Safe and affordable supply of drinking water in the EU under the pressure of climate change is a key priority. Despite long-term experience with the reliable operation of disinfected and non-disinfected drinking water supply systems, a number of challenges around microbial stability, the future need for disinfection and the consequences of disinfection by-products formation for human health remain open, directly deriving from climate change impacts such as increasing water temperature and higher levels of natural organic matter.

SafeCREW – Climate-Resilient Management for Safe Disinfected and Non-Disinfected Water Supply Systems aims to support the novel EU Drinking Water Directive by generating advanced knowledge and developing tools and guidelines for disinfected and non-disinfected drinking water supply systems and addresses improved comprehensive water quality characterization, novel treatment solutions to actively respond to identified threats, and the management of distribution networks to avoid water quality deterioration up to consumers. Novel data sets on the occurrence and concentration of so far unknown disinfection by-products will be created, and commercial actors stimulated to further develop tools for their quantification and mitigation.

Transferable tools will be provided to end-users (water utilities, national/EU regulators, researchers, SMEs), including: (I) reliable methods to evaluate microbial stability, characterize natural organic matter, detect disinfection by-products and account for disinfection by-products human health toxicity, (II) protocols to select proper materials in contact with disinfected water, (III) monitoring and modelling tools, also exploiting machine learning, for real-time optimization of drinking water supply systems management, and (IV) an integrated risk assessment framework to guide future interventions which ensure that both disinfected and non-disinfected drinking water supply systems can continue providing safe drinking water in the face of climate change.

SafeCREW will increase the preparedness of the EU water sector to challenges arising from climate change and will support the EU’s leading position in science-based policy making for drinking water consumer protection.

The SafeCREW consortium is made up of: Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches e.V. - Technisch-wissenschaftlicher Verein (coordinator), Politecnico di Milano, Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin, BioDetection Systems, Fundació Eurecat, Umweltbundesamt, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung, Consorci Concessionari d'Aigües per als Ajuntaments i Indústries de Tarragona, Tutech Innovation, MM (participants), and Multisensory Systems (partner).