Water reuse: the valuable contribution of voluntary standards

From Occitanie, AFNOR Normalisation has been helping to lead an exchange platform on water reuse and recycling since 2016. Objective: to capitalize on experience feedback and identify possible changes to standards.

Water reuse is an industry with a bright future, not least in the south of France, where demographic pressure does not necessarily coincide with the availability of water resources during summer tourist peaks. This is also the case internationally, where this market has been growing steadily for several years, due to increased pressure on resources.

The industry’s professionals are at the heart of an abundance of initiatives, not least because of the diversity of the players involved. They cover a wide range of technologies and services, as well as economic and social issues. Voluntary standardization supports this approach at international level, since water is at the heart of ISO’s strategic challenges.

Supporting voluntary standards

The “Water Reuse & Standardization” platform created in 2016 aims to bring professionals together around the tool of voluntary standardization. It is being managed by the EAU competitiveness cluster, with the support of the WSM, Swelia and Ea clusters, the Transferts and Madeeli regional innovation agencies, and the expertise of AFNOR Normalisation. It is part of Occitanie’s smart specialization program (3S), and brings together players from outside the region who are representative of the field: water treatment manufacturers/equipment suppliers, chemical product suppliers, operators, water and wastewater service providers, engineering firms, analysis laboratories, local authorities, government departments, scientists, end users, etc.

All are mobilized to consider how best to use current or future voluntary standards to support their developments in water recycling in industrial environments, and water reuse in agricultural, environmental and urban areas. These considerations are linked to existing and future legislation in France and Europe. “There are uses to be compared, feedback to be capitalized on, good practices to be reinforced and publicized, as they are currently suffering from a lack of recognition ,” sums up Christine Sorli, deputy regional delegate for AFNOR Occitanie, based in Montpellier.

Work is well underway. They will produce deliverables during 2019.

Contact persons

AFNOR Standardization
Benjamin LAURENT, Project Manager: See the email / 01 41 62 87 64
Jean-Michel REMY, Head of the Construction and Water Cycle Department: See the email / 01 41 62 87 45

AFNOR Occitanie delegation
Christine SORLI See the email / 04 99 52 24 04

EAU Competitiveness Cluster
Guillaume NOURRIT See the email / 04 34 88 34 40

AD’OCC
Jean-Michel CLERC, Project Manager: See the email / 06 65 53 84 94

> Find out more about AFNOR Normalisation’s exchange platforms…

Photo © Shutterstock/
Pattanapol Soodto