Spain has rates of water exploitation (annual consumption/resources) higher than 20%, which makes it the European country (excluding Malta and Cyprus) with the greatest water deficit. An approximate distribution of consumption is 65% for agricultural use, 20% for industrial and 15% for domestic. This is a similar distribution to other Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Italy or Turkey.

The lack of water in Spain is a concern for the majority of the citizens. In this way, the last survey of the CIS showed that 77.4% of the population considered the water deficit an immediate problem, and 19.1% considered it a future problem – it can be stated that the concern about the water as a resource is unanimous-. This concern generates discussions within the different social spheres about the possible solutions; sometimes, the political parties in charged of giving solutions adopt different alternatives but, however, the reuse of water is curiously not present in the discussions. It could be stated that the reuse of water is the forgotten alternative.

Although the methods to mitigate the lack of water, specially discussed in the media, can be cost-effective, they cannot be included among the best options due to environmental costs which demand a high energy consumption and/or specific infrastructures. The water reuse is a necessary environmental alternative which avoids the aforementioned energy consumption and the direct environmental impact and could compete with the former from an economical point of view. 

In order to promote the water reuse as an alternative, it is necessary to introduce the topic into the social debate, among other things. For this purpose, this Program has several suggestions: a study that allows a general vision of the current state of the water treatment in Spain; an assessment of the treatment technologies more suitable for each particular case, so that the waters coming from the water-treatment plants can reach the quality standards established for each type of use; a study that assess the lack of harmful effects on the environment, and an economic valuation to choose the most cost-effective alternative. All of this is placed in a context in which the education of new scientists and professionals can be carried out through postgraduate studies, among others, including masters and doctorates, and in which the transfer of knowledge is one of the main ideas of the Program. The transfer of knowledge will be achieved through several mechanisms that can be grouped in two main scopes: the publication of the generated scientific knowledge and the transfer of technology through marketing operations, creation of technology-based companies or similar activities; and the spreading of the generated knowledge through the social media.

Urban waste waters, which include domestic and some industrial waters, among others, have a strongly contaminating effect on the natural aquatic systems, an impact that can be reduced according to their treatment. Although more than 50% of urban waste waters are currently being treated in Spain, only half of them are subjected to biological treatments and only 3% undergo advanced treatment technologies.

According to the INE, the volume of waste water collected in 2003 was 3,469 Mm3, of which only 5% was reused (some 170 Mm3). The great number of factors controlling the decisions about waste water reuse hinders its quantification. However, all the studies reveal the enormous potential of our country in this subject. Among the most accurate methods to determine the potential of water reuse is the one elaborated by Hochstrat et al., 2005 (Water Supply, 5 (1), 67-75). According to their model, Spain has a potential of water reuse of 1,300 Mm3, one order of magnitude higher than the present.

This low water reuse exists in spite of the fact that the Water Law from 1985 (art. 101), its substantial modification by the Law 46/1999 (art. 101) and the adapted text of the Water Law (Legislative Royal Decree 1/2001 of the 20th of July, art. 109) point out that the Government must promote the reuse of treated waters.

Although indirectly, the Directive 60/2000 of October 23rd also provides for the water reuse. The article 4 includes specific measures to protect the environment such as “the progressive diminution of the spills, emissions and wastage of priority substances”; however, the EU gives priority to the water protection as opposed to the consideration of the water as a resource.
The reasons for not having strongly supported the waste water reuse in Spain are very varied, ranging from the aforementioned in relation with the social perception to causes of technical or legal nature. But beneath all this lies a great lack of knowledge, information and experience that could lead to a national plan of reuse that would establish the normative and control basis necessary to clarify the socio-economic perception concerning the possibilities and risks of the reuse.

The EDAR´s are quite standard installations that differ from each other more in size than in the operations performed inside of them. Without any doubt, the average composition of the waters that they receive is also very similar; however, there are great differences within the minor components present in the waste waters. Urban waters collect domestic waters and waters coming from small industries and varied activities carried out in the inner city. Non-domestic waste waters give specific characteristics to the collected waters. The presence of organic compounds resistant to biological degradation, heavy metals and nitrogen in the form of different ions, among other pollutants, can make the water reuse impossible.

