
Xylem has announced the appointment of Pietro Moro as the new Managing Director for the Middle East and Türkiye.
In addition to his current role as Sales and Customer Service Director, Moro will now lead the Middle East and Türkiye. In a LinkedIn post, Xylem said that in his new role, Pietro Moro will focus on driving our continued growth and utilizing the skills of our talented team to help solve complex water challenges.
We are confident that his leadership will have a positive impact on both our company and our customers. This appointment follows the promotion of Naji Skaf, who will now serve as President of MEIAA (Middle East & Türkiye, India, Africa, Australia & New Zealand) for Xylem.
Pietro Moro has been named as the new Managing Director for the Middle East and Turkey by Xylem.Moro will now head the Middle East and Turkey in addition to his present post as Sales and Customer Service Director.
According to a LinkedIn post, Pietro Moro’s new role will focus on driving our continued expansion and harnessing the expertise of our brilliant team to help solve challenging water concerns. We are certain that his leadership will benefit both our firm and our customers.
This appointment followed Naji Skaf’s promotion to President of MEIAA (Middle East and Turkey, India, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) for Xylem.
Moro stated, “I am excited to lead our exceptional team in furthering the impactful work that has already been accomplished, ensuring a more resilient and prosperous future for the region.”
Pietro has been with Xylem since 2011 and has more than 16 years of experience directing multinational teams in sales, strategy, engineering, customer service, and quality. His vast knowledge of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa makes him an invaluable member of our team.
Moro formerly worked as a Key Account Manager at ITT (Industrial Machinery Manufacturing) before joining Xylem.
Source: Xylem
Walls along River Nile reveal ancient form of hydraulic engineering
A large network of stone walls along the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan, according to an international team of academics, has revealed an old form of hydraulic engineering in the Nile Valley and provided insight on relationships between ancient Nubia and Egypt.
The Nile’s ‘river groynes’ precede the world’s oldest previously known examples, such as those on China’s Yellow River, by more than 2500 years.
The study’s findings, published in the journal Geoarchaeology, were done as part of the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project in conjunction with the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums.
The researchers mapped and recorded the walls throughout more than 1100km of the Nile Valley to identify their construction timeline, who built them, and why, according to lead author Dr Matthew Dalton from The University of Western Australia’s School of Humanities.
“Using satellite imagery, drone and ground surveys, as well as historical sources, we located nearly 1300 river groynes between the 1st Cataract in southern Egypt and the 4th Cataract in Sudan,” he explained.
Hundreds of the groynes, which are now submerged beneath the Aswan High Dam reservoir, were discovered in 19th-century trip diaries, a 200-year-old map, and aerial photography archives, including some taken by the Royal Air Force in 1934.
Many were discovered w
Many were discovered in old Nile channels that had dried out owing to past climate change, with researchers using radiocarbon and luminescence dating techniques to determine that some were constructed over 3,000 years ago.
“The walls trapped fertile silts during the Niles annual inundation, and crops could be grown on the reclaimed agricultural land without artificial irrigation,” Dr Dalton said.
“Radiometric dating suggests that this type of landscape engineering was first undertaken by the region’s indigenous Nubian communities, as well as residents of towns established later by New Kingdom Egyptian State pharaohs.”
“We also learned from farmers in Sudanese Nubia that river groynes were still being built as recently as the 1970s, and the land formed by some walls is still cultivated today.”
“For over 3000 years, this incredibly long-lived hydraulic technology has played a critical role in enabling communities to grow food and thrive in Nubia’s challenging landscapes.”
The crew also discovered considerably larger stone barriers within the Nile, some as thick as five meters and as long as 200 meters – barrages that would have regulated river flow and facilitated boat navigation through deadly Nile rapids.
“These monumental river groynes helped connect the people of ancient Egypt and Nubia by facilitating long-distance movement of resources, armies, people and ideas along the Nile,” Dr Dalton said.
Source: The University of Western Australia
Onsite biological treatment will enhance river quality
United Utilities has chosen WCS Environmental Engineering technology to provide biological treatment at a new wastewater treatment plant.
The UK utility is investing £8.2 million on the new plant in Chipping, Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, as part of a capital investment to handle the area’s current and projected population increase.
