3) BRAZIL
Ahead of the World Water Forum next year, the World Water Council organised a stakeholder meeting in Brasilia and called for governments to focus on water issues. While the latest data shows that the global population using an improved drinking water source is up to 91%, from 76% in 1990, it’s estimated that 25% of improved water sources are deemed as “essentially unsafe”.
4) ISRAEL
Novel ultrafiltration (UF) membranes have been developed to improve the virus-removal process from treated municipal wastewater used in water-scarce cities. Together with the University of Illinois, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of Negev grafted a hydrogel coating onto a commercial UF membrane to repel noroviruses from approaching and passing through the membrane.
5) SAUDI ARABIA
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has secured a US$422 million contract to build a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Shuaibah, Saudi Arabia for the Saline Water Conversion Corporation. It has been seven years since Doosan has secured new business in Saudi Arabia, having won the Yanbu phase 3 desalination deal in 2012, and the Ras Al-Khair project back in 2010.
6) ALGERIA
Canadian company Island Water Technologies (IWT) has installed a containerised wastewater treatment plant in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria that it says reduces up to 90% of operational energy costs compared to traditional technologies. The system will treat wastewater from 300 people at the remote work camp and will be monitored remotely by the IWT technical team based in Canada.