Aggregates Europe, the European aggregates association, has published the Guide to Good Practices in Water Management in Aggregate Sites, a document that highlights the sector’s water efficiency and its ability to contribute to sustainability and climate resilience. This Guide provides a comprehensive framework to optimise water use, minimise environmental impact, and strengthen sustainability in extractive activities.
The text, also translated into Spanish, compiles the results of two studies conducted between 2016 and 2019 in 232 sites across eleven European countries, which show that the sector’s impact on water quantity and quality is very limited. At the same time, it emphasises its positive contributions: from flood prevention to the creation of wetlands that foster biodiversity, as well as improving water quality.
According to Antonis Antoniou Latouros, President of Aggregates Europe, “water is like aggregates: society vitally depends on them.” In this sense, the Guide reinforces the sector’s commitment to European sustainability goals, in line with the European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030.
Among the most relevant data, the publication highlights that 81.4% of total water consumption is dedicated to washing aggregates, an activity present in almost half of the sites, and that 50% of plants already have recycling systems in place, achieving an average reuse rate of 87.6%. The importance of digitalisation and artificial intelligence in water management is also underlined, with real-time monitoring systems and predictive models.
The Guide also identifies a set of good practices applicable in aggregate sites, ranging from water protection at the extraction site to worker training and supervision, minimisation of effluents and discharges, erosion control, planning and evaluation of actions, wastewater treatment, and the adoption of an integrated approach in processing plants.
The translation was coordinated by the Water Management Task Force, under the presidency of Dr. César Luaces Frades, with the support of Aggregates Europe and the European project ROTATE (Horizon Europe – GA #101003750).
You can download the Water Management Guide on the Aggregate Europe website.
