Every drop of water counts

More and more regions around the world are suffering from a shortage of water – with grave consequences for the environment, agriculture and human health. Many of the affected regions are to be found in the African continent. Water has always been a precious resource, especially in desert areas, a situation that threatens to worsen as a result of climate change. Elsewhere, it is above all the rapid population explosion that is causing problems. There is an urgent need for action.

The European Union is facing up to these challenges. In August 2011, it launched its Waterbiotech project, which aims to improve water management in a number of affected African countries such as Burkina Faso and Senegal. This can relate for example to wastewater management, the supply of drinking water or the reduction of water consumption. Designed to run for 30 months and funded with close to a million euros, the programme concluded in January 2014 with a final conference in Marrakesh. Besides EU experts, partners from Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Saudi Arabia were involved in Waterbiotech. As the German project leader Gerhard Schories from the ttz Bremerhaven research centre explains, the aim was first to identify exactly what was needed and to ascertain which technologies were already being used. Existing knowledge was also to be shared between the participating partners. “There is a great deal of know-how at the local level,” says Schories. In neighbouring countries, however, such expert knowledge is often not available. Waterbiotech also highlighted possible new approaches in this area.

Project regions were defined according 
to the actual availability of water rather than according to natural water resources, emphasises Schories. This is a crucial 
distinction, as it can prove difficult to provide the local population with sufficient quantities of clean drinking water even in wet regions – especially if the villages there do not have sanitary facilities. Wastewater that is treated insufficiently or not at all may contain dangerous germs such as cholera pathogens and allow these to spread into rivers and lakes. This is a frequent risk for those who live in underdeveloped regions.

Using biotech to purify wastewater has great potential – also when it comes to agricultural production. In many places, constructed wetlands for example are ideally suited to use in small rural communities such as in Ghana. The treated wastewater can be used for irrigation purposes, while residual concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus additionally reduce the need for fertilisers. In urban centres such as the Senegalese capital Dakar, on the other hand, large-capacity activated sludge plants are already being used. As Gerhard Schories explains, it is question of establishing precisely which technology is best suited to which particular situation. Special guidelines and software were created within the framework of the Waterbiotech project with a view to supporting such decision-making processes. Follow-up projects are planned. What is more, the development of new processes serves to strengthen Europe as a centre for technology, increasing its global competitiveness, believes Schories. ▪

Kurt de Swaaf