By 2030 global water demand is expected to exceed supply by 40% and approximately half of the world’s population will suffer from water stress. And not only drier regions and cities are affected: Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Italy, France and Germany count among countries facing high or very high water stress.
A more sustainable management and use of water can help to avoid water crises and stress becoming a daily challenge; but there are also vast amounts of hidden potential to unlock from water.
Scientists, researchers and companies in the NextGen project are working on innovative ways to use and reuse water rather than letting it go to waste. These technologies and knowledge to use them effectively are being developed in demonstration cases across Europe.
NextGen technologies act on critical parts of the water – materials – energy nexus and optimise the entire system. They make water management more efficient and can keep resources in use for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them.