Application of innovative techniques for improving drinking water quality in urban areas

Water and sanitation are essential for life, for health, for empowerment and prosperity. They are human rights, fundamental to every person. Although the CB area is rich in water resources, monitoring and managing the quality of drinking water is being implemented at a local level, in an old fashioned and inefficient way. Consequently, the quality of drinking water in some areas is low or even inappropriate for human consumption while pollution incidents are addressed with delay, leading to potential health hazards and increased costs. The objective of Aqua-lity project is to improve drinking water quality and monitoring procedures by adapting innovative methods and techniques while creating the necessary conditions for development of interregional policies on the subject. 

The project focuses on two parts of the eligible area, Oraiokastro where the concentration of hydrogen sulfide, iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) in the water network of Anthoupoli, exceeds the limits set by EU and Greek law, and Dimitrovgrad where unusual levels of manganese (Mn) and its oxides are observed in several settlements in the area.

Furthermore, the use of new technologies in water management processes is limited in Bulgaria and thus Bulgarian bodies can benefit from the cooperation with Greek authorities which have previous experience in the field, as in the case of the Municipality of Oraiokastro. In order to address these problems, the project proposes a series of outputs such as mapping of environmental pressure spots, supply of a water processing and sanitation system, development of a monitoring and early warning system in cases of water pollution, pilot operation of the systems and evaluation of their effectiveness. 

These outputs will benefit both the local population by increasing their protection form health hazards related to consumption of polluted water, as well as the PBs and their water management bodies, by improving their services, their capacity of managing efficiently (in terms of cost, time and resources) drinking water pollution incidents, and by exchanging of knowhow.

The added value of the project consists of the fact that instead of assessing and addressing problems based only on local data, relevant stakeholders and policy makers in the cross border area will have access to wider water quality information and thus they will be able to apply an integrated approach in resolving these issues, increase the effectiveness of planned interventions and policies. As a result, the benefits of the project will exceed the geographical boundaries of the implementation area and they will expand to the whole cross border area.