The project IWAMA (Interactive Water Management) is a joint initiative of ten countries aiming at improving the wastewater management in the Baltic Sea Region taking into account principles of resource efficiency.
In the project framework, the primary focus is given to development of capacity of the wastewater treatment operators and implementation of pilot investments increasing energy efficiency and advancing sludge handling methods. The IWAMA project is led by the UBC Sustainabie Commission, the project has a Flagship status of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region supported by the Policy Area Nutri.
IWAMA project actions are distributed along three main fields: capacity development, smart energy management and smart sludge management. Lifelong learning is recognized as a crucial force in the process of improving the capacity of operators of wastewater treatment plants. Continuous learning of staff is seen essential to allow optimisation of operating existing facilities, integration of new technologies and shift to more energy efficient systems. Effective lifelong learning can be ensured by the transnational knowledge exchange with countries benefitting from the experience of their neighbours. To enable that, IWAMA has launched an interactive portal Baltic Smart Water Hub introducing good practices, technical solutions, tools and regional experts in the water sector.
The technical side of the project aims to advance local WWTPs to make them more energy efficient and introduce advanced sludge handling technologies. In that framework, the project has launched several pilot investments focusing on testing efficient and transferable solutions that can be later replicated in the region. The project further develops the concepts of smart energy and sludge management based on the benchmark compiled in the Baltic Sea Region displaying the performance of wastewater treatment plants of various size and different applied technologies. The benchmark providing the comparative basis is used for developing the audit tools for energy efficiency and sludge handling that can be applied to measure the performance of wastewater treatment facilities.
Meet IWAMA's Project Coordinator at the UBC Sustainable Cities Commission:
Olena has been involved in the water-related projects of UBC SCC PURE and PRESTO, and now is coordinating the activities of IWAMA. She has a special interest in European integration and international law, and emphasizes the importance of the regions.
