FCC Aqualia and the Botín Foundation will collaborate on the analysis of Cantabria's water footprint. The agreement signed by the two institutions will give rise to the first study of its kind to be performed in partnership in Spain, and will provide information on the impact of the water consumption embodied in the goods and services produced and traded by Cantabria.

The study's objectives and work plan were presented today by the President of Cantabria, Ignacio Diego, who highlighted the importance of conducting this study with a comprehensive vision of water and the territory. The project was presented by the participating institutions' general managers, Felix Parra (FCC Aqualia) and Íñigo Sáenz de Miera (Botín Foundation), at an event held at the Regional Government's headquarters in Santander.

The one-year study will be undertaken by the Botín Foundation's Water Observatory, comprising researchers from the Complutense University and the Technical University, both in Madrid, in cooperation with the University of Cantabria.

The study will be headed by Pedro Martínez Santos, tenured professor at the Complutense University, and Alberto Garrido Colmenero, professor at the Technical University and deputy director of the Botín Foundation's Water Observatory.

It will provide information about water consumption embodied in goods and services produced and traded by Cantabria, where FCC Aqualia is the leading water manager.

The study will provide a broad overview of water and the territory with a view to clarifying the relationship between blue and green water* and between internal water, virtual water and the water footprint, determining the values and flows of each category in the region.

This is the first water footprint calculation to be conducted in Spain by a partnership of institutions such as the Botín Foundation's Water Observatory and FCC Aqualia, a water management company.

Other attendees at the presentation included Ramón Llamas, Director of the Botín Foundation's Water Observatory; Santiago Lafuente, Head of Zone 1 of FCC Aqualia, which includes Cantabria; and Enrique Hernández, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Management Systems at FCC Aqualia.

About the Botín Foundation's Water Observatory and FCC Aqualia

The Botín Foundation's Water Observatory is known for its innovative multidisciplinary approach to analysing water management problems. The Botín Foundation, Spain's leading private foundation, has studied issues related to water management and consumption since 1998. Initially it focused on ground water, and its work became an international benchmark for semi-arid countries; since 2008, when it created the Water Observatory, it has become one of the world's leading experts in water footprint analysis.

FCC Aqualia is the water management subsidiary of FCC, a leader in water service management in Spain. It currently operates in 1,100 cities in 18 countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Algeria, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China and Tunisia. The company operates close to 200 drinking water treatment plants and over 300 waste water treatment plants.

 *The water footprint evaluates the amount of water used in consumer products. To this end, consumption of different types of water resources is estimated, associating those levels with different colours. Green water is water from precipitation that evaporates or transpires through plants. Blue water is fresh surface or groundwater taken from rivers, reservoirs and aquifers and not returned to them.