Brown And Caldwell Receives Global IWA Project Innovation Superior Achievement Award

Innovative process turns wastewater sludge into environmentally advantageous fertiliser. Four further award winners and six honour awards announced.

The International Water Association (IWA) established the Project Innovation Award Programme (PIA) to recognize excellence and innovation in water engineering projects throughout the world. The programme's goal is in keeping with the IWA's founding mission of "connecting water professionals worldwide to lead the development of effective and sustainable approaches to water management". Now, IWA has announced the global winners of the 2008 award in five categories.

This biennial Award was initiated in 2006, with the first global award presented at the World Water Congress in Beijing. The winners from the three regional heats in North America, Europe and East Asia & Pacific advanced to the global competition. The awards will be presented on September 10th, 2008 at the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition in Vienna.

The awards are open to individuals, companies, organizations, governmental bodies, or any combination of the above, whether or not the organization is a member of IWA. For each region, an international panel of judges drawn from IWA membership is used to evaluate the submissions against a set of criteria that focus on excellence and innovation in project conception and results.

The awards are given in the following categories: applied research; planning; design; operations/management; small projects.

The winning projects have in their own unique ways contributed significantly across the world to the advancement of technology, the quality of the environment and water, and the efficiency of managing it.

The 2008 global winners included:

• Brown and Caldwell for a biosolids treatment process that upgrades the sludge to highly nutritious fertilizer, substituting chemical fertilizer and relieving overused landfills in Georgia, USA (Superior Achievement Award and winner in the category "Applied Research").
• Donohue & Associates for a global first in disposing wastewater biosolids in Illinois, USA that turns this "waste" into a reusable, marketable glass product (winner in the category "Design").
• DWAF/IMESA and Emanti Management for rolling out an electronic water quality management system across all municipalities in South Africa (winner in the category "Operation").
• PUB Singapore for re-plumbing Singapore's sewage systems deep into the ground (winner in the category "Planning").
• Joe Brown & Mark Sobsey (University of North Carolina) for easy household-scale filtration for Cambodia (winner in the category "Small Projects").

Detailed project descriptions and photos of the projects are available at: http://www.iwahq.org/templates/ld_templates/layout_633184.aspx?ObjectId=677497

The Project Innovation Awards are sponsored by Black & Veatch (www.bv.com), GHD (www.ghd.com.au), KIWA Water Research (www.kiwawaterresearch.eu), Malcolm Pirnie (www.pirnie.com), MWH (www.mwhglobal.com) and SKM (www.skmconsulting.com).

The biennial IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition is a premier global event for water professionals. Hosted by the International Water Association (IWA), it will bring together over 3,000 experts from all disciplines across the water sector – science and research, utilities, consultants, technology providers, industrial water users and regulators – to advance their common goal of sustainable water management. The Congress provides a unique opportunity for delegates to gain a complete picture of the issues mankind is facing all over the world in regard to water, and to discover existing solutions or generate new answers to these issues. This year's Congress will be held in the beautiful and historic city of Vienna, Austria from 7-12 September, 2008 and promises to repeat the success of past IWA Congresses, like the one held in Beijing on 2006. For more information, including press accreditation, please see: www.iwa2008vienna.org

The International Water Association's core purpose is to unite water professionals in achieving sustainable water management on a local, national and international level. The Association is a non-profit, self-governing organization comprising over 10,000 members across 130 countries from the scientific, utility, consultant, regulatory, industrial and technology communities. IWA's work covers all fields of the water cycle, from supply, industrial water use and sanitation in both developing and developed countries. Please visit our website for more information: www.iwahq.org.

SOURCE: IWA