On May 18, district water boards, water companies, knowledge institutes, Arcadis, Province South Holland and the greenhouse horticulture have committed themselves for three years to the further development of COASTAR, an innovation in fresh water management. Eleven parties signed a declaration of intent during a conference in Scheveningen, opened by Delta commissioner Wim Kuijken. COASTAR is an innovative solution to temporarily store fresh water in the underground for later use. Within COASTAR brackish ground water can be gained, which can lead to less salination, and possibly an extra source for drinking water and irrigation water. COASTAR keeps salt at a distance and fresh in supply, and can be applied to other delta areas in the world.
The Dutch delta is one of the densest populated and most industrialized areas in the world, and that requires large quantities of fresh water. Climate change, rising of sea levels, subsidence, and salination of ground water make fresh water less and less available. At the same time periods with lots of precipitation occur more often. All that rain water could be a solution for fresh water shortage, but storage above ground takes up too many precious square meters of ground. A large part of the temporary water surplus is now wasted, while growers and industry often have to deal with shortage. COASTAR (Coastal Aquifer Storage and Recovery) takes a new approach of the fresh water problem in the lower parts of The Netherlands, in which the surroundings and underground are used effectively.
From concept to large scale realization
In the last years a large consortium of market parties, research institutes, and government bodies have worked at the development of COASTAR. The initiative comes from Allied Waters, a public/private cooperation aimed at translating science to the market, the knowledge institutes Deltares and KWR, and international consultancy agency Arcadis. The first exploring research phase has been co-financed by Topsector Water and was concluded on May 18 with a conference in Scheveningen, where the initiators showed examples in which COASTAR can contribute to the solution of the (fresh) water problems in the region Den Haag-Westland-Rotterdam. From now onward they are looking at further possibilities and large scale applications in South Holland and surrounding areas.More robust fresh water supply
Eleven parties signed the declaration of intent on May 18, in which they promise to work at further development and application of COASTAR. These are Province South Holland, Hoogheemraadschap of Delfland, Hoogheemraadschap of Rijnland, water company nature conserver Dunea, Evides Waterbedrijf, Oasen, LTO Glaskracht, Allied Waters, Arcadis, Deltares and KWR. The first step is drawing up a knowledge program for COASTAR to further develop concepts and test them in practice. The goal is to make well-founded decisions about possible future projects in 2021.
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COASTAR