On 2 December 2019, marking the beginning of the Run4Life M30 General Assembly in Ghent, a Legal and Regulatory Framework Workshop was held. The workshop, organised by Run4Life partner USC, gave a plural overview on the legal implications of water reuse and nutrients recovery from wastewater. The speakers gave a rich perspective of the barriers and possible incentives of implementing water reuse and nutrient recovery, each from their own background. The workshop programme below lists the names and affiliations of the speakers, and includes downloads of a selection of the presentations. At the end of the workshop the participants visited the Nieuwe Dokken demonstration site.
Several legal provisions are challenged by Run4Life objectives: fertilisers, water, REACH regulations, urban planning and building provisions, taxes/pricing regulations and participation/information procedures, topics that are being studied within the project. A follow-up must be made on end-of-waste developments under EU fertilizers Regulation, and there is a need to study if further harmonisation across Europe is required in order to boost innovation and have a clear market to new technologies. Also, if there are ways to give room to flexible approaches to test new technologies (regulatory sand boxes) with temporal and supervised suspension of legal obligations. Public acceptance through information, communication and/or certificates following the Swedish experience must also be explored to come up with a proposal of good practices or legislative reforms. Pricing is also an important issue not only for making feasible changes, but also how to conciliate them with centralized treatment solutions and giving incentives for change.
The workshop programme:
| Time | Subject | Speaker |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Opening of the workshop and Run4Life introduction | Alba Nogueira (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) Nicolás Morales (Aqualia, project coordinator) |
| 11:00 – 11:25 | Nutrients recovery from wastewaters – Aquafin’ perspective | Bart Saerens (Aquafin) |
| 11:25 – 11:45 | Regulation of wastewater sanitation in Flanders | Peter Aelterman (Flemish Environment Agency/VMM) |
| 11:45 – 12:00 | New Sanitation | Veerle Depuydt (Flanders Knowledge Center Water) |
| 12:00 – 12:15 | Regulation of nutrient recovery in Spain: barriers & incentives | Beltrán Puentes Cociña (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) |
| 12:15 – 13:45 | Lunch at Brouwerij, Ghent | |
| 13:45 – 14:45 | Round table with the speakers and conclusions | Alba Nogueira (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela) |
| 14:45 – 15:00 | Ghent demonstration site explanation | Lieven Demolder (CEIP) |
| 15:00 – 16:30 | DuCoop Facilities visit and end of the workshop | DuCoop |
