L'acheminement de l'eau jusqu'à nos robinets et son traitement représentent environ 5 % des émissions de gaz à effet de serre de nombreux pays. Mais une station d'épuration bulgare inverse cette tendance.
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00:00All of us go several times a day, but what's the carbon footprint of our daily water use and could we get more from the waste we flush away?
00:10That's exactly what this state-of-the-art water plant in Bulgaria has been set up to do.
00:14Generate as much power and products from the stuff it takes in.
00:18A few hours after somebody goes to the toilet in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, what gets flushed ends up here.
00:30The Kabritova Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the most energy efficient in Europe. Stanislav is showing me around.
00:37We collect the wastewater from the Sofia citizens, we treat it here so that it's clean in the river and in the process we produce biogas.
00:46This biogas is then transformed into electricity and heat. The heat is used for our processes and the electricity is used to satisfy the needs of this plant.
00:56And how much energy are you producing here?
00:59We are producing 24,000 megawatt hours per year, or this is the equivalent of feeding 2,300 homes annually.
01:08And what's different about this plant say to any other?
01:11The difference is the amount of biogas produced. Usually, wastewater treatment plants are producing 50 to 60% of their own needs, and here we cover more than 100% of our needs.
01:23We're also saving CO2 emissions, approximately 70,000 tons per year.
01:28It takes a lot of energy to move and treat our water. On top of that, CO2 wastewater produces gases like methane.
01:36In many countries, the water industry accounts for around 5% of all the greenhouse gas emissions, a figure comparable to the aviation industry.
01:45So we've just come into Sofia as the IPCC are holding a meeting in the city and they've given us a green light for an interview.
01:52Can the water industry lead the way then to net zero?
01:57This is one of the industries where it's not impossible to get down to net zero emissions, or in fact zero emissions, because we have many opportunities to use water much more efficiently.
02:09We also have many opportunities to reuse those gases, which are now greenhouse gases, but instead use these for energy production.
02:18All together, this can become net zero, especially if the energy we use for this is coming from renewable energy sources.
02:27Back at the plant, Stanislav tells me they plan to go further.
02:31We're just commissioning a new plant which will boost the biogas production by 10 to 15% a year, and we're installing photovoltaics.
02:41But it's not only this plant. We are exchanging with our colleagues, trying to inspire the other plants to reach energy self-sufficiency.
02:48This is something that the group is asking us to push forward.
02:53That's it for this episode. We'll be back soon for more Water Matters.