“Every one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be advanced through engineers and engineering”


The theme of this year’s World Engineering Day for sustainable development is “Engineering for a Healthy Planet”, which highlights the vital role which engineers must play to address pressing global challenges – the need for clean water and sanitation, natural disaster resilience, to grow more food, and to protect our oceans and our earth resources.

Here we look at an important project K&A is currently working on, to showcase how engineering can respond to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Bahr Al-Baqar Water Reclamation Plant, Egypt

For many years now, the area of Northern Sinai has been facing serious challenges with the rapid population growth, natural aridity of the area, water pollution and stress on water resources, no access to safe drinking water, a high rate of unemployment and absence of consistent electricity access. To help address these challenges, Egypt is developing Bahr Al-Baqar Water Reclamation Plant, one of the largest projects of its kind in the world, with an estimated capacity of 5 million m³/day.

The Bahr Al-Baqar water reclamation plant goes hand-in-hand with the SDGs by providing high-quality reclaimed water, protecting marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, reducing poverty by creating new job opportunities, ensuring clean energy, and combating climate change.

Ensure access to water and sanitation for all (Goal 6)

The project’s main aim is to allow farmers and workers to gain access to high-quality reclaimed water covering their agro-industrial water needs. The Bahr Al-Baqar Water Reclamation plant will improve water quality by decontaminating water from organic substances, households, and industrial wastes that used to be drained into Manzala Lake then discharged into the Mediterranean Sea.

End poverty (Goal 1)

As stated by the Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al Mashat, this project will make a great impact in the agricultural development in North Sinai, creating more than 100,000 direct and 1.2 million indirect job opportunities respectively that can help sustain families.

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy (Goal 7)

Moreover, instead of a conventional sludge drying bed, a sludge solar drying system will be adopted to capture solar energy inside 128 green beds and turn sludge into a year-long asset that can be used in the agricultural and industrial fields. A total of approximately 475,000 tons of dewatered sludge per year are to be dried from 24% dry solids (DS) to approximately 75% DS. This modern system will avoid polluting the air and reduce the carbon footprint by not having to consume energy that was needed to transport the liquid sludge to sludge landfills.

Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation (Goal 9)

By reusing and treating resources from wastewater, Bahr Al-Baqar water reclamation plant helps to reduce the environmental footprint of wastewater treatment, minimize contamination and ensure the availability of valuable resources for surrounding communities.

Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable (Goal 11)

Aligned with the Sinai Peninsula Development Program, this project aims to optimally utilise water resources and reduce waste, as it will work towards increasing the agricultural area, especially in the Sinai Peninsula. In addition, the project will establish integrated agricultural development projects covering agricultural, animal, and industrial production.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (Goal 13)

According to the United Nations, Egypt will face critical water shortages by 2025 that could affect around 0.5 million people in the Sinai region. With a capacity of 5.6 million m³/day, the Bahr Al Baqar water reclamation plant will provide a new source of treated water for that will be used for the irrigation of plantation in the Sinai Peninsula, where water shortages were presenting a threat to agriculture and the economy.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources (Goal 14)

Domestic sewage, industrial and agricultural waste used to flow untreated through the 135-kilometre Bahr Al Baqar channel, discharging into Lake Manzala in the northeast Nile Delta. The discharge from Bahr Al Baqar, heavily loaded with bacteria, heavy metals and toxic organics, resulted in high fish mortality and malformation. This project will help to sustainably manage and protect Lake Manzala’s ecosystem and strengthen its resilience.

Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss (Goal 15)

The treated water from the Bahr Al-Baqar water reclamation plant will be used for irrigation to restore 400,000 feddan of plantation east of the Suez Canal, combating the aridity nature of the region, and restoring the degraded land and soil affected by mismanagement of Bahr Al-Baqar drain.