Beauty Will Save the World

When Dostoyevsky wrote “Beauty will save the world” he certainly was not talking about technologies that use living plants to clean up soil, air, and water contaminated with hazardous chemicals. Yet this is exactly how Israeli company Ayala Water & Ecology Ltd is bringing his words to life.

The growing problems around the world of massive water consumption and pollution, destruction of aquifers, extensive pavement hinder nature’s ability to preserve and protect itself.

Ayala pursues one simple goal: use natural energy-free tools to restore balance to the environment. This goal led to the development of the Natural Biological System™ (NBS), a sustainable natural technology for treating sewage and waste streams, rehabilitating affected water bodies and rebalancing watersheds.

The concept of NBS is based on the following guiding principles:

• Every design is preceded by a thorough survey, learning the site’s unique conditions, generating a holistic understanding and approach to the problems.
• The system is designed to function without mechanical or human intervention to the greatest extent possible. As a result, the systems' maintenance costs are very low.
• Purification systems are designed to treat a whole range of contaminants simultaneously and to act as a powerful buffer, absorbing high fluctuations in sewage quality.
• Sewage and soil are treated as close to their source as possible, with minimal use of pipe systems and pumps.
• Local labor is used for system development and maintenance.
• Local components such as plants and aggregates are used as much as possible.
• The system is integrated into the landscape design, creating a powerful natural "green lung" that creates no nuisance and becomes a natural habitat called "Active landscape".
• All of the on-site water resources (run-off, rainfall, marginal and waste streams) are included in the holistic design, dramatically expanding treatment and onsite reuse options.

This solution is a breakthrough for development in cities, significantly reducing the operating costs and budget associated with both the water and energy sectors. Cities benefiting from this approach are found in France, India, Israel, Mexico and Greece. All of the systems are designed to stand well within regulatory demands, and do so at a fraction of the operating costs and maintenance of conventional technologies.