Cooling for electricity production dominates water use in industry

Industry is one of the main water users in Europe, accounting for about 40% of total water abstractions. Water is used in the production process (e.g. for cooling purposes, for cleaning/washing as well as for employees' use) and is either provided by a public supplier or self-supplied. Furthermore the industrial sector is a major water polluter, as only up to 60% (value based on data from eight countries) of industrial wastewater receives treatment before being disposed of into the environment.

This article provides information related to water abstraction (volumes of water withdrawn from the different sources), use (water that is actually used for industrial processing, excluding returned water) and wastewater generation by the industrial sector in European countries (EU Member States, candidate countries and EFTA countries).