At the invitation of Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME), a Saudi water and wastewater-related study and business mission headed by Eng. Nidhal S. Al-Dossary, President, Saudi Arabian Water Environment Association (SAWEA), Dammam, toured Osaka, Iwakuni and Tokyo last May fore eight days. The purpose of this mission was to receive information on state-of-art and cutting-edge technologies for water and wastewater treatment in Japan. SAWEA is a non-profit organization which was started on Jan. 1, 2012 by a group of predominantly professionals in Saudi Aramco working in Saudi Arabia's water and wastewater treatment. The objective of SAWEA is to preserve and enhance water quality in Saudi Arabia and the world. First day, after the opening ceremony, the nine SAWEA members visited the Center for Membrane and Film Technology of Kobe University. The Center embraces full range of the research and development on high functional membrane and films to latest processes for producing them. On the second day, the participants visited Hirano Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sewerage and Rivers Division, Osaka Public Works Bureau. From this site visit, they received the information of "Production of Solid Fuel from Sewage Sludge" and "Reduction of Sewage Sludge by Sludge Incineration". And they inspected Experience-Based Training Center, Osaka Municipal Waterworks Bureau. The training center was built by Osaka Municipal Water Works Bureau for transferring the know-how and capacity expansion of waterworks to its own staff. The participants experienced the hands-on training utilizing the leak detection devices and repairing the leaked pipelines on services. On the third day, the B2B meeting was held between the participants and several Japanese companies in Osaka. It was started with a presentation from Eng. Nidhal S. Al-Dossary. Then, Japanese companies made presentations including a Q&A session regarding their products and technologies. After that, they moved to Advanced Treated Water Recycle Center in Green Front Sakai City. This plant uses membrane technology for treating and upgrading the Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) for the Sharp Corporation and this Center is managed by Kobleco Eco-Solutions Co., Ltd. On the fourth day, the SAWEA members traveled to Iwakuni City where is located next to Hiroshima for visiting Toyobo Iwakuni Membrane Plant. They had a lecture on latest products including RO (Reverse Osmosis) and FO (Forward Osmosis) membrane and future business in Saudi Arabia. Following a lecture from Toyobo, they had a good chance to look about the manufacturing process of RO membrane and demonstration experiment of the FO system. After the precious site visit to Toyobo, the participants moved from Iwakuni City to Tokyo by air. The SAWEA members visited Yokogawa Electric Corporation/Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation on the fifth day. Yokogawa is well-known as worldwide electrical engineering and software company based on its own product of measurement equipment and control systems. The participants had a presentation for improvement of water treatment plant by utilizing Yokogawa's products followed by a tour at Yokogawa Training Center. They also called at Hitachi, Ltd. The company has the various business sectors, such as IT, transportation, social infrastructure including water business field, electronics and so on. Several presentations about Water Solutions including Desalination technology, pumps and pipe network management were made by the Hitachi side. JFE Engineering Corporation received the participants on the sixth day. The company delivered a presentation about the water technologies such as, water purification, wastewater treatment, water distribution and sewerage sludge treatment. However, the main topic was FO membrane desalination system. Therefore, JFE Engineering arranged a site visit to the pilot plant employing the FO system. Final day, the business mission was closed with a B2B meeting with Japanese companies. At the beginning of the meeting, Eng. Nidhal S. Al-Dossary made a speech and touched up the event about Water Arabia 2017 which will be held in Al-Khobar in October 2017 and identify potential investment opportunities of water business in the Kingdom. "We, JCCME, believe this program provided all the participants from SAWEA with Japan's latest knowledge about water and wastewater treatment, effective utilization of TSE and sewerage sludge, development of FO membrane technology and water leakage management. On the other hand, Japanese companies involved in this program could understand deeply the needs of the water sector of the Kingdom. To increase collaboration between two countries and contribute to preservation and enhancement of water quality in Saudi Arabia, JCCME will continue this kind of opportunity on the request of SAWEA. — SG
