‘Life4ZOO – Water Resource Management in Visitor Attractions – FIT4USE Water Recirculation Technology’

Project 101114509 — LIFE22-ENV-CZ-LIFE4ZOO

The Barcelona Zoo participates in the Life for ZOO project - "Management of water resources in visitors attractions - FIT4USE Water recirculation technology" funded by the European Union through the LIFE program. The project, coordinated by the Technical University of Liberec (TUL) (Czech Republic), aims to find solutions for zoos to optimize the use of water, an essential resource in their day-to-day life. 

As part of this project, Barcelona Zoo will test a new system to regenerate water left over from cleaning the park's facilities. It is a pilot plant equipped with natural filters through which plants and microorganisms remove nutrients and pollutants from the water. 

Once treated, this water will be used again within the Zoo itself to irrigate, clean or refill natural ponds, among other uses. 

The pilot plant that will make this regeneration of the leftover water from cleaning the Zoo possible will be located in front of the Doñana Birdhouse and will be completed in the summer of 2025. In addition, in order to publicize the Zoo's participation in this LIFE project and with the aim of raising public awareness of the role of wetlands, this facility will be open to the public and will have information panels. 

Institutions involved in the project 

In addition to the Barcelona Zoo and the TUL, other participants in this LIFE project --which has a total budget of 2.7 million euros-- are the Solidarity Foundation of the University of Barcelona; the University of Girona, through the research group Environmental Chemical Engineering Laboratory (Lequia); the Liberec Zoo (Czech Republic); and the Photon Water Technology group, an expert in water treatments. The project also has the participation of a group of external experts, including the Bioparc València and the Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabárceno.