Regional level

• In all beneficiary countries technical and national steering committee meetings were succeffully held to discuss the issues of completion of the construction of the pilot plants and to agree with the partners about the schedule of takeover.
• The compendium for environmental and socio-economic impact in the partner countries is almost completed and will be finalized in October 2015.
• The 4th Partnership Agreement amendment was prepared to be signed by all partner countries based on the EU amendment approval for the project implementation extension until March 2016.
• A regional Chat meeting with all partners of SWIM Sustain MED was organized end of August to discuss the urgent issues like signature of the partnership agreement, finalization of the pilot plants and take over and fix dates for the follow up. For the MoM of the meeting click here

Jordan
• Capacity development measures for PSD technical department were carried out, as the pilot wastewater treatment plant built by the project at the Public Security Directorate (PSD) was equipped with flood prevention technical tools to cope with the aspects of climate change adaptation and was also extended with technical tools to allow the intake of the treated wastewater by Great Amman Municipality (GAM) for reuse purposes, in particular during the summer period to cope with the important water shortages. For the final progress report click here
• A cooperation agreement between the Public Security Directorate (PSD) and Great Amman Municipality (GAM) was signed, according to which the excess of treated wastewater at PSD (approx. 30 – 40 MCM) will be used by GAM. This will bring the percentage of reuse at PSD in the summer months to 100%. For the PSD-GAM agreement click here.

Tunisia
• All construction works and installation of the laboratory equipment and IT platform for quality monitoring are completed and the take over is scheduled for October 2015.
• Based on results of the testing phase and laboratory analyses the quality of the treated wastewater of Ouljet El Khoder wastewater treatment plant meets the Tunisian standards. ONAS staff were trained in wastewater analyses and how to use the laboratory equipment delivered by the project.

Egypt

• The contract between GIZ and the company in charge for the construction of the pilot wastewater treatment plant was signed on 17th of September. The construction started in September and will last until March 2016. The treatment technology will be a mix of anaerobic and aerobic treatment (Anaerobic Fixed Bed Aerated Reactor- AFBAR), allowing for a high treatment efficiency and effluent quality for reuse purposes at Al Guzyera village. To see the interface scheme of the wastewater treatment plant click here.

Al Nobariya - Egypt
• Completion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) upgrade in Nobariya (Egypt). The connection of the water flow to the Constructed Wetland, already built by the project in 2014, has been done. The inauguration event is expected for the end of November. Moreover, the monitoring of the water flow has started.
• Preparation of the irrigation field in Nobariya (Egypt). The drawings of the lab-scale field construction have been concluded as a preparatory step for the implementation of the water use and irrigation component of the project that will be carried out in the last few months of the project.
• Finalization of numerical modeling related to artificial aquifer recharge activities through the preparation of a set of simulated artificial aquifer recharge scenarios. The model of the simulation of injection of freshwater from the Constructed Wetland and/or the upgraded WWTP into the confined fine sand aquifer (that was detected by the in situ drilling and geophysical surveys previously carried out by the project) has allowed to perform some preliminary evaluations about the effectiveness of the aquifer recharge to: 1) store freshwater; 2) use the confined fine sand aquifer for improving the quality of the injected treated wastewater; 3) reuse the groundwater for agricultural purposes; 4) use the aquifer recharge to contrast the aquifer salinization. The final evaluation and delivery of the study is expected in fall/winter 2015 following discussions and meetings with relevant stakeholders.

Korba - Tunisia
• Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade. The works have been initiated on June 1st as informed by the Office National de l’Assainissement (ONAS) and it is estimated that they will last until the end of the year.

Dissemination event
• On October, 28 in Venice (Italy) at the Water Expo, it is scheduled a dissemination event about the results of the Project aimed to provide adequate innovative solutions to the water scarcity problems of the Mediterranean Region also in the perspective of adaptation to Climate Change.

• Training course in Morocco on “Water use and productivity of Mediterranean agricultural systems” (6-8 October 2015, Settat –Morocco)
• ACLIMAS final national workshop in Jordan (27-29 October 2015)