The WATER-MINING Horizon 2020 project is ending. It is a research and innovation project that has been developing energy-efficient technologies for treating wastewater from urban and industrial areas and desalination, whilst promoting the extraction of valuable products from the residues generated during the process.

Ecsite developed a PlayDecide card game on wastewater treatment, seawater desalination, circular economy, sustainability, and economic and environmental impact. The game facilitates simple, respectful and fact-based group discussions and it enables players to get familiar with a question, see it from different perspectives and form or clarify an opinion. The game has two versions and it is available in English, Dutch, Greek and Spanish.

The NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, an Ecsite member, designed an exhibition on the same topics that travelled to our member Parque de las Ciencias in Spain and the Water Museum in Limassol. Part of the Exhibition was also hosted by our member SciCo in its Athens Science Festival 24 and was also presented at the project’s final event and conference in TU Delft.

Here are some significant outcomes and lessons learnt from the project:

• A substantial decrease in energy consumption was achieved in the desalination processes
• New marketable products that can improve business models for resource recovery and improved wastewater treatment
• Substantial amounts of water and resources saved by smart circular water streams in industrial ecosystems
• A survey conducted by Ecsite as part of the implementation of the WATER-MINING PlayDecide game saw an increase of over 80% in those answering that they now “are aware of the different viewpoints on the issue of wastewater reuse”, after having played the game. A drop of over 70% in the number of participants, strongly agreeing with the statement “I have a lot of experience with the topic of wastewater reuse", was also reported