Innovation and the circular economy are key elements to provide cities and municipalities with sanitation and treatment systems that are resilient to climate change

On November 19, World Sanitation Day promoted by the United Nations is celebrated. This year's celebration focuses on the 3.6 billion people around the world who lack safely managed sanitation services. Beyond being a right, it is necessary for all people in a community to have toilets to protect their health across the board. For this reason, water and sanitation for all is the sixth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global roadmap for a more just and sustainable world.
 

Public-private collaboration to maintain the facilities
Even with high levels of development, Spain has a long way to go in terms of sanitation and wastewater, even more so, taking into account the impact of climate change, the great contemporary challenge for the sustainable management of these systems.
The European Union indicates to its member states the need to continue betting on advanced treatment in purification systems. This means investing, with a model of public-private collaboration, in a sustained manner in the facilities to meet European directives and to achieve more resilient systems in the face of the impact of climate change.
 

Aquona transforms its treatment plants to regenerate water
Aquona, committed to quality sanitation, manages in Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León a total of 70 treatment plants that treated 47,818,711 m3 in 2020, the equivalent of 19,100 Olympic swimming pools. To face the climate challenge and make the entire process more sustainable, the company promotes the evolution of traditional treatment plants into “biofactories”, a new concept based on the circular economy. These facilities regenerate, through advanced treatment systems, the water they treat, allowing it to be reused in new uses, such as irrigation of green areas or agriculture. In addition, they value all the waste generated during treatment and are self-sufficient in energy. In 2020 alone, the company produced more than 31,920 tons of sludge, which was mainly used for agriculture.
Precisely, the transformation of the sludge obtained in the treatment process into products with high added value for the industry is one of the objectives of the European INTERREG ECOVAL project, which in 2022 will develop one of its demonstration technology platforms at the Palencia WWTP managed by Aquona . CETAQUA, the technology center of the group of companies to which Aquona belongs, is leading this project in which the Junta de Castilla y León, the City Council of Palencia and Aquona itself participate, among other partners.
In Castilla-La Mancha, progress is focused on the Ciudad Real treatment plant, which is working to convert it into a biofactory. In addition, Aquona's commitment is that all the infrastructures it manages are green and therefore, it applies solutions based on nature to promote a low-carbon economy. The preservation of biodiversity in this sense is a fundamental piece and that is how Aquona has understood it: all the water treatment plants in which it operates are 100% free of the use of phytosanitary products.

The importance of not flushing waste to the toilet
On the occasion of World Sanitation Day, it is necessary to remember the importance of not flushing waste, such as cigarette butts, oil, personal care products (sanitary napkins, baby diapers, cotton swabs, make-up removal pads, tampons, etc. .), as well as medicines, a bad habit with a costly economic and environmental bill.
According to the Spanish Association of Water Supply and Sanitation (AEAS), in a Spanish city of about 300,000 inhabitants around 10 kilograms of this waste are collected per person per year. This waste clogs the pipes and represents an estimated total cost overrun of about 230 million euros per year.

For this reason, Aquona takes up its #NosonProblemitas campaign that aims to sensitize the population about the magnitude of the damage that the incorrect disposal of these products can cause in sanitation and purification infrastructures and, therefore, in the environment. This initiative uses the diminutives that we use when we speak of "wipes" or "swabs" because society is seldom aware of the impact that their misuse can have, generating problems that are far from being small. The campaign spot can be seen on Aquona's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/pE153AoX6jY or on its own Twitter profile, @InfoAquona.