Water management experts share knowledge at NATO science workshop
From 19 to 22 May, high-level experts at a NATO-funded workshop in Lviv, Ukraine, discussed advances in water supply and wastewater treatment as a prerequisite to ensuring public health, a safe and stable society, and higher living standards.
To ensure access to, and the management of, clean drinking water – especially in Partner and Mediterranean Dialogue countries, water management experts from NATO countries shared their expertise on mitigating the risk of failure and malfunction of wastewater treatment and water supply systems. A range of papers were presented, assessing existing knowledge on urban water management and providing an overview of current water management issues.
Water supply
In the first session on advanced water supply, one paper set the scene by exploring strategies for enhancing the sustainability of urban water. Rain water harvesting as a secondary source of water was extensively discussed.
A paper from Ukrainepresented a mathematical risk model which indicated that areas with the highest mortality and morbidity rates also had poor drinking water quality. Slovakia’s water supply situation was also extensively reviewed. The session’s last paper outlined several water supply renovation projects at the river basin level in the CzechRepublicand discussed design considerations to overcome problems in the project areas.
Wastewater treatment
The next two sessions on wastewater treatment dealt with storm water management and treatment for small-sized communities and with Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology. MBR technology can provide reuse-quality water and offers advantages such as a small ecological footprint when upgrading and reduced energy requirements with optimisation.
The last session outlined case studies in water resource management, with one paper discussing the impacts of wastewater treatment facilities on ground water, using the example of Svetorglosk in Belarus. Another paper from Ukraineaddressed the issues of riverine pollutant migration between Romaniaand Ukraineand suggested possible means of improvement.
Water management
Two papers dealt with water management and resources in Jordan. They emphasised the need to increase non-conventional water resources and charges for over-pumping water, and analysed the limitations of reusing wastewater and sludge in Jordandue to residues of persistent organic pollutants.
The issue of water stress was further discussed in two papers from Israel, one of which looked at marginal water resource management and highlighted collaboration between Israeland the Palestinian Authority. Also discussed was the potential for water issues in the Middle Eastto escalate conflict and the need to decouple the issue from political disputes.
Forty-five participants from NATO, Partner and Mediterranean Dialogue countries and key speakers from renowned institutes such as Russia’s Saint Petersburg State University and Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev contributed to this workshop. It was organized by the Czech company AQUA PROCON Ltd, Ukraine’s Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Canada’s National Water Research Institute and the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.
Funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, the workshop has helped to facilitate further cooperation in the field of science, research, industry and security in water management.
For more information, visit http://www.nato.int/science (see “Calendar” for organizers’ contact details).