By the CH2M HILL Access Water Team
On April 18, former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan presented the annual Global Water Intelligence Global Water Awards at a gathering of industry leaders during the Global Water Summit in Berlin, Germany. The awards recognize excellence in the international water industry.
The National Water Company (NWC) of Saudi Arabia and CH2M HILL received the Reuse Project of the Year Award for the Jeddah Sewage Lake Clean-up Project. The Jeddah sewage lake was formed in the 1990s to temporarily receive the wastewater and sludge from the growing municipality of Jeddah. For 15 years, a major portion of the City’s sewage 
was dumped into the lake. Significant efforts were underway for many years to provide treatment for the lake water and then to provide an alternative to dumping wastewater into the lake. In May 2010 the NWC took responsibility for clean-up of the lake and accomplished the majority of the cleanup mandated by royal decree in a 3-month time period using technologies and approaches that maximized the beneficial uses of the water and sewage related residuals.
CH2M Olayan was awarded a planning study to support key decisions by NWC and their contractor, including flood analysis, sustainability study of sediment treatment/reuse/disposal alternatives, and environmental resource assessment. By October 2010 the Lake was essentially emptied using improved and new wastewater treatment plants in conjunction with a 25 km pipeline and evaporation ponds, and a plan was agreed upon for sediment clean-up and flood management.
A significant portion of the treated water for the lake as well as the TSE now produced at the wastewater treatment plants is reused for irrigation in forest, wetland and urban areas. The plan for the sediment allows it to be treated and to remain in place as soil conditioner to support redevelopment of the lake area.
“National Water Company’s rapid action and innovative solutions to address an overwhelming environmental problem is protecting the future health and well being of people and environment of Jeddah,” says Bill Kreutzberger, CH2M HILL Project Manager for the lake clean-up.
Also at the award ceremony CH2M HILL’s client, Conagua, received an Award of Distinction for Water Deal of the Year for the $900 million financing package for the Atotonilco wastewater treatment plant in Mexico. This is the biggest facility of its kind in the world, with a maximum design capacity of 960 mgd. CH2M HILL is the program manager for the project.
“On behalf of CH2M HILL, I congratulate the National Water Company and all of the award winners,” says CH2M HILL Water Business Group President Bob Bailey. “The prestigious list of nominees and award winners includes many of the clients we’ve worked with over the years such as Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, Sydney Water, Thames Water, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Chevron, Rio Tinto, and Pepsico. We’re honored to be working with these leaders in water management around the globe.”
See more great photos of the event and learn more about all of the 2011 award winners and projects at http://www.globalwaterawards.com.
