Water Supply, Sewerage & Waste
Water treatment, waste management, and resource recovery activities supporting circular and clean systems.
Water supply, sewerage, and waste management form a critical infrastructure sector in the EU Taxonomy. These activities are essential for public health and environmental protection, and they present significant opportunities for reducing emissions and advancing circular economy goals.
The sector includes water collection and treatment, construction and operation of wastewater treatment plants, anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge and bio-waste, material recovery from non-hazardous waste, and landfill gas capture. Each activity has specific criteria targeting energy efficiency, methane emission reduction, and resource recovery rates.
Climate adaptation is particularly important for water and waste infrastructure, which is highly exposed to physical climate risks. Flooding can overwhelm sewerage systems, drought affects water supply, and extreme heat accelerates waste decomposition. The Taxonomy requires operators to assess these risks using forward-looking climate scenarios and implement infrastructure upgrades or operational adjustments to maintain service reliability under changing conditions.
Economic Activities
Construction, Extension and Operation of Water Collection, Treatment and Supply Systems
StandardConstruction and operation of water infrastructure for collection, treatment and supply that improves energy efficiency and reduces water losses.
Renewal of Water Collection, Treatment and Supply Systems
StandardRenewal and upgrade of existing water supply infrastructure to improve efficiency, reduce leakage and lower energy consumption.
Construction, Extension and Operation of Waste Water Collection and Treatment
StandardConstruction and operation of wastewater collection and treatment systems that meet or exceed Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive requirements with optimised energy performance.
Renewal of Waste Water Collection and Treatment
StandardRenewal and upgrade of existing wastewater treatment infrastructure to improve energy performance, effluent quality and resource recovery.
Collection and Transport of Non-Hazardous Waste in Source Segregated Fractions
StandardSeparate collection and transport of non-hazardous waste streams to enable high-quality recycling and material recovery.
Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge
StandardAnaerobic digestion of sewage sludge for biogas production and nutrient recovery, reducing methane emissions and displacing fossil energy.