Project: Interactive Water Management (IWAMA)

The Interactive Water Management (IWAMA) project aims to improve the resource efficiency in wastewater management in the Baltic Sea region, by developing the proficiency of the wastewater treatment plant operators and implement pilot investments in energy efficiency and smooth sludge management. The goal is to reduce nutrient inflows to the Baltic Sea.

The project was concluded in 2020.

Project information

Project manager
William Hogland
Other project members at Linnaeus University
Fabio Kaczala, Jelena Lundström, Yahya Jani and Juris Burlakovs
Participating organizations

17 partners and 12 associated partners from 10 countries

Project partners

Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission, Finland (project leader partner)
Aqua & Waste International GmbH, Germany
Daugavpils Water Ltd, Latvia
Environmental Center for Administration and Technology, Lithuania
Estonian Waterworks Association, Estonia
Gdansk Water Utilities Ltd, Poland
German Association for Water, Wastewater, and Waste - North-East, Germany
Joint Body Grevesmühlen Water Supply and Wastewater Disposal, Germany
Jurmala Water Ltd, Latvia
Kaunas Water Ltd, Lithuania
LAB University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Linnaeus University, Sweden
Tartu Waterworks Ltd, Estonia
Technical University of Berlin, Germany
Türi Water Ltd, Estonia
University of Tartu, Estonia
Water and Sewage Company Ltd. of Szczecin, Poland
Baltic Sea Challenge (Helsinki), Finland

Associated partners

Baltic Sea Challenge (Turku), Finland
BlueKolding, Denmark
Communal Unitary Manufacturing Enterprise "Minskvodokanal", Belarus
Eurawasser Nord GmbH Rostock, Germany
JSC "Slonim water-channel", Belarus
Kalmar Water Ltd, Sweden
Lahti Aqua Ltd, Finland
Polish Water and Wastewater Operators’ Association, Poland
Sewage Management Facilities Lübeck, Germany
State Autonomous Institution of Kaliningrad region "Environmental Center "ECAT-Kaliningrad", Russia
St. Petersburg Scientific Research Centre for Environmental Safety Russian Academy of Science, Russia
Turku Kakolanmäki WWTP, Finland

Financier
Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020
Timetable
March 2016–April 2019
Subject
Environmental technology (Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences)
Website
Iwama.eu

More about the project

The municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have an important role in water protection. Efficient and environmentally smart operation of WWTPs can most positively influence the state of the sea and climate. WWTPs, while purifying domestic and industrial wastewaters, remove nutrients (phosphorous P and nitrogen N) from the water. When leaking back to the water bodies, nutrients cause eutrophication, which is one of the biggest problems of the Baltic Sea. The HELCOM recommendations for concentrations for outflowing nutrients are stricter than the requirements of the EU Urban WWT Directive. Therefore, currently in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) different WWTPs are applying different requirements. To be able to reach the HELCOM recommendations, most of the WWTPs still need to improve their nutrient removal. Complying with the HELCOM recommendations means also additional operational costs for the WWTPs. However, it is possible, at the same time as applying the HELCOM recommendations, to save costs by smart process optimization and investments. This opens doors for new business opportunities and innovative, cost and energy efficient technology development.

The IWAMA project within the frame of Interreg Europe with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund – ERDF aims to improve the resource efficiency in wastewater management in the BSR by capacity development of the wastewater treatment (WWT) operators and implementation of the pilot investments, which will result in reduced nutrient inflows to the Baltic Sea. The actions will focus on three main areas of the municipal WWT sector: capacity development (CD), energy management (EM) and sludge management (SM). ESEG will have the following responsibilities within the project: development of smart energy and sludge concepts together with academic institutions such as Tartu University and Technical University of Berlin, involvement of students in energy and sludge audits, testing of Triple Helix interaction involving private sector, organizing the capacity building workshop at Kalmar WWTP and the national dissemination event for the knowledge based communities in Sweden.