosis membrane technologies for the Tangshan Nanpu Waste Water Reclamation Project, located east of Beijing in the North China Plain. The plant will produce more than 93,000 tons of treated water each day, enough to fill 37 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and the water will support industrial operations of the Tangshan Nanbao Economic Development Zone. GE water filtration technologies are also in place at the Qinghe Waste Water Recycling Project to process 80,000 cubic metres of waste water per day to be recycled for landscaping purposes during the Beijing Games.

 

Additionally, GE is supplying 120 wind turbines to the Zhangbei and Shangyi wind farms.

 

 "GE's contributions to the building of the Beijing Games have provided significant support in transforming the city of Beijing," said Gerhard Heiberg, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Marketing Commission. "Through its projects ranging from city infrastructure to water treatment, GE is helping to ensure that the Games' facilities operate smoothly for athletes, spectators and media."

Each of the four UV chambers disinfects up to 1,060 m3/hour (SAC value** of 6.5/metre) of ground water adjacent to the Ruhr River. Providing a log-3 microbial reduction, the Berson UV system is installed following chlorine dioxide treatment and provides an enhanced level of disinfection during flooding situations.

 

Mr Langenberg, Head of Procurement at Wassergewinnung Essen GmbH commented that one of the main reasons for installing UV was to provide extra disinfection capacity in the event of the Ruhr flooding over onto the drinking water catchment area. Due to the space requirements and long term operational costs, low pressure UV was ruled out. "We chose Berson's closed vessel medium pressure technology as it not only offered a technologically advanced, DVGW-approved disinfection solution with a small footprint, but will also prove to be the most economical in the long term. The very short lead-time for delivery was also a decisive factor."

 

The Essen-Horst water treatment plant supplies drinking water to over 475,000 people in a very large urban area including the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Herne and parts of Bochum, Hattingen, Spröckhovel and Velbert-Langenberg.

 

The InLine 15000 DW-DVGW chambers feature Berson's MultiWave medium pressure UV lamps, which are orientated perpendicular to the water flow to achieve optimum UV exposure. Unlike conventional UV lamps, MultiWave lamps produce a broad spectrum of wavelengths which act on the whole microorganism, rather than its DNA alone. This provides permanent deactivation by ensuring photoreactivation and dark repair of the microorganisms' DNA cannot occur.

 

Integral sensors monitor UV light intensity in each treatment chamber, while a custom-built control panel provides communication between the UV chambers and the control room.  Also incorporated in each UV unit is an automatic DVGW-approved wiping mechanism which cleans the quartz sleeves surrounding the lamps and keeps them free of any deposits. A major benefit of automated wiping means no chemicals are required for cleaning, especially important for drinking water.

 

 

The proposed cost of GBP6.5 billion will be the largest ever programme of investment undertaken by a UK water company, however by 2015, on average, customers will still be paying less than GBP1 a day (exc.inflation) for all their water and waste water needs.

 

David Owens, Thames Water's Chief Executive Officer, said to be committed to providing the best-in-class water and sewerage services for Thames Water customers at prices they can afford. In drawing together these plans the company have undertaken the most extensive public consultation in their history. The customers have told what they want the priorities to be, and what they would be willing to pay for. What we have produced reflects these views.

 

Owens: "Thames' customers have enjoyed the lowest bills in the industry for many years, but we now need to make essential investment to secure their services for the future. This is particularly true for London, where the water and sewerage infrastructure is ageing. There will be an inevitable impact on bills, but even so, we will be able to keep them below the industry average.

 

"The plan focuses on maintaining and improving the service we provide to our customers; it will help guarantee their supplies for the future, and ensure that we are able to cope with future challenges - not only population growth and climate change, but tighter environmental and legislative  requirements. Above all, we recognise that it must be affordable. Ultimately it will be up to the independent regulator, Ofwat, to decide the price we are allowed to charge to provide these services.

 

"By targeting investment where it's needed most and where our customers want, we have been able to propose a programme which should keep price rises at a reasonable level. The average bill is expected to rise by around 3% over inflation each year, so in five years' time customers will still only be paying around a GBP1 a day for all their water and waste water services, representing excellent value for money".

 

The plan is built around four main objectives, based on the company's discussions with customers and other stakeholders:

 

Secure service levels

Surveys said: Customers expect current levels of service to be maintained, however, this is in the face of an increase in demand and ageing infrastructure. The population in the Thames Water region is expected to swell by more than 380,000 in the next five years, and investment will be needed to ensure demand does not outstrip supply and infrastructure is able to cope. In addition the age of much of our infrastructure, particularly in London where around half the water mains are over 100 years old, means more investment will be needed for maintenance and replacement.

