Business Models for Alternative Water Resources: Ensuring Economic Viability

Strategies for scaling up MAR solutions, including cost recovery models and market potential

At MARCLAIMED, we are developing business models that ensure Alternative Water Resources (AWR) and Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) are not only technically feasible, but economically viable.

With water scarcity threatening agriculture, industry, and ecosystems across Europe, the case for MAR is growing. Yet scaling up requires more than technology: it demands models for cost recovery, risk reduction, and real market uptake.

Through Work Package 5, we are assessing where MAR makes the most economic sense, what barriers exist, and how our seven key innovations—ranging from water quality tools to financial calculators—can be deployed and used to scale up.

One of these tools, RECOVER, helps water providers design cost-recovery tariffs that reflect both infrastructure costs and long-term savings from avoided drought losses. Meanwhile, MARINSURE supports risk assessment, helping to build financial confidence for end users.

Economic modelling from our Dutch pilot shows MAR solutions can reduce drought losses by up to €1,900-€2,000 per hectare per year. For high-value crops such as seed potatoes, this benefit increases significantly, to €3,225 per hectare per year under more extreme conditions. These are not just climate adaptation measures; they are sound economic strategies.

We are also exploring replicability across Europe and feasibility in industrial settings, with a focus on Eastern European markets. The goal: to design modular business models that can adapt to different local contexts while maintaining financial sustainability.

As we move toward full-scale deployment, our upcoming deliverables will present an integrated market and exploitation strategy to support commercialization, replication, and transferability. MARCLAIMED is proving that sustainable water management can also be a smart investment.