People, the environment and the economy need water in sufficient quantity and quality every day. The globally increasing demand for water is confronted with limited water resources, which leads to competing uses. Water scarcity increasingly threatens ecosystems and impairs the economic and political development of entire regions and countries. The dry summers of recent years have shown that solutions are also increasingly needed in Germany to counteract regional water shortages in the long term.

The reuse of water can contribute to sustainably increasing water availability and using water more efficiently. The reuse of treated municipal wastewater, the recycling of industrial water and the use of treated saline groundwater and surface water are particularly promising.

To develop innovative technologies and concepts for water reuse and desalination, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the funding measure "Water Technologies: Reuse" funding measure. It builds on the funding measure "WavE - Sustainable technologies and concepts to increase water availability through water reuse and desalination".

In this sesson, selected joint projects of the funding measure will be presented.