The concern about the rising problem of the continuous elevation of the concentrations of pharmaceuticals, antiseptics and personal care products has to be emphasized. These products, hardly biodegradable, resist the treatments of the conventional sewage farms.

On the other hand, there are no conclusive data about the effects that the minor compounds in the treated water could have on the physical and biotic environment if the water was to be reused. This is the reason why the waters coming from the EDAR´s are directly poured into the rivers or the sea in the coastal areas, with the consequent environmental impact.

The main goal of this proposal is to benefit from the experience of 24 research groups of different areas in order to completely undertake the reuse of treated urban waste waters (figure 1). For this purpose, we count on experts in different technologies of water conditioning resulting from biological treatments–advanced oxidation treatments, membranes, etc.-, researchers with large experience in chemical and microbiological analysis of waters and soils, experts in toxicology and ecotoxicology, experts in hydrological and agronomic studies and, finally, experts in the socio-economic analysis of the reuse activities, so that we can quantify the environmental benefit of the proposal bearing in mind the economic sides of this activity.

The experience accumulated during the last 5 years by the 24 research groups –including 103 doctors and 19 postgraduates- can be summarized in the following: participation in 181 projects awarded in competitive calls, 50 from which were awarded by the UE; publication of 646 scientific papers, most of them in journals contained in the JCR and, of them, more than half included in the first quarter of the impact factor classification by subject area; and 800 presentations in congresses, most of them of international scope. The educative and training capacity of the groups is demonstrated by the 134 PhD thesis presented, a very brilliant example of the favorable acceptance that the training activities proposed in the Program will have.

Although bilateral and multilateral collaborations already existed among the groups, this Program will allow a global coordination, thus using the synergy generated during the collaboration. All the participating groups will continue with their current research activity, then dedicating their efforts to participate in TRAGUA within their particular research fields. The idea is to join efforts in order to undertake one of the issues with the greatest environmental impact, the management of waste waters. The CONSOLIDER Program will allow generating this multidisciplinary team essential to approach the problem. We are aware of the difficulties implied in the coordination of groups of very different disciplines, distributed all over Spain, but both the groups from the OPI´s and the ones belonging to business associations will take this unique opportunity to approach a problem in which our previous individual interest has already been expressed.

The large experience and enormous potential of the team formed by the 24 participating research groups will be used to take an important step towards the sustainable management of waste waters in Spain. Groups will benefit from their participation in the team through their coordination, using the scientific results obtained by other groups as a starting point for their own works, sharing experiences and comparing results. The synergy among groups will take place insofar as the communication among them is fluent. It is necessary that each group can get to know the other groups´ results on real time and with this objective a “team room” will be created, a virtual place where all the participating groups will share information.

It is difficult to anticipate how the number and quality of the scientific papers of the participating groups will be increased, specially taking into account their present high level both in quantity and quality. In spite of the great heterogeneity of subjects, activities and sizes of the groups, establishing a relationship between the budget coming from projects and the budget coming from the Program, it can be stated that the scientific productivity of each group will increase above the rise in budget that they will get due to the Program- the estimation is a 20% rise in productivity (note the absolute value of the increase for groups with such a size and dynamic research activity). Thus, it seems clear the advance in the applicability of the results. As a general rule, the applicability of the generated knowledge is facilitated if the context of application is known in advance. With this Program, all the groups will participate in the rigorous elaboration of the Spanish context for the reuse of treated waste waters. The groups of the area of Technologies will count on the potential of the groups belonging to the area of Evaluation and Analysis, so that they will be able to concentrate their efforts in their main specialty, the technology. The groups of the area of Analysis will establish links between the original characteristics of the waters, the technologies used during the treatments, the quality of the resulting waters and their future use. The groups of the area of Reuse will rely on the groups of Analysis to study the chemical, geological and biological evolution of the environments in which the waters will be reused. Finally, the groups of the area of Socio-Economic impact will deal with first-hand information from the rest of the team for an accurate socio-economic analysis.

