Inovaya's solution for the Danube Delta

A solution by Inovaya submitted to Innovations for tomorrow in water management in refuges in the Danube Delta

The system we propose is powerless and can produce clean drinking water from the Danube river. We want to implement also a dry sanitation and transform waste into a powerful fertilizer

(Pitched: 15/04/2018)

One Page Summary

The „Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23” Association is asking for solutions that resolve the issues of waste management and safe drinking water for fishermen refuges in the Danube Delta in an eco-friendly manner, improving working conditions for fishermen and offering access basic facilities for them, their families and for the tourists that use the refuges when visiting Danube Delta.
Access to basic services, such as piped water and sewage is lower in the villages from the Delta than in the rest of the country. Due to limited accessibility to Tulcea city, waste management is not done accordingly, with low waste collection rate, low recycling rate, and infrequent and high waste transportation costs between Tulcea and the Delta. This is why normal systems do not work and why centralized solutions do not exist. Locals are using alternatives that are more cost effective, but do not use any treatment.
Because the main activity of locals is fishing, followed by tourism and agriculture, the population living in the Delta spends a large amount of time in the wetlands where basic resources are completely missing. Fishermen have built refuges in order to create some basic work condition for themselves, but they do not have drinkable water or any type of waste water management and solid waste management.
Danube Delta is the best preserved delta in Europe, with large protected areas. Due to its ecological significance, the economic and social challenges faced by the area require a special strategy in order to guide sustainable development in the region.
We are an innovative company which propose cutting edge technologies combined with a low-tech approach. We are addressing our solution to isolated location(rural, refugee camps, refuges etc…) without power supply, for uneducated people (so our systems are designed for a simple usage) and all of that with a long lifetime. Our solutions are designed for at least a 10-15 years without complicated maintenance neither manipulation.
In practical terms, our solution will produce clean water thanks to a succession of 5 different filters.

We will use high tech filtration combined with an outdated technology which is called the hydraulic ram pump.
The pump will be used to lift up to 5 meters the water into a water tank.
Thanks to the gravity, there will be enough pressure to filter the water through our device.

This small device will be able to produce -2 litres per minute of clean drinking water. Which is enough for at least 6 to 10 people per day.  

For the sanitation part, we propose to implement a simple dry toilet : A composting toilet is a type of toilet that treats human excreta by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human excreta into compost. It is carried out by microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) under controlled aerobic conditions.

Our team is able to fulfil all the project. We need the local users to be aware of it and to train them to the basic usage such as the backwash, or how to use the sanitation and the compost. We would be glad if the local users/stakeholders could take part of the implementation (digging the holes for the pump, installing with us the device…). In our previous experiences, when the local community was involved, the project was more successful because they appropriated the technology. When you understand what a machine is doing, automatically you use it properly, and that’s what we have learned in our previous experiences.


We have many competitors in the water sector, but we are the only one consumable and powerless.
We have deployed our technology in Romania. Those projects where not powerless because we had a power source.


Our strength is that we don’t need after 3 years any maintenance on the systems, they are very simple to use and no consumables, so no hidden costs.


Our main weakness was that if that the system has to be mounted near the water source. Sometimes it’s very difficult for the installation. Another problem was that if we have iron particles in the water, we can have an oxidation of our membranes which blocks the membranes. An acid backwash has to be done.