SUMAMAD-EGYPT: The dream comes true !
 Egypt is one of the North African countries that were selected for the project implementation. The chosen site, the Omayed Biosphere Reserve (OBR) and its hinterland, is a representative area in the Western Coastal Desert of Egypt. This region has been a point of attraction for development projects due to its richness in natural resources, fine location, good weather, and pleasant conditions. Most of the North Western Desert falls in the arid region except for the coastal strip. Water resources are scarce and variable.
 Omayed Biosphere Reserve is located in the western Mediterranean coastal region of Egypt (29° 00' - 29° 18' E and 30° 52' - 20° 38' N). It extends about 30 km along the Mediterranean coast from west of El-Hammam to El-Alamin with a width of 23.5 km to the south. It covers 4 villages with a total population of about 12,000. Not all the villages have water supply, they rely on transporting water by trucks and storing it. The water transported is not of good quality, and storing it causes serious intestinal diseases.
 The suggested system desalinates and purifies saline water extracted from wells that are spread in the area. The installation of the pilot project was strongly supported by the local community. 150m2 of land including a salt water well and a pump were donated. The raw water runs by gravity from the tank to four distillation units that separate the salt from water by using solar energy. The production rate of distillate is about 100-120 litres per day depending on the amount of sunlight. Even on cloudy days there is enough water to provide five families with drinking water, i.e. 40 – 50 persons.
 The intake of untreated water is automatically dosed that around 50% evaporate and 50% remain as brine. The brine is further treated in a series of distillation stills to produce more fresh water, and finally produce salt crystals used by the community for tanning of leather. The lifespan of the collectors can be expected to be over 20 years.
An open day and workshop was held in the main meeting room of the community and at the site later. It was explained in length what the setup was doing, what kind of water comes out of it and how important hygienic treatment of fresh water tank and pump is.
To the persons who where named to be responsible for the maintenance of the plant a special course was held. There was a lot of appreciation by the Bedouin community. Especially women were very happy about the water for their children. This feeling they even expressed in their songs, that the
“dream of having fresh drinking water with easy access became true.” |
