Dutch-South African cooperation launches Aqua Soil concept for more crop per drop in Western Cape

Dutch companies Aqua-Terra Nova, For Elements, Verbos and South African partner Agri Mega signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the realization of the first Metropolitan Food Cluster to utilities the Aqua Soil Approach concept.

Aqua Soil Approach is based on reuse of waste and waste water for food production near a city.

The new formed consortium expects to start a 5-10 hectares production pilot in Western Cape, South Africa in 2014.

The overall water-food project is expected to create 7,000 new jobs.

Smart combination
The Aqua-Soil Approach is developed by Aqua-Terra Nova and Soil & More, combining the discharge of cleaned municipal waste water and the demand for compost and irrigation water by agriculture and horticulture.

Nutrient-rich water and waste
The biological purified effluent from a waste water treatment plant (wwtp) still contains nitrogen. By freeing it from pathogens the nutrient-rich water is very suitable for irrigation.

The sludge from the wwtp contains phosphate. Combined with organic waste it is used as a source material for a composting process that produces pathogen free compost.

The reuse of wwtp-effluent and waste qualifies as CO2 reduction  and generates carbon credits.

Increasing demand for fresh food
The Aqua Soil Approach fits well in the South African context. Water scarcity , urbanization , unemployment and the amount of degraded land increases while demand for fresh food continues to rise.

Malfunctioning sewage treatment plants pollute local rivers and making agricultural products from South Africa barely meet the quality requirements of the EU and the US.

Reusing upgraded wastewater in agriculture and horticulture provides labor intensive and safe production of food.

This news item was originally published on the website of Aqua-Terra Nova (in Dutch only).

More information
Aqua-Terra Nova
Naaldwijk, the Netherlands
+31 174 625 246
www.aquaterranova.nl

For Elements
bart@forelements.nl
www.forelements.nl
+31 6 24529457

Verbos Business Development
Naaldwijk, the Netherlands
+ 31 174 625 344
www.verbos.nl/en

also see:
Metropolitan Food Clusters