Humanity faces a decisive moment: the climate crisis multiplies droughts, accelerates desertification, and threatens to leave millions of people without water, forcing a fundamental rethinking of how we produce and consume. Mexico starkly reflects this tension: the Zona Sur Aquifer (2813) shows increasing saline intrusion, the Lagoon System is under constant pressure, and CONAGUA has imposed bans and restrictions that highlight overexploitation. Statistics show a structural water stress that compromises the food, industrial, and social security of Tamaulipas.
In this critical scenario, the water reuse project assumes a clear strategic objective: reduce water consumption by 5 m³ per ton of paper produced, ensure a reliable supply through reuse, and thus mitigate scarcity and curb source salinization. The plant located in Altamira, at the heart of the basin, becomes a living laboratory of transformation, demonstrating that it is possible to guarantee production continuity, protect the environment, and strengthen regional resilience. Multiple actors are involved: the operating company, technology providers specializing in ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation, structurers integrating sustainability criteria, and external verifiers ensuring traceability of water benefits under the VWBA methodology. Integrated into the Water Positive corporate strategy, the project embodies the principles of additionality, intentionality, and traceability, setting a precedent that strengthens industrial competitiveness, sustainability leadership reputation, and positions the region as a benchmark for bold solutions to an unavoidable global challenge.
The Altamira plant faces a context where CONAGUA restrictions, declining groundwater levels, and increasing pollution have jeopardized both water security and industrial competitiveness. The technical opportunity arises from transforming that risk into an advantage: replacing dependence on surface and groundwater sources with a closed reuse circuit that ensures efficiency, savings, and resilience. Through ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation, each cubic meter treated ceases to be waste and becomes a productive resource.
The volume achieved—8,849 m³ per day, more than 3.2 million m³ per year—equates to securing the annual supply of a medium-sized city, while also reducing water consumption by 5 m³ per ton of paper. In the short term, the impact translates into less pressure on the aquifer and strict compliance with NOM 001-2021; in the medium term, into water and operational resilience for the plant and basin; and in the long term, into a replicable model for the paper industry and other manufacturing in water-stressed areas. Those making this possible are the operating company as developer, technology providers as strategic allies, and external verifiers ensuring traceability and compliance. This approach, aligned with ESG commitments and emerging regulations, makes the company a protagonist: it gains competitive differentiation, strengthens its reputation, and offers a powerful narrative that connects innovation, sustainability, and business leadership.
The solutions and mitigations stage is built on a comprehensive strategy combining advanced technology, risk management protocols, and a design oriented toward resilience. The proposed technical solution is a hybrid system integrating ultrafiltration to retain solids and microorganisms, reverse osmosis to remove salts and dissolved contaminants, and advanced oxidation to ensure microbiological and chemical safety. Alternatives such as conventional MBRs and constructed wetlands were evaluated, but this configuration was chosen for its greater efficiency, operational reliability, and compatibility with international standards. The system operates at a capacity of 8,849 m³/day and can be considered a gray solution with digital support through real-time IoT monitoring.
The technical justification lies in the fact that this intervention addresses a critical problem in the basin: the overexploitation of aquifers and saline intrusion that undermine water sustainability. The choice of technologies was based on criteria of efficiency, cost-benefit, replicability, and regulatory compliance (NOM 001-2021), in addition to alignment with the principles of additionality, intentionality, and traceability of the Water Positive strategy and VWBA methodology. Quantifiable benefits include more than 3.2 million m³ per year of reused water, reduced pollutant loads in discharges, and decreased pressure on freshwater sources. Environmentally, the solution contributes to lower contamination, reduced indirect emissions, and greater climate resilience; socially, it improves water security, public health, and job stability; economically, it guarantees lower operating costs, access to certifications, and strengthened ESG reputation.
Identified risks include technological failures, hydrological variability, and social acceptance. To mitigate them, redundant systems, contingency plans, and shared governance with authorities and communities are implemented. Strict protocols prevent critical failures related to contamination, supply shortages, or saline intrusion, ensuring long-term resilience against extreme climate scenarios. Finally, the model’s scalability is ensured: it can be replicated in other coastal basins of Mexico and Latin America, in industries such as food, beverages, or chemicals, as long as regulatory conditions encourage reuse. Its competitiveness compared to other alternatives is supported by clear cost/benefit indicators and digital traceability, and its expansion is facilitated by public-private, community, and technological partnerships that enhance its transformative impact.