 

Thames Water will invest heavily in keeping its existing assets, such as the major water mains and sewers, in good condition. In addition, the company proposes to start building a new reservoir in Oxfordshire, which will be essential to help secure water supplies for the future, and which will provide up to 10% of the region's water when completed in 2021.

 

Be responsive

Surveys said: Customers expect Thames Water to respond to the issues that cause them greatest concern. Our research revealed that the issues of sewer flooding, odour from sewage treatment works and levels of customer service were priorities.

 

Thames Water plans an increase in investment on tackling sewer flooding, to reduce those properties at risk of flooding with sewage by nearly a quarter. Programmes to reduce odour will are planned at sewage treatment works around the region, and customer service performance will be transformed with the goal of halving the level of complaints.

 

Act sustainably

Surveys said: The impact Thames Water have on the environment was identified as a major issue of concern to customers polled. Dealing with climate change, reducing the carbon footprint and encouraging more efficient use of water were identified as areas we should address.

 

Over the next five-year period Thames Water aim to reduce their carbon emissions by 20%, and reduce leakage from our pipes by 18%. In addition, the company will be installing a million water meters, to raise the total number of metered households to 54%, compared to 25% today. The quality of the River Thames and the lower River Lee will be improved by building the Lee Tunnel and improving Beckton sewage treatment works, which will dramatically reduce the volume of sewage overflows entering the river. In addition, Thames Water will be improving the quality of around 250km of other rivers in the region.

 

Ensure value for money

Surveys said: While average bills for Thames Water customers have always been among the lowest in the UK, customers were concerned that they should continue to be affordable, given the levels of investment planned. There was also concern that vulnerable customers should be protected as far as possible from the impacts of price increases, and their needs addressed as part of any wider programme of metering.

 

Thames Water will continue to drive down its running costs and spend customers' money efficiently; social tariffs will be developed to help customers in most need, with a range of different tariffs trialled, aimed at promoting water efficiency and reducing bill impacts; in addition a new charitable trust will deliver direct assistance to people in real difficulty.

 

 

Bolzano's Department 30 is the province's agency in charge of resolving the conflicts between natural environment and human needs. Specifically, Department 30 manages the construction and maintenance of engineering measures for the mitigation of hydrologic and geologic hazards, such as check dams (small dams used to decrease stream flow velocity), dikes (embankments used to prevent areas from being flooded by stream overflow), and drains (used to carry away excessive storm water).

 

The planning activity of Department 30 strongly relies on the availability of detailed, up-to-date spatial information about the environment and, more specifically, about the watershed where hazards need specific mitigation. For this purpose, in the past years, the province has designed and implemented several GIS geodatabases that include generic datasets, such as digital elevation models, land cover, land-use maps, and orthophotography. Also included were more specific datasets, such as the inventory of historic floods and debris flood events and the inventory of the hydraulic structures already in place.

 

A specific framework project called the Information System for Hydrogeological Hazards and Risks (IHR), sponsored by the European Commission among others, was devised to make the information needed in risk management accessible to Bolzano's planners in a simple and standardised way. As part of the IHR project, the Basin System Information of Department 30 (BaSIn 30) application was designed to simplify the extraction, at the watershed level, of the most relevant information for the purpose of planning new hydraulic structures.

 

Since most of the department's flood managers were already familiar with ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop software platform, BaSIn 30 was implemented as an ArcGIS Desktop extension. The input data required by BaSIn 30 is all spatial and includes general layers about land use, geology, and morphology and more specific layers about the hydrologic network, hydraulic structures already in place, and hydrologic hazards.

 

Using BaSIn 30

When a user in Department 30 has selected a suitable outlet, on the basis of a digital elevation model (DEM), BaSIn 30 extracts the divide of the watershed and visualizes it. At that point, the user can select the desired outputs, and BaSIn 30 clips the required input layers based on the watershed divide. Then, the clipped layers are processed to extract the information required to produce the desired reports.

 

A selection of BaSIn 30 output spreadsheets reporting about various characteristics of the watershed being investigated: elevation, slope, geology, hydrological response.

At the second level, outputs include several Microsoft Excel spreadsheets containing both a selection of level-one outputs and extra information in the form of mainly statistics and charts. At this level, the outputs are already structured enough to be immediately utilised by managers.

 

Outputs in the third level include a well-organized report containing a selection of level-one outputs combined with a selection of indexes and charts from the second-level spreadsheets, organised in chapters and subchapters. Third-level reports contain the most relevant information to characterize the watershed for planning purposes and can be used as is or opened in a word processing system for further editing.

