Would you be ready to drink your waste water in Monaco? The CEO of Veolia opens the door to the future
You are not in unknown territory in Monaco where you have even been a director of the Monegasque Water Company.
Absoutely. La Monégasque des Eaux, which is a subsidiary of Veolia, has been working for the Principality for 80 years. We have a long, trusting and quality collaboration, during which we have been able to experience several world firsts in terms of water management in Monaco. This is also the case with the wastewater treatment plant that we have just inaugurated.
In terms of innovation, Monaco does have a reputation as a laboratory, especially underground…
The wastewater treatment plant is not only the first in the world to be buried in the middle of the city – that’s why the extension work was complicated by the way – it’s also the wastewater treatment plant best purifies wastewater in the entire Mediterranean. Today, 99% of pollution is eliminated and the quality of water discharge exceeds all European standards by 40%. This extremely high level of requirement corresponds to the strong commitments of the Principality’s leaders in terms of environmental protection.
“The water that comes out
of the sewage treatment plant is better than any
what river water”
Do you know what the remaining percent contains? Why does it pass through the sieve?
Yes we know what it is (Mainly colloids (macromolecules) and some forms of nitrates and phosphate., editor’s note). There are technical possibilities to eliminate the remaining 1% but this would involve disproportionate investments. It is important to know that at 99% level of purity, the water that comes out of the treatment plant is better than any river water. Its potential to become a drinking water resource is greater than that of the Rhône, for example, which is nevertheless very clean. One day, this water can become a new resource and not only in rejection. However, with the evolution of the climate, in certain regions of the world, water will become too precious to be used only once.
New perspectives are opening up but not to the point of consuming this water…
No, we are not there yet. The government’s objective is to discharge the best quality water possible at a completely affordable and reasonable cost. But it opens up prospects because in some countries of the world the use of water has increased so much that there is no longer enough. Agriculture, industries, and now cities seek to use the water used as a resource. This is the case in Singapore, Brisbane, Namibia… Even in France since I understood, a few months ago in Vendée, the first French project to reuse ultra-purified wastewater to make it Of drinking water. We are not there yet in Monaco.
“We know how to
much purer water than drinking water”
The first natural resource in the world has become a luxury that is no longer accessible to everyone. How does the general public view this reused water?
The gaze evolves. We carry out regular surveys among the populations of the 50 countries where we are in the world to measure the general public’s understanding of the water cycle, and also their perception of its reuse. Today, the vastness of the public is completely comfortable with the fact of reusing the water used and treated for agriculture, for watering green spaces, for cleaning streets, and even for cleaning of industrial buildings and storage places. And the idea begins to germinate that it could be used for more noble purposes.
That is to say ?
Technically, we know how to make water much purer than drinking water with waste water. For example, Veolia already produces ultrapure water from wastewater for microchip manufacturing plants in Singapore. The problem is not technical but rather psychological or sociological. Here too, ideas are progressing and the population is asking to be informed. This implies a communication and pedagogical work so that it approves this new resource. Nevertheless, the latest survey conducted in France showed that 83% of the population is ready to accept that drinking water can be produced from wastewater.
Are you developing educational tools in this regard?
Indeed, especially among young people and children who are the most open to the idea of drinking recycled water. In all cases, several test and demonstration phases precede the deployment of REUT (reuse) on a large scale.
Can we envisage, in the long term, a closed loop of water in city-states like Monaco?
On paper, you can imagine it. The reuse of wastewater is by far the best solution in the face of the scarcity of water resources, since it makes it possible to cover 95% of needs. It is more interesting than the desalination of sea water – more complicated and more expensive.