Protecting water against wastewater.
Rapid changes in legislation on water protection and wastewater treatment, increasingly stringent requirements e.g. regarding nitrogen and phosphorus removal, greenhouse gas air emissions, ensuring access to good quality water while using water efficiently and achieving energy neutrality, impose an obligation on public and private investors, as well as existing users of installations, to provide or upgrade equipment, systems or installations with parameters that are much higher than the current ones.
The main objectives of water protection include protecting water against pollution caused by insufficient treatment of municipal wastewater, due to the emergence of new water pollutants over the last 30 years, i.e. since the adoption of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment (OJ EC L 135/40 of 30 May 1991), the so-called Waste Water Directive.
n order to address the need to update legislation on water protection and wastewater treatment, the European Commission is preparing an update to the above-mentioned directive (https://www.consilium.europa.eu/pl/policies/wastewater-treatment/#rules). The main objectives will include:
- extending regulations to agglomerations with less than 2,000 PE (population equivalent);
- addressing issues related to storm water overflows and surface runoff;
- strengthening the circular economy in the wastewater sector (water reuse, recovery of valuable biogenic substances from sewage sludge, energy efficiency of treatment plants);
- improving monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the directive through digital services;
- setting new standards for individual wastewater treatment systems.
Furthermore, as part of the fight against ongoing climate change and in view of the growing problems with water availability in European countries, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is launching an initiative called the ‘Blue Deal’, whose main objectives include (https://www.gov.pl/web/retencja/bluedeal):
- access to water understood as combating water poverty and its consequences for social policy;
- sustainable and resilient water infrastructure and distribution networks;
- the Blue Deal economy;
- water-intensive industries and water-saving technologies;
- sustainable water management and the climate crisis: circular economy solutions and other solutions for the EU agri-food system within the future Blue Deal;
- efficient water use.
he aforementioned initiative is meant to be an extension of the current Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption.
Compliance with the above conditions requires numerous decisions to be made regarding organisational, legal and investment processes at all levels of the economy.
With this in mind, BBF is closely monitoring the changes taking place in order to adapt our offer to the upcoming reforms and ensure the highest quality of services provided to our clients in the following sectors related to water and wastewater management:
Wastewater Treatment (WWT)
- Water Treatment System (WT)
- Sewerage Systems
- Water Supply Systems.
