In a Europe experiencing its driest decade on record, with basins like the Ebro under extreme pressure from climate change, urban water use faces a critical crossroads: evolve toward efficiency or continue wasting an increasingly scarce resource. In Villanueva de Gállego, a municipality in Aragón located within one of the driest zones of the Ebro basin, every liter lost in the distribution network is a missed opportunity for water resilience, operational efficiency, and urban sustainability. This project proposes a deep transformation of the potable water system: reducing losses, controlling pressure, implementing smart sectorization, digitizing decisions, and restoring the balance between demand and available resources. In a territory where water demand is rising and the Gállego aquifer shows signs of overexploitation, every cubic meter recovered is equivalent to the daily consumption of 10 families—and represents a concrete act of climate adaptation.
The current situation is critical: Villanueva de Gállego loses up to 30% of the water it treats, a figure aligned with the national average but unacceptable in a water-stressed context. The system lacks hydraulic sectorization, smart pressure valves, and strategic flow sensors. Water management is still based on manual readings, without digital tools or predictive maintenance. This results in an inefficient network, vulnerable to breakdowns and pressure surges, with hidden costs in energy, operations, and environmental reputation. The strategic goal of the project is to reverse this inefficient, reactive model by implementing integrated water management to reduce losses, optimize pressure, enhance system responsiveness during critical events, and free up usable volumes for other urban or environmental purposes. Located in Villanueva de Gállego (Zaragoza Province, Aragón), the project is situated in a highly exposed climatic region, undergoing rapid urban expansion, and dependent on the Gállego aquifer—part of the Ebro basin. Its rationale lies in technical urgency, political opportunity, and the potential to become a scalable model for hundreds of medium-sized municipalities across Spain.
Stakeholders include the Villanueva de Gállego City Council as service owner, the local water utility as operator, ACO Iberia as the technology provider for drainage and control systems, and Aqua Positive as technical structurer under the VWBA 2.0 framework. The project aligns with the Water Positive strategy through the principle of effective recovery of water volumes, documented under Method A-2 (loss reduction), with full digital traceability and verifiable intentionality. The benefits generated will be measurable in cubic meters of water recovered, in kilograms of CO₂ emissions avoided from reduced pumping, and in enhanced urban resilience under increasing drought stress.
The proposed solution is a comprehensive intervention on the municipality’s drinking water network, combining the implementation of pressure control valves, smart sectorization devices, flow sensors, hydraulic inspection chambers, and a digital monitoring platform. This technology will transform a currently inefficient system—with estimated water losses of up to 30%—into a controlled, adaptive, and efficient network. The project expects to recover over 100,000 m³ per year of water currently lost without benefit, equivalent to the annual consumption of the town’s entire population for more than three months. This recovered volume will have a direct impact on the sustainability of the source (Gállego aquifer), reduce energy consumption for pumping, improve service delivery for end users, and free up valuable volumes for green space irrigation or drought-time provisioning.
Immediate benefits include the reduction of invisible leaks, pressure stabilization across the network, fewer system failures, and energy savings through hydraulic efficiency. In addition, the project introduces a digital governance model with predictive maintenance capacity, improving response times to incidents and optimizing daily operations. The project is made possible by the alliance between the municipal operator, ACO Iberia as supplier of smart components, and Aqua Positive as technical and commercial structurer applying the Water Positive framework. This model is highly replicable across hundreds of European municipalities with aging infrastructure, high leakage rates, and increasing pressure on water resources. The time to act is now: climate change is accelerating—droughts will be longer, storms more intense, and the margin for error ever narrower. Companies involved in hydraulic technologies, urban infrastructure, or sustainability strategies will find in this project a real, visible, and auditable ESG leadership opportunity, aligned with emerging regulations and global sustainability commitments.
To mitigate excessive water consumption and promote sustainable resource management, the project integrates technological interventions, behavioral change strategies, and impact monitoring to ensure long-term conservation.
1. Controlling Water Usage Through Flow Restrictors
The implementation of flow restrictors in faucets and showers directly reduces water waste by limiting excessive flow without affecting functionality. This prevents unnecessary overuse, ensuring that each consumption point operates at an optimal efficiency level. As a result, less water is extracted from local sources, decreasing overall demand and helping to prevent depletion of available water reserves. Additionally, by reducing water usage, energy consumption related to water heating and distribution is also minimized, contributing to lower environmental impact.
2. Encouraging Long-Term Water Conservation Habits
While technological solutions provide immediate efficiency gains, lasting impact requires behavioral change. By implementing an education and awareness campaign, the project ensures that users understand the importance of water conservation and actively engage in sustainable practices. By equipping communities with practical knowledge on efficient water use, the project mitigates the risk of behavioral rebound, where users return to high consumption patterns after initial reductions. This ensures that the benefits of the intervention are not only immediate but also self-sustaining over time.
3. Monitoring Efficiency and Ensuring Adaptive Management
For a mitigation strategy to be successful, it must be measurable and adaptable. By continuously tracking pre- and post-installation water consumption, the project ensures that actual water savings align with expected outcomes. If inefficiencies or unexpected variations occur, adjustments can be made to further optimize the system. This monitoring approach prevents potential declines in efficiency and reinforces the sustainability of the project by ensuring that water savings remain consistent in the long run.
By combining water-saving technologies, user education, and adaptive monitoring, the project ensures a holistic and sustainable approach to reducing excessive water consumption while maintaining efficiency and user satisfaction.
SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation: Reducing potable water consumption through efficient technologies.
SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy: Decreasing the demand for natural gas used to heat water, optimizing municipal energy consumption.
SDG 13 – Climate Action: Reducing CO₂ emissions by lowering the energy required to heat water.
The project will be developed in four key phases, ensuring its proper execution and the sustainability of results:
1. Initial Diagnosis
The current water consumption in selected homes, gyms, and public buildings will be analyzed, establishing a baseline to compare results after intervention.
2. Technology Implementation
Flow restrictors in faucets and in showers will be installed, reducing water flow without affecting user experience.
3. Measurement and Validation of Results
The project’s impact will be assessed by analyzing post-installation water consumption and the corresponding energy savings.
4. Public Awareness Campaign
An educational strategy will be developed to promote responsible water use and ensure the long-term sustainability of savings achieved by the project.
The installation of flow restrictors in faucets and showers in Villanueva de Gállego represents an effective solution to reduce water and energy consumption in the municipality. By optimizing water flow, the project will result in significant potable water savings while also reducing the amount of natural gas needed for heating, creating both environmental and economic benefits for the community.
The project’s environmental impact is substantial, as it will help reduce the demand on the Ebro River Basin and lower the municipality’s carbon footprint. Additionally, the economic benefits will be noticeable for users, who will experience reduced water and gas bills, increasing household and institutional cost-efficiency.
Moreover, combining a technological solution with an educational strategy will ensure that the positive impact lasts over time. Encouraging responsible water use habits among residents will reinforce the benefits of flow restrictor installation, allowing Villanueva de Gállego to become a model of sustainable water management that can be replicated in other municipalities.
