Region Hovedstaden (Capital Region) will investigate the use of purified groundwater for businesses. Region Hovedstaden has launched a new project that will explore the potential of replacing clean drinking water with purified groundwater for various industrial purposes. This was announced in a press release from the region.
Line Ervolder (Conservative Party), chairman of the Environment and Climate Committee in Region Hovedstaden, stated: “We do not have unlimited water resources, so we need to rethink our consumption.” The initiative is an extension of an existing project in collaboration with Gladsaxe Municipality, where the municipality uses purified water from a plant in Bagsværd for tasks such as sewer cleaning and road washing.
“Now we will investigate the other water supply plants we have in the region to see if they can do the same,” Ervolder explains. The purified water will be used for all purposes other than drinking water, which will alleviate the pressure on the water resources suitable for drinking water. “If you use water in industrial production, the water does not need to be completely free of all forms of pollution,” she adds.
The region is currently experiencing overuse of groundwater in the capital area, where the amount pumped exceeds what nature can replenish. At the same time, more contaminations are being detected in the groundwater, making it difficult for water suppliers to find a sufficient amount of clean water for drinking.
To address this issue, Region Hovedstaden has decided to allocate one million Danish kroner to the project. The region has 60 technical water plants that annually pump 2.3 million cubic meters of contaminated groundwater from old soil contaminations. Most of this water is directed to rivers, lakes, or back to groundwater.
“Our collaboration with Gladsaxe Municipality has already shown that we can use purified groundwater for practical purposes and thereby save on clean drinking water,” says Line Ervolder.