To ensure that there is still enough clean drinking water from the tap in the future, BrabantWater and the province are looking for new sources to maintain the water supply. This search, in the form of a study, shows that the solution to the impending water shortage can be found in making brackish groundwater and seawater drinkable.
Water Commissioner Saskia Boelema (D66) wrote this to the Provincial Council this week. On behalf of the province and drinking water company BrabantWater, research agency TwynstraGudde examined potential drinking water sources.
Possible new sources must meet a number of conditions. The most important of these is security of supply: water must be available for several generations and be of good quality. In addition, solutions must be feasible and consumer confidence, sustainability and the claim for space are taken into account.
Furthermore, the province and BrabantWater want drinking water to come from a diverse set of sources and solutions to the impending shortage must not cause problems for other drinking water companies.
Wide and almost unlimited availability
Under all these conditions, brackish groundwater and seawater are the best. “Brackish groundwater is widely available and scalable, and has a relatively reliable and stable water quality,” the researchers write. However, there are high costs involved, it can be read.
And about seawater they write: “seawater is virtually unlimitedly available, scalable and robust against climate change, with relatively good water quality that produces reliable drinking water with advanced purification.” Moreover, desalination of seawater is ‘technically feasible and applied worldwide’.
Pilots are currently running in Brabant with brackish groundwater and seawater. These pilots will be further developed and at the same time preparations for larger-scale production will be started. The province expects brackish groundwater to become operational as a supplementary source from 2030 and seawater from 2034.
Too dirty, no spot or dryness
Other sources that have been investigated seem to be a less good idea. For example, extracting water from the Meuse requires an additional reservoir, for which there is probably no room. Brabant canals are too polluted and streams suffer too much from drought to be a structural water source.
According to the researchers, importing water from other provinces and drinking water companies is ‘unrealistic’. After all, the same problems that Brabant faces occur elsewhere.
Other sources that are less suitable for drinking water, but are suitable for industry or agriculture, for example, are industrial water, water from sewage treatment plants and streams and canals.