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 Memorandum of Understanding will link IWA’s 17 Principles for Water-Wise Cities’ to improve water management and work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals with C40s global network of cities. It will address the mitigation potential of urban water management by looking at water efficiency, energy efficiency, nutrients capture and energy recovery as opportunities to drive down emissions from the urban water management sector.

“IWA has been promoting the Principles for Water-Wise Cities over the past 12 months, with a number of cities and water professionals endorsing them,” Tom Williams, Programmes Director, IWA, told The Source. “We want to bring together this respective momentum around urban water and connect the problem owners with the solution providers.”

Williams added that more and more water professionals, and therefore IWA, are looking towards new partnerships, individuals and organisations which are not conventional water partners.

Figures released by C40 and IWA show that seven percent of global energy is used to supply water, with water losses as high as 70 percent due to ageing infrastructure and extreme events disruptions, and 80 percent of all wastewater is released untreated.

Sustainable water and wastewater management are central to cities securing a low-carbon, resilient future. Reducing water loss, reusing wastewater and replenishing water bodies are three examples of how cities can improve water management, contribute to reducing their GHG emissions, and adapt to climate change impacts.

“We see that water pattern disruption is often the first sign of serious climate impacts and 70 percent of our member cities tell us that they are already seeing the significant and negative impacts of climate change,” said Mark Watts, Executive Director, C40. “Sixty-four percent of our member cities face significant risk from surface and flash floods.”

Ricardo Cepeda-Márquez, Head of Solid Waste Initiative, C40, told The Source that C40 and IWA aim to launch two new networks on urban water management and wastewater treatment and a technical assistance programme building on C40 political leadership and decision-makers engagement and IWA’s technical leadership.

“We believe that the Water-Wise Principles are a great framework,” he said. “Each city will have different powers, priorities and opportunities to implement them, and C40 and IWA intend to support their local priorities to facilitate faster and larger-scale implementation in collaboration with other cities participating in the networks.”

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