A partner for water utilities
Water utilities are taking on sanitation as well as water supply. We help them treat wastewater and manage faecal sludge with systems they can build, afford and run themselves, and our team has already done it with water utilities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda.
Delivered with water utilities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda
The challenge water utilities face
Fast-growing towns produce far more wastewater and sludge than conventional sewers and treatment plants can serve.
A growing sanitation mandate
Water utilities are increasingly responsible for sanitation, often without the budget, staff or systems built for it.
Neighbourhoods without sewers
Condominiums, institutions and dense settlements discharge to overflowing septic tanks, drains and open land.
Costly, fragile technology
Energy-hungry plants fail during power cuts and are expensive to run and repair.
Sludge with nowhere to go
Pits and tanks fill up, and emptied sludge is too often dumped instead of treated.
Climate pressure
Floods, droughts and heat damage sanitation systems and spread contamination into water sources.
Finance needs a solid case
Investment and climate funds look for designs that are costed, low-carbon and backed by a credible operator.
Practical solutions a water utility can own and run
- Nature-based wastewater treatment: constructed wetlands and anaerobic baffled reactors for condominiums, institutions and neighbourhoods, designed with your engineers and handed over to your team.
- Faecal sludge services: safe pit and tank emptying with portable pumps where trucks cannot reach, transport, and treatment into compost.
- Capacity for your sanitation unit: operator training, operation and maintenance routines, monitoring, and service and cost-recovery models.
- Sewer connection readiness: surveying household toilets and converting them to pour-flush, so new simplified or condominial sewers actually get connected and stay working.
- Household sanitation linked to your service: market-based toilets with lined, emptiable pits, so households connect to a sludge service the water utility can manage.
- Feasibility and design: site selection, process sizing, drawings, bills of quantities and tender documents, as in our hydraulic design of an ABR treatment system for the Shegole bus station in Addis Ababa.
- Climate-ready investment: climate risk assessments and low-emission designs that strengthen proposals to investors and climate funds.
How we work with a water utility
The water utility leads; we bring the design, the delivery and the training, and step back once your team runs the system.
Assess together
Joint site visits and a review of the wastewater, sludge, land and the team that will operate it.
Design with your engineers
A system matched to your budget, skills and climate, with drawings and costs your board can approve.
Build and train
Construction with local contractors and artisans, and hands-on training for operators and residents.
Hand over and support
Operation and maintenance guidelines, a handover to your team, and follow-up while the system settles in.
Running a water utility, or a programme that supports water utilities?
Tell us about your town and its wastewater or sludge challenge. We'll share what worked in Adama and Shashemene and how it could fit.