 

The ArcGIS Desktop reports generated in BaSIn 30 are meant to become part of the standard documentation of every new project managed by Department 30 involving the construction of new hydraulic structures.

 

 

Once the new SCADA system comes online in early 2010, it will allow the city to control and monitor 1,550 process-related database points, make informed decisions regarding the operation of the pollution control facility, and optimize process operations. This, in turn, will improve the facility's effluent.

 

Siemens' scope of supply will include SCADA system hardware and software application engineering, facility-wide instrumentation and controls loop drawing documentation, and project management coordination. SCADA system factory staging and testing will be included as part of the contract, as well as a formal customer/city factory witness test. Field service support will include onsite installation supervision, field readiness testing, system start-up and commissioning and a formal customer/city test for final SCADA system acceptance. Siemens will also provide Meriden's operations and maintenance personnel with onsite formal training in the use, maintenance and troubleshooting of the pollution control facility's new SCADA system.

 

The system's design will provide dedicated control locally at six pollution control facility processing areas that will all communicate back to a central data processing area over a standard process control network. Meriden, its consulting engineer Metcalf & Eddy, and its general contractor Carlin Contracting Co. also required that the pollution control facility's SCADA system be able to locally interface with third-party Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) systems and provide a facility-wide Ethernet communication-based Human Machine Interface (HMI) system.

 

Siemens' SCADA system control and monitoring functions include operator interface process graphics, alarm summary display and reporting as well as real-time and historical trending. Meriden will be able to use the SCADA system's in-plant alarm functionality concurrently with Siemens' standard alarm paging software to provide configurable real-time alarm paging over the city's third-party paging system. In addition, the SCADA system will also provide operational and regulatory reports and logs in Microsoft Excel format for real-time and historical data.

 

 

 

The project at Sigean on the Mediterranean coast near Perpignan will protect the quality of local bathing waters in this popular holiday destination. The population of 5000 can double during the Summer season and the finished project will have a capacity of 2130m³/day when it is completed in 2009.

 

Puron was also chosen for the MBR project at Nailloux for its ability to keep pace with the rising population of the area which averages 10% per annum thanks to its proximity to Toulouse. Like many areas of southern Europe, Haute Garonne receives little rainfall and MBR permits reuse of vital resources. Completion is scheduled for Q3 2008 and the plant will process 965 m³/day.

 

The third VWS project at St. Jean de Liversay near La Rochelle will process 289 m³/day of wastewater.

 

A key advantage of the patented Puron system is the use of a single header with hollow fibres that are fixed only at the bottom.  The sealed upper end of the fibres is allowed to float freely. This eliminates the build-up of hair and fibrous materials that can clog the upper end of membrane fibers in MBR designs that employ both a top and bottom header. Solids and particulates, including bacteria, are retained by the membrane and remain on the outside, while permeate is drawn through the membrane to the inside of the fibers. Outside-to-inside technology such as this provides optimal solids management and a high flow-rate, while using up to 50% less energy than other MBR systems. With the recent introduction of 1500 modules, Puron can now be ordered in configurations with 1500, 500, and 250 square metres of membrane area.

 

MBR systems with submerged membrane modules are increasingly used for some of the toughest wastewater treatment applications including sewage treatment for municipalities and treatment of wastewater for beverage, textile, food, paper, and chemicals industries.  By using MBR systems to recycle process water, industrial companies cut wastewater disposal costs and reduce consumption of fresh water.

 

 

 

It appears as if the Earth System, a most complex system controlled by a concert of physical, chemical, economic, social and even sentimental processes, is drifting away from conditions favourable for humankind to survive. Because being expelled from Earth is not in the interest of mankind, measures are to be taken, to secure our planet's habitability, now and in future. But what are the right decisions and actions to be made - when and where? Decision makers of today carry a tremendous and unprecedented responsibility for mankind on Earth. Science is obliged to make available and understandable the knowledge of the complex nature of the Earth system. Knowledge constitutes the very basis of decision making processes.

To address these issues a workshop will be organised on the 23rd of September at the premises of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Wildbad-Kreuth to explore knowledge gaps which currently limit our understanding of the complexity of the Earth system, and to explore innovative means of channelling knowledge into the political and economic decision making processes.

Forty distinguished thinkers from all over the world were invited to put their heads together and find overarching answers to the question on how we, as a global society, should react on challenges posed on us by global warming and climate change, growth of urban areas and change of life styles, growing demand and limited supply of resources such as oil, gas, water and sanitation. Beyond that novel methods of knowledge transfer into the heads and minds of people, economic leaders and politicians are to be found so that wisdom does not only take hold in scientific publications but in our everyday decision making processes as well.

