Of the 11 INNOQUA demo sites, Quito was the first to organize its open day. Aimed at showing the technology under local pilot conditions, the open day offered opportunities to demonstrate a real use of the solution to the local community of water-related experts, public entities, potential architect customers and local international cooperation offices.

In Quito, the INNOQUA site is located in a residential area near the city centre, within an urban context that requires a compact and discrete integration of the system. It treats the wastewater from a typical multifamily house plus an office, representing 10 PE (population equivalent).

The system was initially composed of a lumbrifilter plus a daphniafilter. However, the first months of testing showed difficulties with maintaining a viable daphnia population, while the potential added treatment capacity provided by the daphniafilter was unlikely to be sufficient to reach the next standard level in Ecuador. Hence, the daphniafilter was transformed recently into a second lumbrifilter – providing an opportunity to trial different filter media and showing the flexibility of the installation on this site.

Held in January 2020, the open day in Quito was organized as a half-day event with a two-hour conference on the local water and sanitation context, as well as presentations on the INNOQUA project and experiences from other INNOQUA demonstration sites around the world. This was followed by guided small-group visits to the demo site and a cocktail.

The open day was very well received, with 40 attendees from local administrations and water utilities, architecture and construction companies, academia, local NGOs and development banks.