The Ethiopian authorities approve Biopipe Global to introduce its decentralized wastewater treatment solution in Ethiopia. Biopipe Global will soon install a wastewater treatment plant for a public building in the capital Addis Ababa.

How can wastewater management in Ethiopia be improved? This is the challenge addressed by the agreement that has recently been signed between the Ethiopian Water Development Commission and Biopipe Global, a company based in Las Vegas in the United States. Biopipe Global offers a chemical-free wastewater treatment solution.

The company’s baptism of fire in Ethiopia will be the installation of a wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 15 m³ in one of the buildings of the Ethiopian Water Development Commission, part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy. The small wastewater treatment plant is expected to serve as a reference site for decentralized wastewater treatment projects to be implemented by Biopipe Global in the country.

According to Tesfaye Tigabu Tedla, the company’s representative in Ethiopia, the East African country is experiencing a serious water crisis, affecting about 62 million people, almost half the population, and accounting for 7.5% of the global water crisis. Recycling wastewater can be a solution to water scarcity.

"There is a huge opportunity for wastewater recycling in Ethiopia and we are now deeply engaged with the government and the private sector. We have submitted several proposals in the last three months and we hope to turn them into orders after Covid-19," says Tesfaye Tigabu Tedla. The company also plans to work with the public and private sectors to treat industrial wastewater and effluent collected by sewers.

- Jean Marie Takouleu