News from 2016-03-11 / DEG, Sustainability

Water treatment for agriculture in Egypt saves fresh water

Tourism is a significant economic factor for Egypt. Despite the somewhat difficult security situation, the country still remains a popular travel destination.

However, this also has an impact on scarce water resources. Lots of hotel businesses on the Red Sea and the Sinai peninsula are reliant on water from sea-water desalination plants which has gone through complex treatment processes. At the same time, Egyptian agriculture has a considerable demand for water.

Re-use of treated service water from hotel facilities for irrigation purposes can help to meet this demand. This is where the Cologne business MfT Membran and the company TIA from Breitenfelde in Schleswig-Holstein see great potential. These partners therefore developed a pilot unit for the treatment of waste water, which is made available to local agriculture after the clarification process. The pilot unit was inaugurated in a hotel in El Quesir at the beginning of March.

Abwasser von Hotels wird für die Landwirtschaft nutzbar gemacht in Ägypten.
Treated service water from hotel facilities can be used for irrigation purposes.

The purpose of the pilot unit is to develop a technically and regionally adapted decentralised system for treating waste water from hotels. Training measures should help to build up a service and maintenance network with local partners on the ground. Knowledge transfer is additionally achieved by involving universities and research institutes. Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities and other hotel operators are being made more aware of the subject of waste water treatment and re-use of processed waste water.

Schulung zur Wasseraufbereitung in Ägypten anhand eines Schaubilds

DEG is co-financing the companies’ pilot unit with funds from the develoPPP.de programme. develoPPP.de is aimed at companies which have long-term involvement in developing and emerging countries and want to make their entrepreneurial commitment sustainable.

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