Water Workshop at IFAT Munich
Technical workshop focused on challenges faced by the UAE and Saudi Arabian water utilities in the Middle Eastern region within the wastewater sector to devise sustainable water solutions, asset management and circular economy. 21-07-2022
Visiting the AVK Stand during IFAT this year were the local water authorities from UAE and Saudi Arabia.
During the visit, AVK in partnership with the Trade Council of Denmark in UAE and the members of WEMA ( Water Efficiency Middle East Alliance) hosted the technical workshop in IFAT Munich focusing on identifying the key challenges within the wastewater sector in the Middle Eastern region primarily in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Local authorities Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Authority (RAKWA) and Sharjah Municipality from the UAE, National Water Company (NWC) and Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) from Saudi Arabia along with Aarhus Vand, the Trade Council of Denmark Germany met on the 1st of June 2022, in Novotel Munich to strategize about how to start the transformation from considering wastewater as waste and more as a resource. What are the State-of-the-Art solutions, enabling a circular economic approach with wastewater treatment plants becoming Resource Recovery Facilities and the options for adding a whole water cycle perspective allowing reuse of water substantially.
Primary objective of the discussion was a range of optimization challenges, increasing demands for resource recovery, and a need for a new perspective to rethink old practices. The opening remarks were made by the Danish Consul General of Hamburg emphasizing the importance of partnerships and knowledge sharing, followed by a session on capital investment plans and partnership opportunities in Saudi Arabia by the vice president of projects and technical service National Water Company, Saudi Arabia further welcoming the Danish companies to visit their plants in Saudi Arabia to reveiw the challenges they are facing.
Finally a presentation was made by Aarhus vand to share light about how to transform a wastewater plant into a resource recovery plant leading way to an interactive discussion on the challenges faced by the utilities in U.A.E and Saudi Arabia.
The workshop attended by 34 guests proved to be of great success empowering attendees in identifying some of the key challenges further generating interest from the authorities in signing an MoU with the alliance for further collaboration and for NIRAS to conduct a preliminary design/ feasibility study for the Al Mafraq STP in Abu Dhabi managed by ADSSC.
