The new EU Drinking Water Directive calls for increased resource protection and risk management both in the catchment area of drinking water abstraction abstraction as well as for water supply facilities. The directive was incorporated into national law by the new Drinking Water Catchment Areas Ordinance and the amended Drinking Water Ordinance. How can the now mandatory risk management for drinking water catchment areas and water supply facilities be implemented in an integrated way? We investigated this question in our joint project ResiTrink! together with the drinking water supplier bnNETZE GmbH.
The new EU Drinking Water Directive, which came into force in January 2021, was incorporated into national law by the new Drinking Water Catchment Areas Ordinance as well as the amended Drinking Water Ordinance. As a result, resource protection in water supply was strengthened and risk management - also in the catchment area – was introduced as a mandatory element. The main goal of the risk-based approach in water supply is to prevent deterioration of water quality and thus to increase the security of supply.
bnNETZE and TZW conducted a three-year project (2022-2025), focusing on testing the implementation of risk management for drinking water catchments as well as water supply facilities in accordance with the new regulations. The goal was to create new synergies between water and resource protection and to strengthen existing synergies. Using the example of bnNETZE waterworks, a methodology for interlinked risk management from the catchment area to the delivery of drinking water to the consumer was developed and tested. In the process, novel procedures and sample processes were developed and interfaces identified to optimally involve the authorities concerned and ensure the necessary exchange of data and information.
At that point, pilot practical experiences in this regard were extremely valuable, as the implementation of the EU Directive into national law was imminent and many questions, e.g. with regard to the interfaces between catchment area and water supply as well as to the cooperation/data exchange between authorities and water supply companies, had not yet been addressed. During the transition period until the obligatory first implementation of risk management, valuable experience was gained from corresponding projects, which had a far-reaching influence on the further implementation of risk management in drinking water supply.
One focus of the project was on taking regional conditions into account to develop methods that optimally use or expand the synergies of resource protection and general water protection. In this way, the project contributed to enabling close integration with general water protection in further projects on risk management in water supply in the region. The greatest possible benefit for the sub-sectors concerned was achieved through a joint objective of various regional actors.
