SUEZ Recycles Wastewater in Cap d’Agde, France (Case Study)

The seaside resort town of Cap d’Agde (south of France), which hosts 250,000 tourists a day during the summer season, is facing the increasing scarcity of water.

SUEZ is using its expertise as a world leader in wastewater recycling to serve the city of Agde, watering the Cap d’Agde golf course with treated wastewater (REUSE). This innovative solution, one of the top examples of REUSE in France, will help to save 200,000 m3 of drinking water during the summer.

3D visualization of the watering of the Cap d'Agde golf course by treated wastewater (Image by SUEZ)

With little rain, diminishing levels of groundwater in aquifers, and water restriction measures put in place, the 2019 summer season was marked by an exceptional drought that demonstrated the need to have a powerful and predictive water management system for the country and its inhabitants.

"Today, only 2 % of the 165 billion m³ of water collected and treated around the world are reused. However, REUSE is a very efficient tool to preserve water resources. SUEZ is a leader in the field, producing 800 million m³ of reused wastewater per year around the world. Today, I am proud to include the Agde REUSE model as one of our global reference models. It is a part of our strategy to help local authorities in the sustainable management of their water resources" , said Marie-Ange Debon from SEVP Group-France, Italy, Eastern & Central Europe.

Fighting droughts

As of this past summer, six of the twenty-seven holes of the Cap d’Agde international golf course are being watered with treated wastewater instead of drinking water.

The plan will be fully operational in 2020. The golf course will water its lawns from May to September1 with treated wastewater. In total, eighteen of the twenty-seven holes will receive ultra-filtered water. Of the 300,000 m³ of water used every year for watering, over 75% comes from the Posidonia wastewater treatment plant, thereby saving 200,000 m3 of drinking water in the summer season.

Conserving water resources

In cooperation with SUEZ, the city of Agde has worked for many years to make preserving water resources one of its priorities:

• since 2008, investment and works in the city’s 209 km of drinking water pipelines have helped improved the network performance by 10%, from 80% to 90% on average, saving 600,000 m3 per year 
• from 2011 to 2013, the installation of nearly 14,000 connected water meters in the city helped save 200,000 m3 of drinking water. Personalised data (such as real-time invoicing, consumption monitoring, alerts for leaks or overconsumption, and more) allows consumers to better control their water contract and to adopt more responsible behaviours.

Thanks to various innovations processed by SUEZ over more than 10 years, 1 million m3 of water will now be saved every year in the Agde urban area.

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Taxonomy

• Treatment
• Ultrafiltration
• Drinking Water Treatment
• Water Reuse & Recycling
• Water Resource Management
• Technology
• Water Resource Mapping
• Wastewater Treatment
• Water Resources
• Reuse
• Sustainable Water Resource Management
• Drinking Water Managment
• Drinking Water
• Water Resource Management
• Nutrient Recovery & Reuse
• Water
• Water Purification
• Renewable Water Resources