Water scarcity affects 1 in 3 people all over the world and with determined industrial development as well as the continually increasing population, a delicate situation for water resources has been created. Increasingly, urban homes and industries impose an unsustainable rate of consumption, resulting in increasing pressure on a finite resource, clean water. Kenya is a water scarce country where most municipal councils are unable to supply their population with sufficient water. With the current population of about 43 million (Kenya National Bureau of Statistic) and the prevailing birth rate of about 4% per year, water scarcity will get worse over time. A significant amount of urban and industrial waste is dumped into the environment without the appropriate treatment and to compound this problem, the lack of resources available for maintaining treatment installations is a real limitation that makes accessing or reusing water very difficult. The high cost of running conventional treatment systems results in too much contamination being dumped in the rivers, in the sea and sadly also used in peri- urban and urban irrigation. Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions. Yet future global agricultural water consumption alone (including both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture) is estimated to increase by ~19% by 2050, and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention. Current trends show that water withdrawals are expected to increase by at least 25% in developing countries (UNEP, 2007).
While agriculture continues to use at least 70% (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies) of water resources globally, other economic sectors will continue to compete for water resources, and some intensely, without an explicit mechanism for allocation decision-making.
Investment in safe wastewater collection and treatment, including industrial effluents, can remove a potential brake on economic activity. It has been estimated that water pollution in South Africa costs the country 1% of its annual national income (Pegram and Schreiner, 2010). The principal benefits of wastewater treatment are avoidance of the costs of pollution and the use of contaminated water by downstream users, such as other municipalities, industries, farmers and the tourist industry. In serious cases, the pollution of water bodies has caused industries to be closed down and relocated at great cost.
At Agua we are driven by the enormous nature of this problem against the backdrop of a poverty of solutions available at the moment. We believe that we can resolve many of these issues within our lifetime using innovative and locally relevant solutions for managing wastewater. Effective wastewater treatment solutions offer the opportunity to eliminate a waste product that is an economic, environmental and social burden, tackle water scarcity issues and ideally create some value from it by creating valuable resources. Agua Kenya has developed a solution that can revolutionize the management and perception of wastewater in the region. Our organization has endeavored to introduce a sustainable solution to these challenges, namely The “Floating Green Filter” (FGF) System. This technology will not only purify sewage/waste water in a completely sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, but can also clean polluted water sources like rivers and lakes to provide safe drinking water. The system is an efficient, stand-alone system that can also be incorporated into existing treatment systems to make drastic reductions in in energy consumption and operational costs.

1. Three lagoons will be excavated for the treatment of wastewater.
The lagoons will be placed in series for progressive treatment
For this design we will have 3 ponds in parallel surface area (200m2, 200m2 and 200m2 (100m2 FGF + 100m2 electrocarbon filter) respectively.
For this design we will have 3 ponds in parallel depth (3.5m, 2m and 1.5m respectively)
Volume per pond (in m3) 3 ponds in parallel (700m3, 400m3 and 300m3 respectively)
Mean retention time is 14 days.
2. The seedlings will go into preparation for transfer to the lagoons (1 month)
3. Wastewater will then be re-directed into the new lagoons
4. The seedlings will be transferred to floatation structures and floated on to the lagoon where purification will naturally begin occur.
5. The system will reduce odors associated with wastewater treatment.
6. The system will reduce organic sludge associated with wastewater treatment.
7. Within 4 – 6 months after floatation of the seedlings, the system will have reached maturity and be purifying the wastewater to re-useable standards.
8. We will then be able to measure and quantify FGF effectiveness and benchmark it against current systems.
9. This pilot will act as a showcase and an on field research laboratory for the university.

• Property developers (those who are not attached to sewer systems, are interested in water reuse and have space available)
• Hotels and lodges (this system can contribute towards green/eco ratings and act as a point of attraction)
• Schools and universities (as an option for water reclamation for reuse and as part of a sanitation solution)
• Factories and Food producers (as a cost cutting option for water reuse e.g. in construction, cooling boilers etc., meeting environmental discharge standards)
• Government, municipalities as new systems, retrofits for upgrading, retrofits as cost saving measures.
• Environmental restoration measures in contaminated water bodies.

This project will allow us to implement a system which will showcase this FGF technology to stakeholders, allow for further research and provide opportunities for training, innovation and up-scaling of the system. We will increase the capability of stakeholders to successfully apply treatment of wastewater, and for production and analysis of renewable resources from plants and related by-products.
The adaptation of this technology will transform water management in Kenya by providing a viable and sustainable method for recycling the various volumes of wastewater being produced. This will reduce pressure on fresh water sources and drastically reduce pollution.