Innovative water technologies: adelphi supports subsurface water solutions in Brasil

Improving water qualitiy in coastal regions around the globe: adelphi is currently presenting its SubSol project at different locations worldwide to promote the use of innovative subsurface water solutions. Our team's last stop was Recife, Brasil.

The quality of ground water in coastal regions can be particularly endangered by saltwater intrusion. This pollution creates shortages of potable water in many places, impacting negatively on both ecology and on human beings. The SubSol project seeks to promote subsurface water solutions (SWS) worldwide in order to address this problem. In particular, the aim is to catalyse the market breakthrough of subsurface water solutions. Following the research phase, adelphi's project team is now presenting the project results in four target countries. Together with local partners in Brasil, China, Mexico, Vietnam and Cyprus, adelphi will develop new projects to implement the new technologies.

The project team's first stop was Recife, Brasil. On 29 January 2018, a public promotion event was hosted together with Brazilian site partners to discuss the possibilities of implementing subsurface water solutions (SWS) with a wide range of interested parties (engineers, researchers, government authorities, beneficiaries, etc.) and to develop in further steps new project concepts. The event took place in the premises of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), one of the key stakeholders in the Recife case, who maintains good relationships with a wide range of stakeholder and brings together knowledge from multiple hydrogeology and recharging research projects.

SWS opportunities in the Metropolitan Region of Recife

At the event, local stakeholders informed about the current situation of the water supply of the Metropolitan Region of Recife (RMR) and its regulations and problems and gave a deeper insight into existing projects and implementation opportunities for SWS. These opportunities were identified and substantiated together with the stakeholders in the previous bilateral meetings. Furthermore, the event provided an overview of the SubSol technologies, their best practice examples, and the application of different tools in an accessible and inclusive manner and allowed participation of all interested stakeholders from all sectors. Professor Suzana Montenegro, also president of FADE-UFPE, which is the Foundation of the UFPE, was so kind to take over the moderation of the event. 

A promising start for SWS in Brasil

The event lasted about three hours and concluded with a small round of discussion, which was continued during a joint lunch and will be intensified in the following days in the "SWS Project Development Workshops" in form of finished Concepts and Project Proposals. All in all, technical as well as nontechnical stakeholder have been involved and are keen to participate in the development of local SWSs. Public authorities and decision makers are in favour of enabling regulations for the implementation of SWS. Promising locations have been determined and will be discussed in the following SWS Project Development Workshops.

A more detailed report about the event can be downloaded here.

The next promotional events within the SubSol project take place in Mexico (12 February to 23 February), Vietnam (26 February to 9 March), Cyprus (16 April to 27 April) and China (7 May to 18 May).