 

 

Berson, based near Eindhoven in the Netherlands, specialises in municipal applications and will be showing its InLine and InLine+ range of closed-vessel UV disinfection systems. Capable of treating water and wastewater flows as high as 5000 m3/hour, they have a unique design where the UV lamps are angled at 90° to the water flow. This not only means a more effective distribution of UV light to the passing fluid, it also means a much smaller footprint, allowing easy installation and servicing.

 

Hanovia, based in Slough in the United Kingdom, specialises in industrial, aquaculture and swimming pool applications. The company will be showing a number of new UV systems for industrial water treatment applications such as food and beverage processing and high purity applications like pharmaceutical and electronics manufacturing. The company is also interested to meet potential distributors for its products.

 

Both companies are subsidiaries of Halma p.l.c., an international supplier of safety, health and sensor technology. Halma is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange and has over 3600 employees in over 40 subsidiaries worldwide with a  total turnover of over GBP395 million (2008). Halma's subsidiaries make products that protect lives and improve the quality of life for people through innovation in market leading products which make its customers safer, more competitive and more profitable.

 

 

The fair will be held in association with the 1st VIETWATER Conference for Water- and Wastewater Management, organized by the "Southeast Asia Water Utilities Network". The show will take place on a gross space of 6,000 sqm in the new National Convention Centre of Hanoi.

MEREBO will organise the "Europe & North America Pavilion" dedicated to companies, associations, chambers and trade press of both continents.

 

These debates include:

Future water - the UK Government’s Water Strategy


This workshop will provide a unique forum for those working in the water industry to engage in dialogue with key government and industry charged with enacting this policy strategy.

Speakers include:


• Cheryl Case, Head of the Water Strategy Team at DEFRA
• David King, Director of Water Management at the Environment Agency

• Nick Ellins, Head of Policy and Research at the Consumer Council for Water
• Richard Critchley, PRO9 Water Supply Demand Manager, United Utilities

• Mike Pocock, Head of Strategic Planning, Three Valleys Water PLC and Veolia Water



Discussion to be led by Professor Bob Breach, visiting professor at Cranfield University and former head of quality and environment at Severn Trent.



 

The Water Framework Directive - Will it Impact the Water Companies?

Panel debate led by Tony Harrington, Head of Environment, Yorkshire Water

. Delegates will have the opportunity to participate in this Panel led discussion.



Speakers and Panel include:


• Martin Booth, Water Framework Directive Programme Executive, Environment Agency
• Kevin Ridout, Interim Head of Quality Enhancement, OFWAT

• Anne Robson, Senior Analyst, OFWAT

• Ruth Barden, Environmental Scientist, Wessex Water

• Yvette de Garis, Head of Environmental Strategy, Thames Water

• Amanda Craig, Major Project Manager, PRO9, Natural England

• Simon Tait, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Bradford

 

The full programme and booking are available through the website of the event.

 

Coagulation refers to a process which coaxes particles to bind together into larger solids that will settle out of the water. Using another process called flocculation, the solids are then separated from a solution. The electro-coagulation cell occupies 100 litres and contain about 20 square metres of electrodes.

Past attempts at electro-coagulation have failed as a result of "poor electrochemical engineering" according to Dr Frank Holland of Enva. Pointing out the benefits of the technique, which uses computers to minimise passivation and ensure continued operation of the electrodes, Dr Holland said: "For example a laundry must have its final rinse with fresh water, so a volume of perhaps 25% would have to be disposed of, and therefore the reduction would be 75%. Equally, where very high purity water is needed throughout most of the application, recycling is reduced, and the key benefit in such cases of electro-coagulation is clean up of the water prior to discharge. But for those instances like Waterford Crystal where the water could be routinely reused again and again, our studies show that the water saving could be up to 90%."

 

 

During the previous year, the company set sales records, reached profitability and sparked a growth spurt that triggered a move to new, larger corporate headquarters and the creation of several new positions in manufacturing, administration and sales to meet both backlogged and forecast demand. The company manufactures the patented FlowCAM automated particle vision and analysis system, which the U.S. EPA, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Welch's Foods and other companies around the world use to detect, image and evaluate particles and cells faster and with superior accuracy than with microscopy and other manual methods.

 

Fluid Imaging Technologies was also recently named New England Region Exporter of the Year by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) for its success in developing overseas markets.

 

 

According to companies' annual returns for 2007-08:

• Every water company in England and Wales either hit or beat its leakage target;
• Overall leakage fell by 127 million litres per day (Ml/d) from 3,418 Ml/d in 2006-07 to 3,291 Ml/d in 2007/08. This is equal to the daily needs of nearly one million domestic consumers;
• The number of sewage treatment works seriously breaching permit limits set to protect the environment fell from 152 in 2006-07 to 107 in 2007-08 - the lowest number in the last 10 years;
• The number of serious sewage-related pollution incidents fell from 115 in 2006-07 to 83 in 2007-08 - one-fifth of level 12 years ago; and
• Most companies have reduced the number of properties at risk of sewer flooding, although the returns show that the number of sewer-flooding incidents increased because of last year's severe weather.