The new renovations, which are scheduled to be completed in summer 2024, will also improve water quality in Chipping Brook, a tributary of the River Ribble that passes through the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
WCSEE supplied eight Hybrid-SAFTM (submerged aerated filter) units as secondary treatment for biological oxygen demand (BOD) and ammonia removal.
The units were installed in the spring of 2023 and were arranged in four streams to best fit the footprint of the site, which would service a population of 2,000.
Once operational, the units will be able to treat a maximum flow rate of 25 l/s while meeting environmental permit criteria of 8mg/l ammonia and 45mg/l BOD.
“We are incredibly proud our Hybrid-SAFs have been chosen to provide an important stage of biological treatment at the new site in Chipping,” WCSEE utilities manager Andrew Haywood said.
As secondary treatment for biological oxygen demand (BOD) and ammonia removal, WCSEE supplied eight Hybrid-SAFTM (submerged aerated filter) units.
The units were erected in the spring of 2023 and were organized in four streams to best fit the site’s footprint, which would serve a population of 2,000.
The units will be able to treat a maximum flow rate of 25 l/s while meeting environmental permit conditions of 8mg/l ammonia and 45mg/l BOD once operational.
“We are incredibly proud that our Hybrid-SAFs have been chosen to provide an important stage of biological treatment at the new site in Chipping,” said WCSEE utilities manager Andrew Haywood.
“The tried-and-true technology is already delivering effective biological treatment at other United Utilities sites.” The units, which are modular in design and produced offsite, can be employed in works of any size, including those with limited space and access.
“This was a significant benefit at Chipping, where eight units could be configured in four streams to make the best use of limited space.” We are excited to see the technology go live next year.”
WCSEE’s Hybrid-SAFs are built offsite and can be transported simply due to their modular construction and 30% less footprint than comparable technology.
The unique process concept employs a submerged moving-bed, fixed-film reactor, which has been shown to treat wastewater more efficiently than typical submerged SAFs.
Source: WCS Group
Andesco, the event chosen to launch Xylem Vue Powered by GoAigua in Latin America
The annual Andesco congress will be held in Cartagena, Colombia, from June 14 to 16. This worldwide event has been chosen as the venue for the introduction of Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua, the technology platform created as a result of the agreement struck between Idrica and Xylem Inc. in Latin America.
The Andesco conference, headlined “Public Services, ICT, and TV. Connected Territories,” is one of the sector’s main international events, and it is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, demonstrating how important it has grown over the years.
Over the course of three days, experienced speakers will examine the areas of electricity, natural gas, water, sewage, sanitation, waste management, environment and sustainability, ICT, and television.
Furthermore, the event will have lectures and academic content, as well as networking opportunities to promote these industries.
Idrica will be an active participant as a sponsor of the conference, as it has been in previous years, offering its experience and know-how in the digital transformation of the water cycle.
However, this year’s congress will be unique in that it will serve as the Latin American launch of the Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua platform, the technology solution emerging from the partnership between Idrica and Xylem Inc.
In this regard, Jaime Barba, CEO of Idrica, stated that this platform “combines our expertise in software and water with the global reach and digital portfolio of Xylem, offering a much stronger solution based on the technical insights and operational knowledge of both companies.”
Digital sustainability
As part of this goal, Nicolás Monterde, Idrica’s Chief Operating Officer for Latin America, will deliver the conference “Digital sustainability: the future of water,” which will explain the keys to improving water resource management in the region and how to harness technology to address current and future challenges.
In addition to the actual booth, the congress provides sponsors with the option of a virtual stand to create another meeting place for interested parties. Idrica has both stands in this case to provide everyone with first-hand experience of the Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua solution. Idrica’s booth number will be 83.
Following this congress, the Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua platform will have already been launched in Europe (WEX Global), the Middle East (IFAT Eurasia), and Southeast Asia (SIWW), in accordance with a strategic roadmap to bring the platform to as many people as possible and promote the digital transformation of the water sector; a challenge that is critical in today’s world.
Source: Idrica
Process turns harmful pollutants into harmless substances
As scientists explore for solutions to clean up “forever chemicals” in the environment, a subset of these contaminants with one or more chlorine atoms in their chemical structure is becoming a growing source of concern.
