Regional Winners of IWA Project Innovation Awards

This biennial Award was initiated in 2006, with the first global award presented at the World Water Congress in Beijing. The regional winners in 2008 in each group advance to the global competition, the winners of which will be announced on 10th September 2008 at the 2008 IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition in Vienna.

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 winners included:

• North America's largest inland desalination project for sustainable drinking water in the arid southwest.
• Controlling nitrification with chlorite in distribution systems and reservoirs to reduce health threats more cost-effectively.
• A green solution to pipe disinfection using ozone.
• Low cost removal of disinfection byproducts using carbon treatment.
• Creating wetlands in Oregon to reduce river water temperatures and meet strict environmental standards.
• Removing biological nutrients from wastewater to reduce pollution into the Chesapeake Bay.
• Turning wastewater into drinking water in the largest purification plant of its kind for 500,000 people in arid Orange County, California.
• A thorough upgrade at New York's largest wastewater plant improves citizens water quality on time.
• A water recycling programme that gained user acceptance and freed up more surface water for potable use in Redwood City, California.
• Efficiently managing the cleanup of contaminated water at the Massachusetts Military Reservation.
• Generating mutual benefit in northern Los Angeles by combining modern farming techniques with environmental engineering technology to integrate wastewater disposal and agriculture.
• Working toward 100% wastewater reuse in desert-like Jordan.
• Using the power of the tide to clean-up Delaware's popular canal systems.
• Models and monitoring systems that help water authorities manage corrosion and odours in wastewater pipeline networks.
• A sponge that removes arsenic from home drinking water.
• The use of nanotechnology to improve the cleansing of membrane filters, enabling more cost efficient water purification.
• A dozen state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plants for stricter environmental standards and increased capacity near Seoul.
• An alliance in the design of water pipelines in Australia that saved millions.
• A new 7.3km water pipeline in Australia that went into operation in lightning time.
• Turning wastewater into a valuable resource to keep Sydney's suburbs green.
• Re-plumbing Singapore's sewage systems deep into the ground.
• Easy household-scale filtration for Cambodia.
• Applying research in Germany to harness more biogases from wastewater treatment plants.
• A real-time management tool that predicts the outcome of rainstorms and wastewater outputs to better manage Paris' sewage network.
• An innovative modelling tool to detect leakages in networks and save precious water.
• Retrofitting a Dutch wastewater treatment plant with a nitrogen-removal process that guarantees effluent quality and treatment costs.
• Rolling out an electronic water quality management system across all municipalities in South Africa.
• Implementing the Water Framework Directive for better river basin management in Ireland.
• Perfecting assessment models for man's influence on climate change.