Where Ofwat had concerns about some specific companies' customer service and asset management last year, this has also improved.

 

At the same time, the extremely heavy rain and floods in July 2007 inundated some key water supply assets, causing an exceptionally high number of water supply interruptions.

 

 

The New Scientist (12th July 2008) reports on the work of a research group at the University of Hamburg in Germany. They have constructed a computer model which analyses the detail of huge amounts of meltwater from the Greenland Ice cap being dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. Ironically the results indicate that the low lying Pacific Islands might be among the last to be affected.

The model predicts that the majority of Greenlands' meltwater will stay in the Atlantic Ocean for at least 50 years. Currents will eventually carry the water to the tip of Africa whereupon it will spill across into the Indian Ocean and finally the Pacific Ocean some 30 years later. In the medium term the consequences are most severe for the North Atlantic, where sea level rise along the east coast of North America would be 30 times as great as in the Pacific Ocean. In Europe the rise is predicted to be about six times that of the Pacific. The one piece of good news is that the same researchers believe that Antarctic meltwater could be prevented from reaching much of the world for hundreds of years due to the strong southern ocean current. Some small comfort perhaps.

 

 

Jaz is a convenient analytical tool for applications across various industries and disciplines. The spectral data collected and analyzed by Jaz can help environmentalists, ecologists and geologists take accurate forest canopy measurements, examine mineral and soil composition on-site, evaluate water quality, monitor pollution, and study volcanic gas.

 

Jaz is a family of stackable, modular and autonomous components -- a typical setup for field use is about the size of a few decks of cards stacked atop each other -- that share common electronics and communications. At its heart is a miniature CCD-array spectrometer, or light measuring device, available with user-selected grating and slit options optimized for a variety of optical sensing application needs. Also incorporated into the Jaz stack is a powerful microprocessor and onboard display with data logging capability, so that full spectra data can be acquired, processed and stored without the need for a PC.

 

Jaz's Ethernet and battery modules offer additional functionality for field use. The Ethernet module has data storage capability via an SD card slot and allows users to connect to the Jaz unit via the Internet, making remote measurements possible and enabling the creation of networked sensing modules.

 

The Lithium-Ion battery module is rechargeable in the field via the solar cell or back in the lab using the Power over Ethernet connection (100 Mbps, IEEE 802.3-compliant 10/100 single-cable), the USB 2.0 port or an external power supply. The battery module also has a power-conserving sleep mode for long-term measurements and two additional SD card slots for storing data.

 

The Jaz platform also expands to include light sources (VIS-NIR or LED) and additional spectrometer channels. Jaz can be connected to field-ready fibre optic accessories such as cosine corrected irradiance probes for solar irradiance measurements, optical fibres and probes for immersing in fluids or sampling solid surfaces, and devices for adjusting the field of view of the sampling optic. A special holster makes the Jaz wearable, freeing hands to manipulate sampling devices.

 

 

Bathing water information is only a first step in EEA's collaboration with Microsoft. We will gradually expand this two-way communication platform to include other environmental information, such as biodiversity and air quality.

 

Every year, millions of Europeans spend their summer vacations by coastal or inland waters. The quality of the bathing water at their destination can be a key factor in deciding where to go. Now with Eye on Earth, holidaymakers will not only be able to check the latest information available on the water quality at their possible destinations, but also read comments posted by others who have already been there.

 

Bathing water information is only a first step in our collaboration with Microsoft. EEA's Director Jacqueline McGlade annoucnes to gradually expand this two-way communication platform to include other environmental information, such as biodiversity and air quality.

 

The bathing water application retrieves information from more than 21,000 monitoring points across Europe. For all these bathing sites, the portal presents information from recent years. For some countries, including Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Portugal and Slovakia, the portal also displays the latest 2008 rating available.

 

Eye on Earth allows users to zoom in on a given section of the coast or riverbank, both in street map or bird's eye viewing formats. A ‘traffic-light' evaluation (red, amber, green) of water quality based on scientific monitoring methods is supported by similar ratings reflecting the experiences of people who have visited the bathing site.

 

As part of the five-year partnership announced last May, the EEA and Microsoft will continue to develop the Eye on Earth portal by adding new sets of environmental information.

 

They will find out how GIS enables them to integrate asset management tools and apply mobility solutions, ultimately improving their operational planning.