Environmental and chemical engineering Associate Professor Jinyong Liu and UCR graduate student Jinyu Gao describe newly discovered chemical reaction pathways that destroy chlorinated forever chemicals and convert them to harmless compounds in a recent study published in the journal Nature Water.
Forever chemicals, also known as poly- and per-fluoroalkyl compounds, have been utilized in thousands of items ranging from potato chip bags to stain and water repellents used on fabrics, cleaning products, nonstick cookware, and fire-fighting foams. Because of their strong fluorine-to-carbon chemical connections, they can survive in the environment for decades or longer.
New concerns have been raised by the discovery of previously identified chlorinated PFAS contaminants in the environment. The US Environmental Protection Agency, for example, reported finding these contaminants in wells and tributaries to the Delaware River near a chemical facility in southwestern New Jersey.
Forever chemicals have leached into groundwater supplies around the country, and they have been associated to a variety of negative health impacts including as cancer, kidney illness, and hormone changes. The EPA is now issuing new standards to encourage cleanups across the country.
The chlorine-to-carbon bonds were cleaved using ultraviolet light and sulfite in Liu’s work. This triggered a cascade of chemical reactions that broke carbon-to-carbon and carbon-to-fluorine bonds, which is essential for the quick and near-complete defluorination of PFAS compounds required for contamination remediation efforts.
“Our team is examining more pathways and strategies for PFAS degradation, and our ultimate goal is to cut all of the carbon-fluorine bonds to completely detoxify the PFAS pollutants,” Liu said.
Liu’s recent findings on chlorinated PFAS compounds built on his team’s previous discoveries in 2016 that used a combination of UV light and sulfite to eliminate different PFAS contaminants in badly contaminated water. Seven scientific journal publications have now been published detailing these procedures.
They offer promise because sulfite is a low-cost molecule used as a food preservative, and ultraviolet radiation is currently employed to destroy potentially hazardous microorganisms in tap water treatment facilities.
Surprisingly, this process generates fluorine ions, which are often added to municipal water systems to improve oral health.
Industry is taking an interest in Liu’s work on PFAS compound degradation. His organization has been collaborating with three companies interested in expanding his laboratory work to perform cleanups at US Air Bases and Airports under federal contracts.
Spills of fire-suppressing foams, which have been used for decades to quell aviation fuel fires, are a major source of PFAS pollution in groundwater and below military air bases and commercial airports.
These foams, developed by the US Navy in the 1960s, build an aqueous coating around the burning liquid, swiftly depriving it of oxygen and extinguishing it.
The title of Liu’s most recent study is “Photochemical Degradation Pathways and Near Complete Defluorination of Chlorinated Polyfluoroalkyl Substances.” Liu is the corresponding author and Gao is the lead author. UCR-affiliated co-authors include UCR Assistant Professor Yujie Men, UCR grad students Zekun Liu and Shun Che, and UCR postdoc researcher Dandan Rao.
Jinyong Liu, Goa, Men, and Che are also co-authors of a recent Nature Water publication that reported the identification of two bacteria species that degrade chlorinated PFAS chemicals, indicating the possibility of biological cleanup solutions.
Source: University of California, Riverside
Barcelona relies on desalination to face drought
According to the Associated Press, Europe’s largest desalination plant in Barcelona has proven critical in providing drinking water during Spain’s second-largest city’s prolonged drought.
The Llobregat desalination plant, an SWRO plant, opened in 2009 and has a capacity of 200 million litres of water per day. Since late last summer, it has been running at full capacity.
While desalination provided only 3% of Barcelona’s drinking water in April 2021 (63% came from surface water and another 34% from groundwater), it now provides 33% of the drinking water supply, compared to 19% from rivers.
Despite recent rains, the reservoirs on Catalonia’s rivers, which are entirely within the territory, are just 28% full. The rest of Spain is experiencing a lengthy drought as well: 2022 was the hottest year ever recorded, this spring was the hottest and second driest on record, and next summer is expected to be warmer than normal across the country.
