Source: http://www.euronews.com/2012/12/06/bags-of-water/
List of partners:
- Spanopoulos Group of Companies (coordinator), Greece
- ZipLast S.r.l, Italy
- Industrial Sedò S.A., Spain
- Safibra, s.r.o., Czech Republic
- D’Appolonia S.p.A., Italy
- AIMPLAS – Instituto Tecnològico del Plastico, Spain
Description: REFRESH aims at realising an innovative green product/service for the transportation of fresh water by sea, by developing a cost effective and energy-efficient solution based on the use of a modular concept of recyclable flexible plastic barge towed by tugboats. The primary application will be in supplying fresh-water to Mediterranean coastal small cities and islands with less than 300.000 inhabitants (a situation which interests about 45 million of European citizens). 65% of these communities that double in size during summer with tourist presences are affected by increasing water scarcity due to several factors as climate change, growing urbanisation of coasts, tourism, sea water intrusion in aquifers. For these communities REFRESH will represent the most effective solution for fresh-water supply since traditional technologies as water pipelines, desalinisation plants and large water vessels are unpractical solutions under technical and economical points of view.
Duration: November 2010 - November 2012
Budget: In order of millions of euro. The project is partially funded by European Community under the"7 th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development".