RECLAIM WATER is a Specific Targeted Research Project supported by the European Commission under Thematic Priority 'Global Change and Ecosystems' of the Sixth Framework Programme (Contract-No. 018309).

RECLAIM WATER will provide effective technologies to monitor and mitigate emerging risks posed by chemical contaminants and pathogens in reclaimed wastewater streams used for groundwater recharge. It will integrate technological water reclamation solutions with natural attenuation processes occurring in the subsurface to achieve upgraded water quality assessed on the basis of key contaminants. The project will directly relate the knowledge obtained on new treatment processes and contaminant behaviour to the question of risk associated to the indicated use. The risk studies cover water intake, treatment, storage and distribution steps, analytical tools, monitoring and control systems, and operational procedures as well as communication procedures.

A coherent application of these elements in a number of case studies (see table 1), that cover important reuse practices, will result in recommendations all the way down to the end-user level, where risk management has to be practiced on a day-to-day basis. The project outcome will contribute to the definition of “best available technologies” for wastewater reclamation and reuse applications in the sense of integrated technical, analytical and operational components.

The project is coordinated by the Chemical Engineering Department at RWTH Aachen

University in Germany. The coordinator contact details are: