The East of England is the second most “water stressed” part of Europe, behind South East Spain, and is likely to face severe water shortages over the next 20 years due to significant changes in rainfall patterns and a steadily increasing population.
Working in partnership with Opportunity Peterborough, Anglia Ruskin’s Global Sustainability Institute is leading the East of England network of the two million euro WE@EU (Water Efficiency in European Urban Areas) project.
Other partners on the three-year scheme are the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in the South of France; Aragon in Spain; Eastern Galilee in Israel, and the Mediterranean island of Malta.
The objective is to influence regional and national governments, and the EU, to enable these regions, and clusters within them, to continue innovating in areas in which they have a competitive advantage.
The East of England has a number of high-tech clusters and specialist water innovation companies, and it is hoped that further funding will be generated for the ideas developed and showcased by the project.
Dr Aled Jones, Director of the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) at Anglia Ruskin, said: “With Opportunity Peterborough, the GSI is building up knowledge of the region’s expertise in water management and efficiency within urban areas. Specifically, the GSI will be focusing on bringing in further international partners and building collaboration agreements to take these forward.
“The demand of urban environments on water use from supply to sewage is an increasingly important challenge for the EU to tackle. The WE@EU consortium brings together water expertise from across Europe to try and build collaborations and shared learning with the aim of being able to address some of the challenges.”
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For more press information please contact:
Jon Green on t: 0845 196 4717, e: jon.green@anglia.ac.uk
Andrea Hilliard on t: 0845 196 4727, e: andrea.hilliard@anglia.ac.uk
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Anglia Ruskin partners on water efficiency project
11 July 2013
Anglia Ruskin University has been awarded £175,000 from the European Commission to investigate and promote new ways of improving water efficiency in the region.