What do the world's longest mustache, the oldest person ever to have lived and Veolia Water Technologies’ Hydrotech Discfilter have in common? They are all Guinness World Record holders.
Guinness World Records, the global authority on record-breaking achievements since 1955, has recognized Hydrotech’s disc filter installation in Egypt as the largest in the world.
The Bahr El-Baqar wastewater treatment plant opened in September 2021 to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the country: water scarcity. Without the Bahr El-Baqar plant, Egypt’s rapidly growing population and the expanding economy would struggle to secure enough water to sustain itself since it was relying on one source: the River Nile.
Traditionally, the Nile was seen as the passageway between life and death; however, in recent years, it has taken on a new role as the backbone of Egypt’s industrial and agricultural sector as well as the primary source of drinking water resulting in severe water scarcity.
“Any alteration to Nile flows could make a huge difference. Every two percent drop of water affects one million people,” states Randa Aboul Hosn of the United Nations Development Programme.
To help reduce dependency on the Nile, and ensure water resources are sustainably managed, the Bahr El-Baqar plant treats 5,000,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day — equivalent to the water of one hundred and forty million showers.
Veolia’s team supplied the plant with the record-breaking, 120 disc filters to recover and recycle the wastewater by removing organic compounds, bacteria and other harmful elements so it can be used for irrigation in Sinai governorate.
“Scarce availability to clean water is a global problem. Disc filters make wastewater reuse for irrigation possible. This is important in ensuring that all people can have access to clean drinking water in the future while at the same time fighting global hunger,” adds Peter Wiktorsson, Project Manager at Veolia Water Technologies.
The Bahr El-Baqar plant disc filter installation is by far the biggest in the world, both in the number of filters supplied and total filtration area. This helps reduce the environmental impact of the plant and reduce water intake from the Nile overall.
In June 2021, the plant started to treat water for reuse in agriculture to assure the possibility to grow crops in a normally dry area. The Hydrotech Discfilters are installed to capture suspended solids and therefore help secure the required water quality.
Alongside the world’s tallest dog and fastest women’s marathon runner, this flagship disc filter reference is firmly placed in the Guinness World Records’ database.
