JEDDAH, 15 November 2005 — The lack of water resources has put pressure on the industry to search for a variety of ways to conserve as much as possible. Although a global and national issue, at the micro level, each industry or factory could do something to help conserve water. Some already do as part of their corporate values.

According to Martin Fejk, Marketing Manager at Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia, the company is not only following the Kingdom’s regulations meticulously on industry and water usage but continually looking for new measures. “Tetra Pak is actively working on implementing water management, conservation and recycling projects here,” he said.

Water as Fejk explained is an integral part of the company’s conservation and recycling activities. The Jeddah based factory implements the same environmentally sound technologies and conservation measures as other factories in the group around the world. Tetra Pak is a global company, he said, employs the same standards of conservation in all its production facilities.

At the Jeddah factory, the company has installed a small desalination unit producing about 50 cubic meters a day to help in water supply. “We desalinate about 50 percent of our required volume of water,” said Fejk. “It is used in the office as well as in the production process.”

What remains from the desalination process (the salty mass) is pumped back into the water table below the factory to help keep the balance. And as a way of increasing the use of the desalinated water, Tetra Pak uses part of this water for maintaining its small gardens — from which the water largely re-enters the ground water — and by returning the clean wastewater to the underground water.

“We pay attention not only to the manufacturing process but also to the other water use,” he said. He gave an example; the company devised an automated toilet flush system with manual control valves. This resulted in daily savings of 6,000 liters of water in a factory where there are only 300 employees.

Tetra Pak’s 2006 water re-use project is to implement their first in-house water-recycling project. Printing is a major part of the company’s manufacturing process. The printing machines and equipment has to be regularly cleaned with fresh water. They intend to install a distillation plant for cleaning ink polluted water, where the ink and water can be separated, the ink to be safely disposed of and the water used in the factory. “It will be ideal for process water or gardening purposes,” he concluded.

Water conservation is an important issue discussed not just by modern industry but is also a subject addressed by religious scholars who point to the concerns over water conservation from the dawn of Islam. For example, the faithful were advised by Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) not to waste water and to use it wisely. Scholars have mentioned a couple of hadiths in which the Prophet disapproved of wasting water in, for example, ablutions before prayer. The amount of water the Prophet said should be used was; one mad (half a bushel or three hands full of water) for ablutions and double that five times for his bath.

It is not just a national issue; the importance of water conservation is discussed globally in many countries. “We are looking to this new working relationship between ourselves and the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association as a sturdy bridge between our respective technologies, industries, and the professionals employed there,” said Kevin McCray, National Ground Water Association executive director.

He explained that there is a great need for planners, regulators, developers, builders, and consumers to have a deeper understanding of our industries’ effective technologies.

The organizations as McCray announced, will work together to deliver that critical knowledge.