On Friday 30 October, 2020 Durk Krol, Water Europe Executive Director was warmly welcomed by Joachim Rozemeijer and Annemieke Nijhof at Deltares where he handed over the Water Europe Digital Water Award 2020 for their winning innovation, the Nitrate app.
What is the Nitrate app?
Farmers can use the Nitrate App to see for themselves how much nitrate is entering their surface waters and groundwater. The data is then shared: this is important for further research and others can also benefit. The 1991 Nitrate Directive aims to protect water quality throughout Europe by ensuring that nitrate from agricultural sources does not contaminate groundwater and surface water. Water Europe agrees that a digital solution like the Nitrate App helps to achieve that goal.
Nitrate in Europe
The Nitrate App in Europe is mainly used in the Netherlands and Denmark. The app can be downloaded for free by everyone. All they then need to purchase are the nitrate strips and a reference card. The Dutch Nitrate Directive action programme is achieving good results. Improvements are being monitored in a national monitoring network. All Member States have drawn up action programmes based on the directive: there are more than 300 in Europe as a whole.
To learn more about the app click here.
