The desert is alive
Egypt is using a world-record-breaking plant to treat enough wastewater to develop new farmland. As the main supplier of measurement technology, Endress+Hauser ensures that every drop is precisely monitored.
Drinking water is a scarce commodity in Egypt. About 95 percent of the country is covered by desert, making the Nile river its lifeline. With a view to the growing population, the government aims to optimize sustainable use of limited water resources while improving food security in arid regions. The New Delta project is part of this effort: It collects agricultural wastewater from the northern Nile Delta and transports it 120 kilometers to the west, where it is treated and reused by agriculture and industry.
The huge processing plant in the El Hammam region has already scored several entries in the Guinness Book of World Records by dint of the numbers involved. Up to 7.5 million cubic meters of wastewater processed daily make it the world’s largest sludge treatment plant, and the largest water treatment plant as well. Water leaving the facility meets the drinking water standards of the World Health Organization and is used to irrigate an area 20 times larger than the city of Paris.
> 1000instruments
keeping track of flow, pressure, level and various water quality parameters at the world’s largest sludge and water treatment plant.
A joint venture of specialist companies made it possible to complete the project in just 24 months from start to finish. Among them was Metito, a leading global solutions provider for water and wastewater management and an Endress+Hauser partner for 25 years. Metito planned the water treatment process and was responsible for selection of the electromechanical equipment, installation and commissioning. Metito chose Endress+Hauser as its main supplier for the measurement technology, and now there are more than a thousand instruments keeping track of flow, pressure, level and various water quality parameters.
Hassan Zaki, regional manager, North Africa field services – projects at Metito, says about the decision to collaborate: “First among the decisive factors were the calibration options and instrument accuracy. Secondly, it was about speed of delivery. But what we were looking for in general was all-round operational excellence.”
Hassan Zaki has an illustrative example: Three streams of wastewater flow into the plant. For each one there is an underground chamber containing five electromagnetic flowmeters with a nominal width of DN 2200 and taller than a human. “For cost reasons, the chambers need to be as small as possible. However, the instruments had to be spaced apart to prevent interference between their respective magnetic fields. The Endress+Hauser experts knew exactly what distances we had to keep. They solved everything perfectly!”
Published 21.05.2025, last updated 10.06.2025.
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