The implementation of the project is conceived as an integrated process that articulates phases, technologies, measurement, traceability, governance, and continuous improvement in a single coherent flow. It begins with the baseline diagnosis, where extraction volumes, initial water quality, and saline intrusion risks are recorded; this step provides the reference for measuring each subsequent benefit. With this information, the technical design is developed, configuring ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation trains after evaluating alternatives and selecting the most efficient option aligned with NOM 001-2021. The installation phase, carried out over approximately 12 months, integrates these technologies into the existing biological WWTP and incorporates flowmeters, quality probes, and IoT sensors connected to a SCADA system for real-time control.
Once installation is complete, commissioning and pilot validation take place over three months, calibrating equipment, verifying KPIs, and testing operating and safety protocols. This stage ensures the solution reaches its nominal capacity of 8,849 m³/day and maintains stable quality parameters. Finally, continuous operation consolidates the model with intensive monitoring, automatic reports to CONAGUA and external verifiers, and a governance scheme where the operating company manages the plant, technology providers provide specialized support, and external audits ensure traceability under VWBA/WQBA. Physical and digital traceability is ensured through water balances, georeferencing, IoT, and periodic audits, generating solid evidence of change.
In parallel, the preventive and corrective maintenance plan includes periodic membrane cleaning, scheduled replacement of critical equipment, and contingency protocols to address technological failures, hydrological variability, or potential saline intrusion risks. Continuous monitoring compares the with-project scenario against the baseline without intervention, feeding back into operations and enabling process adjustments or technology updates. Thus, implementation is not understood as a series of separate steps but as an integrated strategy that ensures the permanence of water, environmental, social, and economic benefits over time, consolidating a replicable and resilient model in the face of increasing pressure on the basin.
The project’s main intervention consists of reusing treated industrial effluents, transforming them into a productive input through a train of ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation with a capacity of 8,849 m³/day. The process unfolds in several stages: existing biological pretreatment, membrane filtration to remove solids and microorganisms, reverse osmosis to eliminate salts and dissolved contaminants, and advanced oxidation to guarantee microbiological and chemical safety. The regenerated water is reintegrated into the production process and auxiliary plant services, complying with NOM 001-2021 and international industrial reuse standards.
The relevance of this solution lies in addressing a structural problem of the basin: the overexploitation and saline intrusion that compromise regional water sustainability. Compared to the baseline situation of dependence on surface and groundwater sources at risk of collapse, the project generates a radical change by recovering more than 3 million m³ of water annually, reducing polluting discharges, and providing resilience against droughts. This transformation turns an environmental liability into a strategic opportunity for industrial sustainability.
The expected results are concrete: more than 3.2 million m³ reused per year, significant reductions in BOD, TSS, and salts, strict regulatory compliance, and reduced indirect emissions by lowering pumping and transport of freshwater. Additionally, public health and local water security are strengthened by reducing competition for the resource, and jobs are consolidated through more stable and sustainable operations.
Strategically, the project is fully integrated into the Water Positive roadmap, contributing additionality, intentionality, and traceability under VWBA/WQBA. This offers tangible ESG benefits: social license to operate, competitive differentiation, regulatory compliance, and enhanced reputation in increasingly demanding markets. It also aligns with global commitments such as SBTi, NPWI, SDGs, and ESRS E3.
Its replicability is broad: it can be applied in other paper plants and in sectors such as food, beverages, or chemicals, where water is a critical input. The technical, regulatory, and social conditions that support its scaling include regulatory frameworks promoting reuse, community acceptance, and the availability of existing treatment infrastructure. Public-private, community, and technological alliances facilitate its expansion and multiply its impact.
The final expected impact goes beyond the plant: it contributes to the water balance of the basin by reducing pressure on the Zona Sur Aquifer, strengthens resilience to climate change, and generates social benefits in employment, health, and water access. The message is clear: this project is not just a technical solution, it is an example of how industry can lead the transition toward a regenerative water economy, demonstrating that production and regeneration can go hand in hand.
