An ambitious water-efficiency plan

Water management is among RATP Group’s major commitments set to reduce its environmental footprint. In line with the Group’s commitments to preserve resources and the Plan Eau (water scheme) published by the French President in March 2023, RATP Group has published its own water-efficiency plan. The objective is to reduce its drinkable water consumption by 10% by 2030 through several priority projects.

The plan, which aims to provide a better understanding of water consumption, will eventually lead to:

  • improved management of alerts in the event of drought;
  • combating waste through faster interventions regarding water leakage on the network and educating staff on the importance of water-efficiency measures;
  • optimising water use, notably by improving the various technical processes (irrigation, area and rolling stock cleaning);
  • preferring alternative water sources, such as mine water, to reduce drinkable water consumption.

Reusing mine water

Mine water is collected during underground works from rainwater infiltration, flooding, and groundwater tables. Currently, the majority of mine water is evacuated into the sewer system or natural environments.

As the first mine water collector in the Île-de-France region with over 8 million m3 collected annually across the network, RATP Group has already set up a number of optimisation measures.

However, there are many opportunities to take resilient water management even further: reusing mine water to irrigate green areas and wash trains, for instance. As a practical example, mine water is injected back into the City of Paris’ non-drinkable water network at Balard station on metro line 8, and it is then used to clean roads and water the city’s parks and gardens. This water is also reused to irrigate turf on a section of tram line T3’s platform.

Learn about other examples of RATP Group’s CSR commitments

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