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Ayala’s Natural Wastewater Treatment Systems
An NBS system in a town near Tel Aviv, Israel, provides onsite sewage treatment and water recycling while doubling as an ornamental pond.
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yala is an Israeli company that builds specialized installations similar to artificial wetlands that can treat wastewater to high standards of purity using nothing more than gravity and natural processes. Using a carefully selected combination of natural elements like aquatic plants, gravel, microorganisms, and special natural additives, these Natural Biological Systems (NBS) can be customized to remove different contaminants from water and to purify it to any standard desired. NBS installations can be integrated into urban park spaces, making them suitable for densely populated areas as well as industrial and agricultural zones. In this interview, Ayala’s chief executive officer (CEO), Eli Cohen, tells Municipal Water Leader about how the NBS works and how it saves money and energy.
Eli Cohen: I was born and raised in Israel and studied physics, thermodynamics, and materials science engineering. About 35 years ago, I was working for a high-tech company as its
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF AYALA.
Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
research and development leader. At that time, I bought a farm in the Galilee region as a place to live, but when I got to the land, I realized, “This is my destiny—I want to be a farmer.” I decided that I would slowly move into agriculture, but it happened faster than I expected, and I quickly got into growing aquatic plants to sell to Japan and Europe. Dealing with aquatic plants and water, I started facing a lot of issues. To grow these plants, you need water that meets specific quality standards, because they normally grow in clean streams in the Amazon, Southeast Asia, or Africa. Moreover, I wanted to do it in the semiarid climate of Israel. I ended up learning all about water and how to keep the environment adaptive. My education, together with intuitional learning and long field experience, helped me with the tasks of treating water, managing the environment, and farming. Today, what’s written on my business card is Sustainability Expert. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can live by itself like any living creature. The aim of our company is to create sustainable systems that can run by themselves, and the only way to do that is to rely on nature. We’re working with nature to help nature—and to help ourselves. This isn’t about hugging
