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Rabat – British water and wastewater solutions company Biwater announced it will build a solar sludge drying facility for a new wastewater treatment plant in Laayoune, in southern Morocco.
Morocco’s National Office for Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) awarded Biwater a $7.5 million contract to design and build the facility, the British company said in a statement January 29.
The solar drying facility will “sustainably dry the effluent sludge produced as a bi-product from the Laayoune wastewater treatment plant,” according to the statement.
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“The treated sewage sludge will be reduced to a dry solids content of approximately 80%, which will be safely transferred off site for its disposal.”
Biwater’s Regional Director for Africa Giles Jackson said that the sludge treatment will meet “environmental requirements and emission standards.”
Biwater has been awarded a contract to design and construct a solar sludge drying facility for a new wastewater treatment plant in Laâyoune, southern Morocco. Read more: https://t.co/6GrUXeuBiF pic.twitter.com/4FLTvdosJr
— Biwater (@BiwaterTweets) January 29, 2019
The England-based company is currently building Laayoune’s main wastewater treatment plant under a separate contract that ONEE granted the company in 2017.
The wastewater plant, which is 75 percent complete, “will reduce the ecological impact of wastewater disposal and provide treated water for reuse and irrigation,” Biwater wrote.
Laayoune, whose population accounts for 40 percent of the people in southern Morocco, does not have “adequate wastewater treatment infrastructure,” according to the statement.
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The new wastewater treatment plant, according to Jackson, will improve sanitation conditions for Laayoune region’s population and provide the city with “sustainable waste management.”
As part of the contract, Biwater will provide assistance and maintenance to the workers in the new facility for one year.
In 2014, Biwater constructed a wastewater treatment plant to serve the 150,000 people of Khenifra, a city in north-central Morocco, and its rural inland area.
Biwater was founded in 1968 and has completed over 25,000 projects in 90 countries.