 

Water professionals make crucial decisions every day and depend on having reliable, accessible data at their fingertips. This seminar will teach them how to implement and maintain a water information system using GIS. They will discover how GIS is crucial to effective and efficient operations both in day-to-day business activities and in an emergency. There will be presented lessons learned at other water utilities, live demonstrations, and interaction with several ESRI business partners during our Solutions Fair.

 

Water executives involved in the management, design, and maintenance of water systems, as well as the GIS professionals who support them, are encouraged to attend a seminar. Participants will learn about GIS for water including how to more effectively manage an infrastructure, get information into and out of the field, and gain a comprehensive view of operations. Attendees will also delve into solutions used today in the water industry and become familiar with new solutions.

 

"Buildings situated in specific postal‑code areas are often automatically pre-marked as 'at risk from flooding', which our analysis proves is very often not the case in reality," says Sarah Adams, Insurance Sector Manager at Ordnance Survey. "As a result, insurers could be overlooking or offering, uncompetitive quotes for certain addresses, and are losing out on potential revenues. By extrapolating our findings to a national scale, the problem is likely to be costing insurance companies millions of pounds every year in lost opportunities."

At present, many insurance companies are using risk assessment methods that profile buildings based on their postcodes, but this leaves a large margin for error. Even though a property may never have flooded and is at no real risk, they can be penalised simply because they are in the same postcode area as high-risk properties.

However, insurers using geographical information systems (GIS), which focus on analysing individual households rather than postcodes, can better assess the real risks involved and calculate appropriate premiums accordingly. This avoids the problem of low-risk houses being refused insurance or quoted unnecessarily high premiums. GIS users can offer a better deal to customers when many of their competitors are working on inaccurate data.

Digital mapping, such as OS MasterMap, allows insurers to look at each property individually when considering its risk profile. When looking at flood risk, height and the distance from the nearest body of water are among of the primary factors. A detailed map gives the insurers the opportunity to "see" the location of the property in detail and make a better informed decision as to the risk that particular property affords.

OS MasterMap is Ordnance Survey’s flagship large‑scale geographic database and was used for the research project. It contains approximately half a billion uniquely identified geographic features and is updated with an average of 5,000 changes every day. It records every fixed feature of Great Britain larger than a few metres, all in one continuous digital map. This creates a detailed database containing the most up‑to‑date information available to insurance companies at just the touch of a button.

 

Combined with our expertise in water treatment system design, the high performance of FILMTEC membrane technology allows us to provide high purity water to the residents of Perth in an affordable way,” said Gontzal Lorenzo of Degrémont, a joint venture partner responsible for design and construction at Perth.  The plant was built by a joint venture between Multiplex and Degrémont.

The Perth desalination facility, which is powered by wind, draws seawater from Cockburn Sound. The feedwater is pre-treated and then passed through a two-pass RO system which helps to achieve high-quality desalinated water. After the first-pass, which consists of six SWRO membrane trains, the permeate passes through six second-pass BWRO membrane trains.  The recovery rates of the first and second passes are 45 percent and 90 percent respectively. After post-treatment, the water enters the Integrated Water Supply Scheme (IWSS), Australia’s largest public water supply system, for distribution.

The specific energy consumption (SEC) of the first pass seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) component is 2.6 kWh/m3, which, along with other energy-reducing measures, contributes to a total plant SEC of less than 3.8 kWh/m3.  This includes energy for the drinking water forwarding pumps.

The Perth plant shows that desalination can be an effective and affordable option for producing water in water-stressed regions, as well as in municipalities looking to diversify their water supply sources. Dow is focused on continuous advancements in FILMTEC membrane technology and in manufacturing capabilities to enable more large-scale desalination and water purification projects worldwide.

 

 

 

The new clarifiers will improve performance over the existing organ pipe type clarifiers – specifically, improved energy dissipation and velocity profile control, improved flocculation, and even sludge withdrawal, particularly important under poor solids settling conditions. The project is scheduled for completion in 2012.  
 
The Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility serves a population of approximately 1.6 million in the metropolitan Denver area. Improvements to the North Secondary Treatment Complex were needed to replace aging clarifier equipment, increase solids and hydraulic loading capacity, and improve overall treatment performance. The District worked with Carollo Engineers P.C., HydroSims, Inc., and CPE Services using plant specific settling analysis, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling, and full scale stress testing to determine the best solution to meet the plant’s final clarification requirements. The engineering firm recommended the Tow-Bro clarifier mechanism. The advantages of the Tow-Bro unit include uniform sludge removal from the secondary clarifier under a wider variety of flow, solids loading, and sludge settling conditions. These advantages provide greater solids and hydraulic loading capacity when compared to the existing hydraulic-removal-type clarifiers.
 
