Water is of course essential, and omnipresent in different ways on Texel. A pipeline from the main land provides Texel with drinking water, it is surrounded by (salt) water and has its own brackish water. After one (out of 2) pipelines for drinking water was out of order during some days in the summer of 2013, a number of people plead for a drinking water plant on the island. Taking into account current legislation and tariffs that does not seem a very plausible future. Nevertheless water consumption raises up to 7.5 million cubic metres a day. After consumption, this returns to the system as sewage water. To deal with waste water, Texel owns one sewage treatment, with sufficient capacity also for future tourists. As most public services on Texel, also sewage per capita is relatively expensive, due to the low population density. A question that remains is whether Texel can provide its own drinking water. What sustainable technologies and systems design may reduce the dependency for drinking water and increase the sustainability of the water system as a whole?
Current initiatives:
- AquaTX http://www.aquatx.nl/
- Waterfootprint AnteaGroup http://nl.anteagroup.com/en/sector/water-technology