The industrial cooling towers in Tunisia meet difficulties due to the poor coordination between the utility and process sectors. In this study, we will consider especially the vapor recovery of the wastewater from the industrial activity in south Tunisia. By using the heat pump for high capacity, the problem for vapor from wastewater may be resolved. The coupling for the cooling tower and the heat pump system is investigated by TRNSYS software. The system of cooling tower is also associated with a single zone which is related to heat exchangers. An optimization model for the operation of a cooling water system was developed that accounts for a cooling tower, and a network of pipelines and heat exchangers for heating a single house. This work is based on numerical studies; the cooling tower performance, the single house, the heat pump and the heat exchanger that are simulated using TRNSYS model. The circulation of cooling water system is assured by a counter flow. The evaluations of the cooling tower geometry and performances are based on an adaptive version of Merkel's method witch integrated in TRNSYS. The results of optimization using TRNSYS are validated by several theoretical and experimental studies. Published by Elsevier Ltd.