The clarifier design utilises a center-feed configuration with peripheral effluent launders. Flow enters the clarifier through a specially designed maze type energy dissipating inlet (EDI). The specific configuration of the maze EDI was designed with the assistance of CFD modelling to determine optimal dimensions. After initial energy dissipation, solids are flocculated and settle to the tank floor where they are removed uniformly by the Tow-Bro Unitube Header. Concentrated settled sludge is returned to the aeration basin from the clarifier. Clarified effluent flows into an inboard launder and exits the tank. Scum is removed via a ducking skimmer assembly. The treated water then flows to the Metro District’s disinfection facilities for further treatment prior to discharge into the South Platte River.  
 
The new clarifier mechanisms will be installed in multiple phases over the next three years. To minimise the impact of construction on plant capacity, Garney Construction, Inc. of Littleton, Colorado will replace three of the 12 clarifiers at a time. The existing clarifiers will remain online until they are replaced with the new Tow-Bro mechanisms.

 

 

 

Unlike the previous trickling wastewater treatment plant which it replaces, the MBR system meets stringent new discharge licence conditions. With a minimal impact on the environment, PURON will help to eliminate odours which came from the old plant and will produce water meets tight discharge requirements and may, in the future, be suitable for reuse both in the city and in local agricultural irrigation. The Griffith wastewater system serves a 50,000 population equivalent in the residential, commercial and industrial areas of Griffith which extends to Collina in the north, Yoogali in the east and Hanwood in the south. Estimated average capacity is 10,000 m3/day.

 

 

 

This two day congress, to be held in Geneva (CH) on 30 September and 1 October 2008 will bring together key players involved in planning, developing and managing new and existing urban infrastructure. Experts will convene to debate how municipal authorities and urban planners can reduce the environmental footprint of their cities, adapt and cut down their exposure to climate change and the associated threats.

Presentations are given by experts including:

• James P Leape, Director General, WWF International
• Prof. Peter Droege, Senior Advisor, Urban Climate Change Research Network
• Stefan Behling, Senior Partner, Foster & Partners
• Peter Head, Director of Planning and Integrated Urbanism, Arup
• Stefan Behnisch, Architect, Behnisch Architekten
• Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, Secretary General, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
• Dr. Jonathan Woetzel, Director – Shanghai, McKinsey & Co.
• Dr. Paul Toyne, Head of Sustainability, Bovis Lend Lease UK
• Pierre Laconte, President, International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)

 

At the Shiroro hydro plant, the floor of the dam is visible as there is extremely low water. Water management should enable an improved situation here. During the week-end, thermal stations Egbin and Omotosho were shut down as there was not enough flow of gas to power them. The Minister of Energy, Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, sees the coordination within the power sector after a restructuring as the cause. Other challenges are inadequate funding, low tariffs and a lack of a governance framework.

 

 

Dr. Wood is currently a professor with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, and will retain his current position while acting as the Chairman of Purfresh’s Scientific Advisory Board. As an internationally recognised hydrology and climate expert, Dr. Wood will also continue to serve as associate editor of the Water Resources Research journal, as Chair of the National Research Council’s Committee on Hydrological Sciences and as a member of NOAA Climate Working Group, an advisory panel to NOAA’s Climate Program Office.

At Purfresh, Dr. Wood will apply his hydrology and climate expertise in advising product development efforts and will continue to expand Purfresh’s Scientific Advisory Board with industry experts.

Dr. Wood has published and lectured extensively around the world on water resources, hydrology and climate modeling, and the effect of hazardous waste on the environment. He has been recognised for his research through awards from the European Geosciences Union, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. Dr. Wood has been on the faculty at Princeton University since 1976. Dr. Wood holds a bachelor degree from the University of British Columbia and a doctoral degree in Civil Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

DDQ said around 11 percent, or almost 700 million, of the world population is supplied by private water companies -- this is expected to reach 1.15 billion by 2015. DDQ expects demand for clean water will be incresing, and the imbalance between demand and supply will create profitable investment opportunities. Also rising demand for food will lead to greater use of water in agricultural irrigation, it said.

 

Increased urbanisation in countries such as China and India and rising incomes in developing countries will spur changes in consumption habits, DDQ said.

 

 

It had taken a fortnight to set up the infrastructure before the tanker, containing 40,000 cubic metres of water, could start unloading on Wednesday. An agriculture ministry statement said it would go to aquifers instead of straight to households as earlier announced because the storage time or chlorination had given it "an unpleasant smell". The company denied the water smelled bad.

