Tewaii Projects
current & finished projects
ADB Irrigation Water Project
Maldives
Tewaii is currently working with the Asian Development Bank under the ‘Green and Resilient Rural Recovery through Agri-Food System Transformation in the Asia and Pacific Region’ initiative (TA 6884-REG), with the focus on irrigation water management in relation to ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ and ‘Urban Agriculture’ for the Maldivian islands.
Within this project, Tewaii delves into irrigation water in the context of food security and climate change and assesses the potential suitable water resources and water availability interventions to promote local food production in the Republic of the Maldives.
Tewaii Valhu
Finished project
Honeymoon destination, luxury resorts and first-class diving: all words that come to mind when thinking of the Maldives. But behind the pictures and postcards, natural and anthropogenic hazards have been putting pressure on the Maldivian islands.
Challenges that the islands face are similar to those of other Small Island Development States (SIDS). This includes a large dependency on imported food, sea level rise, groundwater contamination, drinking water scarcity and unprocessed plastic waste.
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Resilient Island is an initiative that is aiming to implement a semi-closed hydroponic greenhouse on one of the islands, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Maldives. This project pioneers in the sense that a semi-closed greenhouse of this complexity has not been built before at such a location.
Valhu means source in Dhivehi,
the national language of the Maldives.
Within project Valhu, Tewaii was responsible for water-related field research and the design of the water cycle of the greenhouse: from resource to waste disposal and water re-use. The main goal was to design a system that lends itself to the functionality of growing crops in this climate and area, but additional spin-off opportunities played a large role in its design.
This was incorporated by exploring options that would potentially allow the greenhouse to tackle issues beyond the scope of import dependency.​ Some of the included topics are: alternative water resources, aquaponics, drinking water, bio-fertiliser and sanitary treatment. Once researched, findings were taken into account as design options, keeping in mind that their potential integration in the system would be aimed to approach circularity.
Besides water availability and circularity there was a third component that is just, or perhaps even more, important: the social implementation of such a concept. To cover all three aspects, the field research was split into a water-based, circular and social component.
Tewaii Laman
Finished project
Fresh water is one of the world’s most valuable resources, yet it is becoming increasingly scarce, especially in decentralized regions such as islands. An increasing amount of island states have been experiencing the depletion and pollution of their water resources, to which the Caribbean island of Curacao is no exception.
Curacao is a semi-arid Lesser Antilles island country located in the Southern Caribbean sea. Over the years, climate change, over-extraction and pollution have been putting pressure on the islands’ water system, of which groundwater is an essential component.
Due to the relatively high costs of tap water, groundwater is actively used for domestic and agricultural purposes through a network of industrial and unregistered household wells that tap into the subsurface waters.
Laman means ocean in Papiamento,
the national language of Curacao.
Together with climate change, over-extraction is causing Curacao’s subsurface aquatic system to become increasingly saline due to seawater intrusion. Salinization should be avoided at all cost, as it has many undesirable and irreversible consequences, among which the degradation of the quality of the water supply and soil.
Coastal salinization in Curacao was already observed in a hydrogeochemical groundwater research conducted in the 1992 by Louws et al. (1997), yet no other similar research has been conducted since, leaving the continuation of this process to the imagination.
Besides seawater intrusion, island aquifers are also under threat from pollution originating from agricultural, chemical and human waste.
Tewaii Bandung
Finished project
Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia, located on the island of Java. Bandung faces increasing challenges in providing clean water due to its rapid urbanization and expanding population. To meet the rising demand, PDAM Tirtawening committed to improving its water supply by expanding and enhancing its infrastructure.
In collaboration with the Institute Technology of Bandung (ITB) and PDAM Tirtawening, a study was conducted to enhance the reliability and efficiency of the PDAM Tirtawening water supply system. This initiative addresses the pressing need for a robust water infrastructure to support the rapidly growing population of Bandung.
The project goals were:
1. To identify and understand the factors that contribute to the reduced performance of the supply network by performing in-field data collection activities and creating extensive hydrological models.
2. To develop and design effective solutions that enhance the network's capacity, ensuring a stable water supply for the future.