Enhanced water management is key to resilience and competitiveness
Reading time: 6 min
Industry must comprehensively rethink how it manages water – an increasingly scarce and heavily regulated resource. With expert solutions and an eco-responsible approach, Actemium is supporting this transition by transforming a regulatory constraint into a lever for innovation, performance and sustainability.
All over the world, pressure on water supplies is increasing. In response to widening scarcity of resources, regulations are being tightened, and civil societies are demanding more sustainable water use. In this context, industries that use large quantities of water for production must act quickly to rethink the way they consume, manage and discharge water, and to optimise their processes accordingly. They are supported in this challenge by partners such as Actemium, the VINCI Energies industry brand.
“What may appear to be a tightening of regulations is actually a fantastic opportunity,” says Elnaz Khatami, Business Unit General Manager (BUGM) at Actemium in the Netherlands. “In our view, these changes stimulate innovation, improve efficiency, and offer our customers a real competitive advantage.”
In Europe, these changes are all the more crucial given that, as Elnaz Khatami explains, “Industrial installations are subject to increasingly strict limits in terms of COD*, BOD*, heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus and PFAS.” The requirement for enhanced control is accompanied by stronger measures, more frequent sampling, and an obligation to install advanced treatment systems.
“Regulations empower businesses to improve their overall performance”
There are also ambitious targets for reducing consumption: “Industrial companies must reduce their drinking water consumption by 20% by 2035,” explains the BUGM. “This is a major change, but we see it as the ideal opportunity to adopt smarter, more eco-friendly practices.”
From constraint to strategic lever
For Elnaz Khatami, far from being a burden, regulation opens up new performance prospects. “Smart water management enables companies to reduce their consumption, to optimise their cleaning, cooling and steam systems, and to make savings on their operating costs – in one hit.”
“And even better,” she adds, “digital tools offer businesses real-time visibility of their water consumption, helping them to identify minor problems before they get worse. The result is a faster return on investment along with more reliable, more efficient operations.” The returns are quickly visible, with a return on investment in one to three years for medium-cost process improvements.
Modernisation of installations -heat-exchange pumps, automation systems-, real-time monitoring, and closing water loops all contribute to improving process uptime and production reliability. Actemium also supports other, more ambitious initiatives: biological or membrane purification plants, Zero Liquid Discharge projects, and the full digitalisation of water management.
The advantages for manufacturers extend beyond the purely financial. “Businesses that adapt rapidly get better ESG scores, reduce their risks, and gain access to the most demanding customers and markets,” says Bert Staal, Business Development Manager at Actemium in the Netherlands. A company’s water footprint is becoming a decisive factor for customers and authorities alike.
*BOD -biochemical oxygen demand- and COD -chemical oxygen demand- are indicators of water pollution.
Solutions and completed projects from the Netherlands to Australia
For Actemium, the water problem is not new. “Optimising water use is in our DNA,” says Elnaz Khatami, Business Unit General Manager at Actemium Nederland. For many years, her business unit has been helping manufacturers to manage their water flows, improve their efficiency and implement reuse solutions.
Actemium operates across the entire value chain: consulting, engineering, optimisation, digitalisation, and turnkey projects. Its teams create detailed mapping of water flows, identify leaks, calculate potential savings and design custom treatment solutions.
Digital plays a central role. “Through continuous monitoring of critical parameters -COD, BOD, pH, conductivity, etc.- and SCADA/PLC integration, Actemium provides optimal operational visibility and increased process stability,” explains Elnaz Khatami. “Our data analysis allows the implementation of alerts, continuous improvement and predictive maintenance.”
Diverse expertise
The many projects completed around the world illustrate the diversity of expertise at Actemium. In the Netherlands, as part of a biogas desulphurisation project for , a specialist in sustainable wastewater purification and biogas treatment solutions, the business unit supplied a fully integrated and ready-to-use control cabinet housed in a prefabricated process container for an advanced biogas and wastewater treatment installation. The solution was designed and factory-tested in the Netherlands and commissioned on site, ensuring compactness, a rapid rollout and full regulatory compliance.
In Portugal, for quality monitoring in dam reservoirs, Actemium developed and implemented machine-learning models to assess water quality directly from satellite images -AquaSat- combined with IoT sensors, cloud platforms and SCADA integration. This solution is providing many water authorities with an upgrade from manual dam management operations to allow predictive and real-time management of reservoirs at national scale.
In Morocco, in partnership with the engineering firm JESA, Actemium built Africa’s largest seawater desalination plant -Casablanca WAVE II- powered by renewable energies – in a record time of six months. With annual capacity of 200 million cubic metres, the plant supplies drinking and industrial water to the Safi and El Jadida areas, considerably reinforcing water security in the region. Water treatment is fully digital and uses artificial intelligence.
And finally to Australia, where as part of a VINCI Construction consortium, Actemium is modernising Australia’s largest inland wastewater purification plant, Icon Water. The modernised installation will treat 97 million litres of water a day using advanced biological processes, a new PLC/SCADA automation system, and continuous real-time monitoring of water quality. This was a major achievement in sustainable development: 100% recycled water used in construction; 90% reused materials; low-carbon concrete; and 100% renewable electricity used on site.
05/20/2026
