More flexible drinking water will soon become a necessity

A future-proof drinking water supply requires new and more flexible extraction concepts.
Changing conditions such as droughts, in combination with increasing demand for drinking water, have prompted drinking water company Vitens to think outside the box to find creative approaches to drinking water production. For today and generations to follow in the future delta of the Netherlands. That is why the three-year project ‘Flexibility in future extractions – responding to the challenges of the future’ was started in 2020.

In this project, Vitens, Deltares and Ruimtevolk are looking for ways to make the drinking water extraction of the distant future (in 100 years’ time) more flexible. This is done by connecting existing knowledge and through research by design. Flexibility is defined as the ability of extractions to adapt quickly to the changed situation if a disruption or change occurs. This concerns the ability of the extraction to adapt to shocks from the environment and the ability to minimize shocks to the environment. The relationship between underground and above-ground activities such as urbanization, nature development, transition agriculture, is important in this research.

The first phase of the project has now been completed, resulting in the report ‘Flexible drinking water extraction – knowledge base’. In this report, the knowledge base is described and scenarios have been drawn up based on (un)predictable developments and the dynamics in water demand. In the next phase of the project, solution concepts are developed on the basis of creative research by design and eventually building blocks for flexible drinking water extraction will be distilled.

Scenarios
For the next hundred years, we expect important developments and social challenges that will affect water quality and water quantity in the Netherlands. On the one hand, there are developments in supply and demand in the next 100 years, which depend on the availability and quality of drinking water and the degree of innovation and changes implemented, such as deregulation, sustainability, and an increasing lack of space. We have some influence on these developments. On the other hand, there is the changing environment, for example the consequences of climate change. We have little or no influence on these changes. These development lead to four scenarios of the development of drinking water demand over 100 years, each of which requires a different kind of flexibility of drinking water extractions.

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