How water infrastructure connects cities, energy and nature
Published on: October 30, 2026
Water infrastructure shapes how cities grow and how surrounding landscapes function. Projects across Europe show how investment in water systems can support energy recovery and healthier rivers while helping communities prepare for a changing climate.
Europe faces a growing need to renew its water infrastructure. Much of the network was built decades ago, and utilities must now respond to changing climate conditions alongside greater pressure on water resources. These investments will influence how communities use energy and manage their environment for decades to come.
Water and wastewater systems are closely connected to energy use and the health of surrounding ecosystems. Pumping and treatment require electricity, while the way water moves through a landscape affects its ability to cope with dry periods and heavy rainfall. Assessing these relationships together can help planners identify measures that address several pressures at once and recognise where improving one part of a system could create new operational demands elsewhere.
A broader approach to planning can help municipalities identify benefits across sectors. A treatment plant can recover energy from wastewater, while changes to drainage and water levels can support nature restoration. Considering these connections early helps decision-makers assess how an investment can improve essential services and contribute to wider sustainability goals.
Almere combines treatment capacity with energy recovery
In the Dutch city of Almere, population growth is increasing the amount of wastewater that needs treatment. Waterboard Zuiderzeeland is expanding and modernising its treatment plant to increase capacity by approximately 30 per cent, enabling around 40,000 additional homes to connect to the sewer network. The plant will remain operational throughout the work.
The upgrade combines capacity expansion with improved treatment and resource recovery. Powdered activated carbon will help remove pharmaceutical residues and other micropollutants. Additional sludge digestion capacity will produce biogas that can be upgraded and fed into the gas grid, with the aim of recovering more energy and reducing the plant’s carbon emissions.
Sweco prepared the designs and tender documents for the expansion and conversion. The project connects the practical needs of a growing city with the opportunity to recover resources from its wastewater.
Emscher creates the conditions for river restoration
For much of the Ruhr area’s industrial history, the Emscher served as an open channel for wastewater. A central part of the effort to return it to a natural flowing watercourse is an underground sewer approximately 51 kilometres long, which entered operation in 2021.
Delivering the sewer through a densely built urban region required careful planning around complex ground conditions. Materials and active ventilation were also important in addressing the risk of corrosion. Sweco contributed planning and tendering services, technical support and construction supervision.
The project illustrates how underground infrastructure can enable improvements to the environment above it. Separating wastewater conveyance from the river creates the conditions for restoration of a watercourse shaped by generations of industrial use.
De Zegge brings nature and water management together
In Belgium’s Kleine Nete valley, the hydrological restoration of De Zegge and the surrounding area involves balancing the needs of nature and agriculture with water safety. Sweco is supporting the Province of Antwerp and the Flemish Environmental Agency in preparing a water level decree and its environmental assessment for the priority area of De Zegge.
The proposed framework aims to retain water for longer, reduce drought and flood risks and support nature restoration. Measured water levels provide the basis for agreements, while ongoing monitoring supports adjustments to water management. The decree is also intended to give land users and water managers greater legal clarity.
Here, the investment decision extends into how a landscape is managed. Agreeing on water levels creates a framework for protecting natural systems while addressing the needs of the people who depend on the land.
For municipalities and infrastructure owners, these connections make it useful to define wider objectives at the start of a project. Bringing energy specialists and environmental planners into water infrastructure decisions can reveal opportunities that would be harder to pursue once the design is fixed.
