AQUACYCLE Mediterranean Wastewater Reuse Community

The final output in AQUACYCLE is concerned with the setting up of a Mediterranean Wastewater Reuse Community.
The project’s Final Conference in Lebanon during 23 to 24 June 2023, ran with the theme of inviting everyone to join AQUACYCLE’s Mediterranean Wastewater Reuse Alliance. It was explained to the 200 participants at the event that by endorsing the Final Version of the MedAPOC Charter, they would automatically be joining this Alliance.
Earlier in the project, the Semi-Final Version of the MedAPOC Charter was placed on the project website to mark World Water Day in 20232, which aptly ran with the theme: ‘Accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis’. This created the opportunity to already start inviting water stakeholders from around the Region to read up on the Charter, and to invite them to endorse the Charter by filling their details on a google form, and thus become ‘early members’ of the Alliance. Well over 150 persons from around the Region signed up to this initial initiative. It is particularly noteworthy that the signatories bring a balanced mix of Partners in ongoing ENI CBC Med or other EU funded projects that bring synergies to AQUACYCLE, the Research community, in broader terms as compared to the aforementioned category, Local community representatives, including local decision makers and NGOs, Ministries and entities operating at European/Regional/International level, Public/private entities in charge of water treatment/sanitation and water supply, Water treatment plant operators and technicians. Also noteworthy is that 42% of these signatories are women. There is also a clearly interesting correlation between the date on which new signatories joined and the organization of outreach activities such as the second and third series of stakeholder workshops.
In terms of keeping this initiative ‘alive’ beyond the project duration, it is important to highlight the scope and functionality of the project’s e-learning platform. Indeed, aside from the training material, the platform offers users the possibility to communicate and network with other users, including experts on wastewater treatment plant operators and technicians, from around the world.
In present document focuses on the proceedings of the Final Conference during which the Final Version of the MedAPOC Charter was launched.