Background Around 15 percent of the water used for domestic, industrial and agricultural consumption in Europe comes from ground water resources. However, this can result in the desiccation of elevated areas where there are sand-rich soils. Areas which are prone to desiccation can be found in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Scandinavia and Italy. In these countries as a precautionary measure, governments restrict the withdrawal of ground water. However, water companies prefer ground water as a source for drinking water as it is less contaminated than surface water and therefore they must find alternative sources. Low lying areas are one possibility, however ground water from these areas is often of poor quality and has a high concentration of minerals. There is a lack of suitable technology for exploiting alternative water sources and flexible ground water management solutions which prevent desiccation. Objectives The SUSDRIGROW project was to demonstrate a new technology enabling drinking water production from low quality ground water sources. The results expected included: - Production of high quality drinking water enabling the government and water companies to reallocate ground water withdrawal and enabling EU and government to set stricter norms on drinking water quality. - An improved sustainable technological concept for drinking water production demonstrating high efficiency, low waste water production and low chemicals usage. - An improved high velocity ion exchange process. - Re-use of regenerate chemicals. - Regenerate recycling using nanofiltration. Results The project has achieved its main objective; demonstrate that drinking water can be produced from low quality ground water. Implementation of the technology could potentially enable the reduction of ground water withdrawal from areas that are sensitive to desiccation. Part of the process involved the implementation of an innovative high speed ion exchanger which was used for the decolouring of the water. This was one of the main elements of the LIFE project. Another key aspect of the project involved the preparation for a more flexible ground water management system offering an optimal balance between nature preservation, consumer satisfaction, production costs and sustainable drinking water production. By achieving drinking water which is of a quality comparable to that of adjacent drinking water areas, the beneficiary has enabled the possibility of applying flexible ground water management, i.e. withdrawing the water at the most convenient place(s) and distributing it to the end users. During the project a start was made to applying flexible management, however full implementation of this system will require major adaptations of the piping infrastructure which will be finalised in the coming years. The quality of the drinking water that was produced by the project was very good. The decolouring installation worked better than foreseen; in the first monitoring period an average colour value of 1.7 mg PtCo/l was achieved whereas 8 mg PtCo/l was initially estimated (colour value of the ground water used is 15 mg PtCo/l). The efficiency of the system was as expected, 99.99% (6.5 million m3 drinking water is produced per year, resulting in a waste stream of 680 m3/year). The Conventional ion exchange would have resulted in an efficiency of 98.5%. In other words, a waste stream of 96,820 m3/year is avoided by applying the innovative technology. The demonstrated technology can prevent damage due to desiccation. In the Netherlands, the cost of damage due to desiccation can be hundreds of millions of euros when dry periods occur. Crop damage due to desiccation is one of the most important factors. The investment costs for the demonstration project were EUR 1,7 million. For new installations the costs are expected to be lower (EUR 1 to 1.5 million) due to increased efficiency and improved insights into the workings of the technology.