It is a 540 million euro project that is coming up. To the west of Nice, very close to its airport, the Haliotis wastewater treatment plant will benefit from a rehabilitation and upgrading project to offer a new wastewater treatment system allowing in particular its partial reuse, announced Thursday the community and the Suez group, which won the contract. Work should start next year for gradual commissioning between 2025 and 2030.
The future installation of the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, the largest project in France and one of the largest in Europe according to its initiators, will treat the wastewater of 26 municipalities, six more than currently, and 680,000 inhabitants.
Objective 10% of water reused by 2030 in France
“It will have an industrial unit for the reuse of treated wastewater [Réut’] capable of recycling 5 million cubic meters of water per year, that is to say all of the needs for watering green spaces and cleaning the roads of the city of Nice”, specifies the metropolis. In his Water plan announced at the end of March, Emmanuel Macron set the target of 10% of wastewater reused by 2030. Still marginal in France, the process is common in other countries, particularly for agricultural irrigation.
At the peak, “Haliotis 2” will offer water treatment performance “above health standards with nearly 90% of microplastics that will be eliminated by the station”, also assures the community. It will also produce energy linked in particular to sludge from purification, enough to supply the equivalent of 11,000 homes or 300 buses with biomethane. The calorific potential of the treated wastewater will also be used by the heating network irrigating the airport and the Grand Arénas district.
The project “will largely contribute to achieving the objective of our Climate Plan which aims to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”, rejoices Christian Estrosi.