The Mediterranean library of knowledge
Explore the ENI CBC Med Programme's library of deliverables: a comprehensive digital repository of diverse resources tailored for the Mediterranean region. Discover in-depth studies, innovative strategies, and practical tools spanning tools addressing key environmental, economic, and social issues. The library is your go-to source to find valuable knowledge to inspire new collaborative projects driving fair, sustainable and inclusive development across the Mediterranean.
AQUACYCLE Charter on Wastewater Reuse
The goal of the Charter is to promote the sustainable use of non-conventional water resources and to support the transfer and sharing of AQUACYCLE research results at the operational level. In doing so, the Charter aspires to create a shared vision for the establishment of a transboundary Mediterranean Wastewater Community.
Rather than bringing the voices of the research teams who designed, tested, and validated the project’s low-cost, eco-innovative wastewater treatment system, abbreviated to the APOC system in the Charter. The Charter foremost brings the voices of farmers and local communities from the three geographic locations where a pilot demonstration unit of the APOC system has been installed.
To start with, through this Charter, farmers alert to a dire future to sustain their livelihoods in the face of ever dwindling freshwater supplies. Next, local community representatives share their views on the reuse of treated wastewater and their expectations of the APOC system. The research in AQUACYCLE also provided an opportunity to demonstrate that it is entirely possible for local communities to take an active role in the drawing up of action plans for the reuse of treated wastewater. This is followed by the appraisal of farmers and local communities who participated in Participatory GIS (PGIS) Practice sessions that were organized in Lebanon and in Tunisia for this purpose. Further chapters bring the views of policy- and decision-making authorities in the water, agricultural, sanitation and health-related sectors on the functionality of an online Irrigation Support Tool. The latter guides on the generation of optimal action plans for the reuse of treated wastewater, based on economic, environmental and social criteria of the user’s choice. It also proved opportune to dedicate a chapter to the level of satisfaction expressed by farmers around the Mediterranean with the current measures put in place by public authorities to combat land and water degradation. Last but not least, the Charter brings the viewpoints expressed by experts and trend-setters in Spain on the reuse of treated wastewater and on the prospects for the APOC technology to meet the recently introduced EU Regulation on the Minimum Requirements for Water Reuse.
Water Reuse in Agriculture in a Living Lab environment
In a living lab environment, We World - GVC Onlus, NARC and ONAS supported by all relevant stakeholders, tested improved irrigation systems supplied with treated wastewater (TWW) of better quality thanks to the rehabilitation of their Waste Water Treatment Plants to increase the production of lemon, olives, grapes and fodder. In the target areas, a governance model has been built that, thanks to the living lab approach, is impacting the perception of reuse to public officials and population.
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.
MEDWAYCAP BPs’ Inventory Platform
An open and dynamic resource that plays a crucial role in sharing knowledge and supporting decision-making. With 21 best practices from 9 Mediterranean countries already evaluated and published, the platform has proven its effectiveness in analysing trends and gaps to guide policy and funding. It works as a platform, a web-based business intelligence solution, to inform and disseminate the innovative solutions and practices implemented in the Mediterranean region and beyond. The platform includes the analysis of related issues such as performance, innovation, durability, socio-economic impact, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and others.
MEDWAYCAP Innovation camp guideline
This document provides clear guidelines for developing the goal-oriented MEDWAYCAP Innovation Camps and future sustainable multilevel meetings. It supports the MEDWAYCAP experts in the
identification of thematic challenges, challenge owners and the related stakeholders by capitalizing the
best existing methodology for innovative and creative participatory approaches.
The guidelines describe how the MEDWAYCAP Innovation Camps integrate design thinking
principles in the project to address its general and specific objectives of defining a Mediterranean pathway
for Innovation Capitalisation toward an urban-rural integrated development of Non-Conventional Water
Resources.
MEDWAYCAP Itinerant Exhibition
A travelling exhibition of posters and small models realised to tell the story of proposals for managing non-conventional water resources, bringing technical solutions directly to the people. The heart of the exhibition is a collection of case studies and methodologies on the reuse of treated wastewater. Thirteen projects told through an original and sustainable apparatus. The main objective of the exhibition is to facilitate access to and the promotion of good practices in unconventional forms, taking into account the user experience.
Innovative Constructed Wetlands in Carrion de los Céspedes (Andalusia)
In order to increase treated waste water quality to be reused in agriculture, thus tackling more and more frequent periods of drought, in the experimental Waste Water Treatment plant of AMAYA, in Carrion de los Céspedes (Spain) a low-cost treatment train composed by Constructed Wetlands (including different types, working configurations and innovative systems) has been implement. The documents report the technical description of pre and post treatments and the assessment of their efficiency.
Pre and post treatments implemented in the Waste Water Treatment Plants of Tunisia, Palestine and Jordan
One of the aims of the MENAWARA project was to increase treated waste water quality to be used in agriculture, based on Non-Conventional Water supply technologies and practices already existing in the intervention areas and technical and sociopolitical constraints (efficiency of plants, acceptance by local communities and banning of some irrigation techniques by governments). In these documents, pre and post treatments implemented in the Waste Water Treatment Plants in the intervention areas of Tunisia, Palestine and Jordan are described and their efficiency assessed.
Forested Infiltration Area (FIA) System
The FIA technique was identified by NRD-UNISS’ researchers as a Nature Based Solution potentially useful for mitigating the nitrate groundwater pollution in the Arborea plain, in Sardinia (ITALY). Easy to implement even over large spatial scales, the FIA technique also offers a series of supplementary ecosystem services, such as the increase in biodiversity, carbon sequestration and environmental recovery, thus increasing the potentiality of replication of the technique also in contexts outside the Arborea area. The documents details the technical aspects of the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) system through the FIA technique implemented and related achieved results.
Glossary on water reuse in agriculture
With the aim to facilitate a proper understanding of the terminology used in the frame of water reuse, and contributing to ensuring the proper use of associated terms, a glossary section has been created and included in the MENAWARA interactive platform. Definitions are both in English and in Arabic, while the terms have been translated in Spanish, Italian, French, Greek and Arabic, the languages spoken within the MENAWARA and MEDWAYCAP projects.
It is possible to insert a single word in the string to obtain the related definition and/or its translation. The word can be entered in any of the 6 languages.
Interactive web platform
The interactive web platform has been created to foster the dialogue and establish a network among countries by collecting, and sharing know-how, best practices, experiences and information on Non-Conventional Water sustainable management. The platform provides inputs on operational and policy measures that need to be taken into account in order to advance the use of NCW and efficient water re-use and management, inputs resulting from the awareness acquired during the development of the activities within the MENAWARA living labs and, later, following the discussions during the MEDWAYCAP innovation camps towards an integrated vision of the water governance at domestic and agricultural level. It consists of 6 sections: Best Practices on NCW, Legislation, Glossary, MENAWARA target countries and Governance.
Living Labs approach
Using Treated Waste Water as an input for agricultural production requires some adaptations both in the agricultural practices, the irrigation techniques, and the governance bodies. Moreover, social acceptability would limit its use. In this framework, Living Labs are an appropriate learning space that would open to the adoption of the technical innovation through a social innovation. This documents reports the "living lab approach" used by the MENAWARA project which has been adapted in each target country according to its own context and needs. 3 momentum phases have been identified to lay the foundations for a sustainable learning space.