New 3
Water covers 72% of the Earth’s surface but under 3% of it is suitable for drinking & irrigation. Over the past thirty years, droughts have dramatically increased in number and intensity in the EU and at least 11% of the European population and 17% of its territory have been affected by water scarcity to date.
 
At present, about 1 billion cubic metres of treated urban wastewater is reused annually, which accounts for approximately 2.4% of the treated urban wastewater effluents and less than 0.5% of annual EU freshwater withdrawals. But the EU potential is much higher, estimated in the order of 6 billion cubic metres – six times the current volume. See more on European Commission website here