The Al Mahsamma wastewater treatment plant has been awarded the prize for "the best water recycling and reuse project worldwide in 2020" by the magazine Capital Finance International (CFI.co). The recently commissioned wastewater treatment plant was built by the Emirati company Metito and the Egyptian Hassan Allam Construction.
Operational only a few months ago, the agricultural wastewater treatment plant by Metito and Hassan Allam Construction has been awarded the prize for the “best water recycling and reuse project worldwide in 2020”. Awarded by the London economic magazine Capital Finance International (CFI.co), the distinction is awarded for the sustainable aspect of the Al Mahsamma wastewater treatment plant, which will enable the reuse of treated wastewater.
Located in the governorate of Ismailia in the Sinai, this wastewater treatment plant covers an area of 42,000 m², with a capacity of one million m³ per day. According to the Emirati company Metito, water is transferred to the station from the Ismailia Irrigation Drainage Canal, located west of the Suez Canal. Effluent is pumped through two individual pumping stations under the Suez Canal to the Srabuim siphon, from which the wastewater is then sucked through the plant’s pumping station using eight vertical turbine pumps – six pumps in operation and two on standby – each pumping at a speed of 7,000 m³ per hour.
Reuse of treated wastewater
The commissioning of the Al Mahsamma agricultural wastewater treatment plant is part of the Egyptian government’s policy to preserve natural water resources (surface and groundwater) by investing heavily in non-conventional water resources such as desalination and reuse of treated wastewater. The purpose of this project, implemented under the supervision of the engineering authority of the Egyptian military forces, is to provide the water resources needed for irrigation.
Metito estimates that treated wastewater from Al Mahsamma will be used to irrigate more than 28,300 hectares of plantations in the Sinai Peninsula. The project will thus support the Sinai Development Strategy, an Egyptian government initiative to counter terrorism in this part of the country through development. “The Al Mahsama plant will help combat water scarcity. It will have a resounding impact on Egypt’s water security programme and will transform the vision of wastewater treatment in Africa,” explained Hassan Allam, president of Hassan Allam Construction when the facility was commissioned in April 2020. The new wastewater treatment plant is also intended to clean up Lake Al Temsah, located west of the Suez Canal.
The Al Mahsamma wastewater treatment plant is not at its first distinction. In 2019, the wastewater treatment plant, which was under construction at the time, was awarded in the “Infrastructure Project of the Year” category of the Construction Innovation Awards and was nominated for the wastewater project of the year (2019) award at the Global Water Awards.
Jean Marie Takouleu