The tanker is the first in a shuttle expected to bring an unprecedented 8.0 million cubic meters of water to the island from Greece by the end of November to help Cypriots cope with one of their worst ever water shortages. A second ship is expected within days.

 

The water will be filtered naturally in the aquifers and can then be channeled into the water grid. It was not clear how long this would take. Cyprus desalinates sea water, but not enough to cover the needs of its 800,000 people and visitors at the height of the tourist season.

 

Cyprus's reservoirs are only 6.7 percent full. Emergency measures have rationed running water to households, while some boreholes supplying communities have been shut down because they are at risk of seawater contamination.

 

 

 

The two other directors, Stephen Shine, chief operating officer, and Mark Braithwaite, chief financial officer, received bonuses of GBP192,600 and GBP130,700 respectively. Shine got a basic salary of GBP192,300 and Braithwaite GBP117,100.

 

In addition, the former finance director Simon Batey, who left the company at the end of August, was paid a bonus of GBP416,800 as well as a salary of GBP108,600.

 

The highest-paid director at Thames Water for the previous year was Jeremy England, who received GBP519,000.

 

A Thames spokeswoman said the latest salary and bonus packages were not directly comparable to previous payments to directors. Thames was sold in late 2006 by the German utility RWE to a consortium led by the Australian bank Macquarie. The spokeswoman said none of the three directors had been on the board under the previous regime and the new owners had brought in salary packages that were more directly linked to performance.

 

 

 

The situation is particularly serious in the Ukraine region of Ivano-Frankvisk where five days of storms have swelled the rivers Prout and Dniestr. The flooding has left around 300 towns and cities without electricity. Damages in Ukraine are estimated to be over 300 millions of dollars (190 millions of euros). The Country "has never seen something similar in the last 100 years", said the vice-president Oleksandr Turchinov. The president Viktor Yushchenko has declared the state of natural calamity and yesterday he went to visit the region. In the neighboring areas of Romania, North and North-West, the victims of the floods are five; 20.000 people are left with no electricity.

 

 

 

 

According to Paolo Lombardi, director of the Mediterranean office of the ecologist organization WWF, tourism in the next years will be "the main factor of ecological degradation in the Mediterranean coasts".

 

Tourists arrive in summer, a moment in which water gets naturally scarcer, in countries where this resource is already limited. Each tourist consumes around 300 liters of water per day, which is the double of the local population consumption (they reach 880 liters for luxury tourism). Also the filling up of swimming pools, watering of golf courts and green spaces need a lot of water.

Among other attempts to find a solution to water shortages in touristy areas, the Club Med is already putting in practice some remedies. In the 30 villages it has built in the Mediterranean area, the Club Med has decided to use water savers, leaks detectors and it recycles used water.

 

 

 

 

As part of the so-called "health check" of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Commission proposed a number of amendments to the rules governing how farmers can receive subsidies. Among these are a number of cross-compliance measures whereby in order to receive direct payments, farmers have to meet certain environmental, food safety, animal health and welfare standards.

 

One proposal made by the Commission concerns the extension of existing cross-compliance measures to include an obligation on farmers to leave "buffer strips" between agricultural land and watercourses and to require authorisation for using irrigation channels.

 

The idea is to save water as global warming threatens to provoke increasing droughts in the future. The agriculture sector is currently the highest consumer of water in the EU at 69% of the total.

 

"We need to take out insurance now - by making agriculture more climate-friendly and less thirsty," said Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel, speaking at this year's Expo in Zaragoza on Friday 11 July. She added that climate change is "pointing at us like a loaded gun, and farmers are in the line of fire".

 

There have been fears by member states that the EU's water framework directive (WFD), which includes obligations to improve the management of Europe's freshwater rivers, lakes and wetlands, as well as water pricing measures, would be included as a new requirement in the cross-compliance scheme.

 

But the commissioner allayed these fears, saying: "I firmly believe that now is not the right moment to bring the Water Framework Directive within the scope of cross-compliance" because these schemes have not yet been implemented in member states.

 

But Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) official Tom Jones said something has to be done to put an end to the current situation under which heavy subsidies encourage farmers to waste water. "Agricultural water use - primarily for irrigation - remains heavily subsidised, which encourages inefficient use of often scarce resources."

 

However, this position is contesded by EU agricultural association Copa-Cogeca, which stresses that "food, much like drinking water, is a basic human need and as such agricultural production must be given priority".

 

The Commission has proposed using 'modulation' as a means of reducing direct payments to farmers and increasing the amounts received for rural development, which would essentially 'green' the CAP.

 

"If we want to take more determined action on climate change and water through rural development policy, modulation is the only way of making the numbers add up," said Fischer-Boel.