Fiches Acteur

With the declared aim of "controlling the quality of continental water bodies for the health of  populations and ecosystems", the Alsace-Lorraine HYDREOS water pole consists of more than 350 businesses, including 5 large groups, who are world leaders in their field, and of numerous participants with  international standing, 36,000 employees, including 17,000 in the water authority itself, of 2,500  researchers into the quality of the water and related topics, as well as of 4,000 students.
The pole is organised around 3 operational themes, which launch innovative projects: "Control of Pollutants", "Transport Networks" and "Water Bodies and Ecosystems".

knowledge of human and veterinary medical waste,preventative management of agricultural pollution,dynamic management of networks,durable management of networks,bio films,restoring and ecological development of wetlands,engineering to protect water resources,treatment of waste by creating wetlands,management of the water quality from flooded mines

In summer 2010 the pole was beginning a phase of exponential growth. The association will acquire utilities and services in the last six months of 2010. The HYDREOS pole has at its disposal all its members' utilities and services (all the research and teaching facilities in the 2 Regions, the large groups, the small and medium-sized businesses).

The purpose of the pole is to generate, by encouraging collaboration in research which will bring together businesses, laboratories, design and engineering offices, schools and universities in the two Regions, the innovations and solutions offered by industry together with the services competitive gains and training facilities.
The ultimate ambition of the authority is two-fold:
- at the inter-regional level: to support and develop the potential of the Alsace and Lorraine Regions in an area where their comparative advantages are undeniable, in order to attract investment by developing the Regions economically and scientifically.
- at the national and international level to make a decisive contribution in accepting the challenges involved in preserving the water quality, which is a priority of public policy as stated both by the open multi-party debate known as the "Grenelle de l’environnement" in France and by the European Union.

Much is beginning to happen, notably collaborative projects are being set up in the pole's 3 operational areas, and there is also a project aimed at creating an international science and water technology training authority.
The pole’s EPEC Project was its first to be approved by the National Research Agency (ANR) at the beginning of the summer of 2010. Its aim is to gain more precise knowledge of the purifying action of bio films in the natural environment and to develop the ecological engineering skills to:
- use artificial wetlands with rapid throughput to purify water in towns,
- facilitate the return of polluted rivers to a good chemical state.
The project will start in September 2010 and will continue for 3 years.