It is also apparent the necessity of the groups to cooperate in the elaboration of master programs. Such high-level studies of water resources management could not be possible without the participation of experts in each of the participating areas of the Program. The fact that we have the potential to organize a Master is a real guarantee of quality.

The activities of diffusion, transfer and display are only possible with an organization such as the proposed in the Program through coordinating committees. Separately, none of the groups or thematic areas would be in a position to organize the diffusion of technological information towards the institutions and organizations interested in its application, to articulate the technical, economical and social display, or to elaborate a popularizing plan using marketing tools. For these purposes, we will rely on the transfer offices that belong to the different participating organizations.

The Program will be useful to revitalize the Water Technology Platform in Spain, a mirror of the European Platform (Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform). Within the scope of the European Platform it is stated that “the strategic advantage for the European industry and water profession lies in the ability to conceive system solutions which address all water aspects in a balanced manner”, therefore it is suggested “to promote more effective deployment systems, processes, products and services taking into account institutional, socio-economic and governance frameworks”. This translates to “meet European and global challenges within the overriding principles of integrated water resources management”. One particular addressed global challenge is Europe´s contribution to achieving the ONU Millenium Development Goals, among which it is considered to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water during the period 2000-2015. Giving its characteristics, Spain should have a much more important leadership in the definition of the goals established by the European Platform and so that, the Spanish Platform must be strengthened.

A decisive measure that will be the adopted in Europe to diminish the number and concentrations of priority and new substances in the environment and, therefore, in the water, is the new EU regulatory framework for chemicals, REACH (acronym for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). One of the goals of this regulation will be to evaluate the effect of 30,000 existing substances and new substances to be marketed in the future. Two of the organisms involved in this Program –INIA and UAH- collaborate with the MMA in the preparation of the application of this regulation and the future creation of the Spanish Agency of Chemical Sustainability. This circumstance will certainly support the development of the TRAGUA Program; among others, one of the goals of this Program is to identify, evaluate and eliminate these kinds of substances present in waste waters.

Although many good water research institutes can be found in Spain, none has the sufficient potential to carry out management integrated studies. The Community of Madrid has entrusted the University of Alcalá the coordination of an Institute that seeks to meet this need in our country. This Institute will make use of the participation of the majority of the 36 groups dedicated to I+D in the water research field in the Community of Madrid, and 20 laboratories of the Laboratory Network of the Madri+d System with equipments ready to be used. In addition, along with the Isabel II Channel, the Institute will also count on the participation of some of the 96 water supply companies, 25 water-treatment companies, 10 equipment supply companies and 7 engineering projects. Although it is not subjected to this proposal, the Institute will comply with the conditions for being a Consolider Centre because it will have its own legal entity, a collegiate governing body, an external scientific committee and a director elected in international call. The Program will allow expanding the Institute´s action scope due to the participation of researchers from other regions specialized in problems associated to zones very different from the ones found in the Community of Madrid.

The Program and the Institute aim to give service to the Spanish environmental market, in which the water represents more than 40% of the volume of business with more than 5,000M€. This provides an approximate idea about the importance of the technological innovation of this sector. The possibilities of this association exceed the geographic boundaries of Madrid or Spain. The Mediterranean basin and a great part of the Latin-American countries can be among the geographic areas to which knowledge could be exported, at least within the technological and management modeling fields. Although for a long time now a Mediterranean country like Israel has been developing several activities in issues similar to the ones discussed in the Program, its socio-politic conditions and the dramatic lack of water resources towards efforts must be concentrated, would not make this country an unavoidable competitor. It is estimated that $180,000 million/year are necessary until 2015 to achieve the ONU Millenium Development Goals (2000) in the section related to water resources, which provides an idea of the economic volume of these activities. We seek to be in the vanguard to address the problem of the water as a resource, something that it is of a great concern to the point that the ONU Assembly in 2004 decided to proclaim the period 2005-2015 International Decade for the action “Water, source of life”, starting on March 22nd 2005, the first World Water Day.