In 2021 , in the Netherlands , 4.3 % less fresh surface and groundwater was extracted than a year before . In late years , Strategic Arms Limitation Talks rather than fresh water has progressively been used as cool down piddle . Sewage treatment plants removed as much contamination from wastewater in 2021 as in 2020 , using more renewable energy . The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics ( CBS ) base this account on the late water habit and treatment physique .
In 2021 , 7.9 billion m3 of water was extracted from the soil ( groundwater ) or fresh surface water like river and lakes . That is 4.3 % less than in 2020 . Also , the Dutch saving used 6.6 billion m3 of saltwater , 11.7 % more than in 2020 . Less refreshing water was used mainly because the agricultural sector and vigour supply used less . pee plant processed 1,295 million m3 cubic of body of water . That is more than 500,000 Olympic - sized swimming pool .
This graph shows the Netherlands ' 2021 H2O custom .
agrarian sector used less waterIn 2021 , the farming sphere used 124.4 million m3 of piddle . A twelvemonth before that was 349.1 million m3 , so 64.4 % less . Water use in 2021 was thus back to the 2017 and earlier level . The years 2018 , 2019 , and 2020 had comparatively juiceless springiness and summers . More ground and fresh surface water were thus used for crop irrigation . Drinking urine consumption - mostly used to irrigate stock and clean stable - has remained nearly unaltered from 2003 to 2021 .
Water habit in the agrarian sector .
Energy sector used less fresh surface waterPower plants used nine million m3 of water supply in 2021 , but since then , they have increasingly been using less and less fresh H2O for cooling . That is due to the policy of more and more placing newfangled power plants on the glide as much as potential to reduce fresh water dependence . In 2012 , cool off piddle was 62 % fresh and 38 % seawater , compared to 35 % fresh and 65 % saltwater in 2021 .
Energy sector ’s aerofoil piddle function .
Sewerage plant performance persist on parIn 2021 , Dutch sewer works treat 1.96 billion m3 of wastewater , 1.3 % more than in 2020 . The plants remove 98 % of biodegradable pollutants from household and business wastewater . In 2021 , 85 % of N and 87 % of phosphorus compounds were extracted from sewerage , the same as in 2020 .
As water intervention keeps improving , residuary atomic number 7 discharges have decreased 63 % ( from over 39 million kg to 14.4 million kg ) since 1990 . residuary phosphorus discharge even decreased by 73 % ( from 6.2 million kg to 1.7 million kg ) . How well atomic number 7 and daystar fertilizers are removed is an significant metre of the sewerage treatment flora ' performance .
Nitrogen and Lucifer firing , pre and post - wastewater intervention .
Ever - more biogas commute into green gasIn 2021 , sewage treatment plants produced more than 137 million m3 of biogas . That is over 15 % of the national biogas production . That was the most ever and six percent more than in 2020 . More than 60 % of that biogas was used for electrical energy production . Another 17 % was convert to green accelerator pedal . That is more than double that of a year before . This green gas is often return to the instinctive gas pedal power system for use by other party .
How sewerage discussion produced biogas is used .
More solar major power used for body of water treatmentOf the power used in 2021 for sewage treatment ( 810 million kWh ) , 8.5 % come up from its own solar panel , double compared to 2020 . Its electrical energy production from biogas was 175 million kWh , about the same as the one-year consumption of 62,000 households . The electrical energy still purchased in 2021 was almost solely unripe index .
electrical energy used by sewerage discourse plants .
informant : Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics
