The Social Leap of Water

Circular (re)construction service for rainwater harvesting from BAM Belgium

Older social housing does not have (rain) water collection and recovery. Even when these homes are renovated, action is rarely taken for lack of payback.
If you consider that in Flanders there are more than 50,000 homes, then the sum is immediately made: there is a potential to collect billions of liters of rainwater per year from these homes. And as the recent dry summers have made very clear: water is one of our most valuable resources.

Construction company BAM Belgium, De Watergroep and social housing company Cordium are working together to give the (rain) water in the neighborhoods in question a local and profitable second life in which all parties win.
Their solution lies in De Sociale Watersprong, a circular (re)construction service that aims to provide existing social housing with rainwater harvesting and possibly greywater recovery. The investment would be paid back through savings on water bills, with a "no more than before" principle (or even a little less).
The rainwater facilities of The Social Water Jump are sustainably designed, constructed, financed and maintained. They are smart and collective at the neighborhood level. Water consumption is monitored and resident coaching is provided.

Within the framework of the Social Water Leap, the consortium is also studying water recovery as-a-service and evaluating the usefulness of a real "Water Performance Contract" (WPC).

The Social Leap Forward is a socially relevant project that tries to offer an answer to the imminent shortage of water and helps to ensure that water remains affordable for a vulnerable group.