Rains in recent weeks have bolstered reserves in some sections of the country, but overall reserves have declined, with the country sitting at 47% of capacity, significantly below the 10-year average of 68%.
The Mediterranean region is warming faster than other parts of the world; France and Italy have announced national drought-response plans, and the European Commission is considering allocating additional funds from the agricultural crisis reserve to countries in southern Europe most affected by droughts and floods, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France.
Water limitations in Catalonia affect agricultural and industrial uses, as well as some municipal uses, and include a per-person daily allocation of 230 litres.
The head of Catalonia’s Water Agency warned in April that the Barcelona area and other Catalan cities may face a “drought emergency” by September if reserves fell below 16%.
For decades, desalination has been an important component of Spain’s water strategy, and the country ranks fourth in the world in terms of desalination capacity, with 5.7% of the worldwide capacity, after only Saudi Arabia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
In Spain, there are 765 operational desalination plants producing more than 100 m3/day, with a total production of 5 million m3 per day for drinking water, agriculture, and industrial applications.
In May, the Spanish government approved €2190 million in funding to address the effects of drought and increase the availability of water resources, including €1400 million from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) for new infrastructure such as desalination plants, doubling urban water reuse, and lowering water tariffs for affected farmers.
Desalination is not without its risks. The Llobregat desalination plant produces a substantial amount of salty brine – 0.55 litres every 0.45 litres of freshwater – and requires a significant amount of energy, which is currently not entirely derived from renewable sources.
Desalinated water, on the other hand, is more expensive to manufacture than river water, which may result in higher water bills for consumers.
Experts recommend diversifying water sources to prepare for more frequent droughts as climate change occurs, considering a combination of desalination and water reuse, and emphasizing the importance of incorporating renewable energies to address the impact of producing drinking water from energy-intensive unconventional water sources.
Source: Acciona
World Bank approves $148 million financing for minor irrigation project in West Bengal
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a $148 million loan to help the Indian state of West Bengal harness surface and ground water through improved irrigation practices that will benefit rural residents.
West Bengal is one of India’s greatest food-producing states, accounting for about 15% of the country’s rice production, and the second largest fish-producing state.
The state intends to boost farmers’ incomes even further by growing a variety of pulses, fruits, and vegetables. This necessitates enhanced surface and groundwater availability, as well as irrigation and agricultural systems.
The West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project – Phase II will provide assistance to the state’s Department of Water Resources Investigation and Development and water-user associations (WUAs) in planning and operating new irrigation structures such as check dams, small-scale storage structures, creek rehabilitation, tube wells, and pump dug wells.
Irrigation practices will allow agricultural diversification, increasing the yield of high-value commodities such as 17,000 tons of oilseed and at least 10,000 tons of fish each year.
The Project established 2,277 WUAs and served 125,000 beneficiaries throughout Phase I.
“This project builds on the success of Phase I to provide climate-smart agriculture technologies and expand market linkages to over 240,000 small and marginal farmer households, or 960,000 people,” said Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank Country Director for India.
The Project will continue to emphasize investments in areas with unpredictable rainfall or harsh temperatures, and 30,000 hectares will be covered by new irrigation schemes.
It will also implement cutting-edge soil, water, and energy management techniques such as plantation, solar irrigation pumping systems, and sprinkler and drip irrigation systems.
“The Project will create permanent capacity building to West Bengal for long-term support for minor irrigation and WUA developments in the state,” said Anju Gaur and Joop Stoutjesdijk, the Task Team Leaders for the project.
The community-based strategy will assist WUAs in managing over 4,000 new and existing minor irrigation schemes covering around 80,000 hectares.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loan of $148 million has a term of 11.5 years and a grace period of four years.
Source: The World Bank
H2O Innovation breaks into Israeli market

“We have a global distribution network of over 100 distributors, and several of them are now promoting and selling products from our three brands, which helps them not only increase their business income, but also better meet the evolving needs of our clients,” said Frédéric Dugré, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of H2O Innovation.
“We know that this is only the beginning of a great journey towards sustainability in our projects. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is an ambitious objective that requires everyone’s collective effort.
We all have a role to play in achieving the SDG, and we are confident about the significant contribution we could make through this business line,” added Frédéric Dugré.