Inhabited for 6,000 years, Aqaba sits at the point where Jordan reaches the Red Sea. Its beach resorts are popular for sunbathing and windsurfing, while the Yamanieh coral reef attracts scuba divers from around the world. Booming growth put these magnets at risk.

So to protect the quality of its marine environment and preserve the region’s attractiveness for tourism, the port city has committed to making huge investments into collection and treatment of 61,000 cubic metres per day from sewer and wastewater by 2030.

Aqaba’s resource recovery strategy generates US$4 million in income for the city, maintaining green areas and urban landscapes. Above all, it reduces carbon emission through enhanced operation and energy efficiency, as well as through production of carbon neutral power from solar farms and biogas. Ultimately, the city will recover 100 percent of its energy.

Aqaba was profiled at IWA’s Development Congress in Buenos Aires, among eight cities to illustrate the wastewater challenge and reuse opportunity. It demonstrated how transition to a circular economy is not limited to the “usual suspects” of pioneering cities such as Singapore or Stockholm.

Other cities that recover a significant portion of energy from wastewater include Bangkok (62 percent), Beijing (45 percent), Chennai (77 percent), and Kampala (227,000 Kwh/y).

The ‘zero discharge’ targets are ambitious, and policies must be targeted toward industry and backed by meaningful incentives. The global market for wastewater recycling and reuse should reach US$22.3 billion by 2021. New innovations in technology help open opportunities and make the transition affordable.

“Whilst the necessity of wastewater reuse in water scarce places like Aqaba is apparent,” observes the IWA’s soon to be released The Reuse Opportunity report, “cities everywhere are increasingly taking proactive actions to improve their water security. They are given greater autonomy; decision making is decentralised, and systems are being adapted to local drivers and demands.”

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The Saemul Park plant has been constructed underground to ensure greater acceptability with local communities, and allows the surface area above it to be used as a park. The award-winning part of the plant all happens underground. Innovative technologies have allowed the treatment plant to become energy self-sufficient through the production of biogas, while simultaneously recovering water and other valuable resources. The plant has significantly reduced its carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and introduced a ‘Positive Impact Development’ tool to monitor the overall achievement.

“Anyang Saemul Park sewage treatment plant realises three types of resource recovery: water, energy and the climate,” said Kwak Donggeun of POSCO Engineering and Construction, upon receiving the award. “The plant is special because it also includes small water cycle balance for climate recovery through a decentralised rainwater management system. It’s an example of how a sewage treatment plant can be transformed from one where energy is consumed and water lost, to the one that produces energy and collects water as a resource.”

Recovering water and other vital resources like biogas, metals, phosphates and bioplastics from wastewater are critical to deliver a sustainable water sector. The 2017 Award, in partnership with the international knowledge network, WaterShare, is for a proven technology on resource recovery, applied at full or demonstrative scale, which serves as an excellent example for the water sector.

“This award is based on two sets of evaluations, one by academics, the other by practitioners,” said Professor Willy Verstraete, chairman of the judging panel. “A winning solution must be scientifically sound but also able to be scaled up in the real world. That is quite a challenge and, for the successful winner, a great achievement.”

The winning entry receives the award because it represents the best example of a large-scale, economically feasible, and impactful project that uses resources from the water cycle and transfers scientific knowledge.

“By mutually sharing and learning from the experiences of different areas as well as from colleagues from other regions, performance improvement and creative application of innovative solutions will be possible,” said Kees Roest of WaterShare.

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