Water Project of the Year
Haikou Jiangdong New Area Water Treatment Plant, China
What is it?
A drinking water treatment plant with a capacity of 600,000m³/d. It was designed to supply high-quality drinking water to approximately 1.2 million residents in the Haikou Jiangdong New Area. The total project cost was RMB1.7 billion ($250 million).
Who is involved?
Design was carried out by Central & Southern China Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute, and construction was undertaken by China Communications Construction Company First Harbor Engineering Bureau. Key equipment suppliers include Hainan Litree Purifying Technology (ultrafiltration membrane systems), Suez (clarifiers), KSB (water pumps), Ozonia (ozone generators), and De Nora (sodium hypochlorite generators). The client was Haikou Water Group.
What makes it special?
- The project is fully underground (the largest of its type to date in China), allowing the plant to be situated at the centre of the water supply service area, reducing investment and energy consumption in the pipeline system while significantly enhancing the security of water supply during frequent typhoon conditions.
- The process flow incorporates a flexible bypass piping system, allowing raw water to skip the clarifying step without the need for polyaluminium chloride for the majority of the year. After screening, the water directly enters the primary ultrafiltration system, significantly reducing chemical usage and enabling greener water production.
- The primary ultrafiltration system employs pressurised ultrafiltration membrane prefabricated tank. When raw water enters this system directly after screening, the available hydraulic head is used for membrane filtration. As a result, for over 80% of the year, no additional lifting is required in the treatment process, ensuring water quality while substantially reducing electricity consumption.
Surat Advanced Ultrafiltration Plant, India
What is it?
Phase one of a 160,000m3/d ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) facility, serving around 1.2 million people and installed as an upgrade to an existing 50,000m3/d river water treatment plant in Surat, India. It is the world’s largest ceramic UF installation, and removes long-chain PFAS compounds from drinking water sources.
Who is involved?
Enviro Control delivered the project as lead EPC contractor and was also responsible for design. Germany’s Cerafiltec supplied the ceramic membrane systems. The client was the Surat Municipal Corporation.
What makes it special?
- As the first test for deploying ceramic UF membranes at this scale, the project sets a global benchmark for advanced water treatment, handling severe operational challenges with odour, colour, frequent filter choking from turbidity and algal blooms, as well as increasingly unreliable raw water quality levels driven by climate change.
- The ability to handle PFAS at this scale makes the plant one of the first future-ready facilities in India, positioning it ready for future regulation in developing markets of one of the world’s most high-profile and pressing pollutants.
- In completing a revolutionary plant overhaul within the same physical footprint, the project team relied on innovative reuse design strategies to deliver significant capex savings compared to developing a new plant in a dense urban area with near-zero land availability.
Thorekadanahalli (TK Halli) Water Treatment Plant, India
What is it?
One of Asia’s largest drinking water treatment plants, treating 775,000m3/d of water to supply water to the peri-urban population in more than 100 villages around Bengaluru. It is the fifth stage of the huge multi-decade Cauvery Water Supply Scheme, and will enable around 5 million people to receive water connections.
Who is involved?
The plant was designed and built by a joint venture of Suez and Toshiba, and is operated by Suez for its client, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
What makes it special?
- As one of Asia’s largest water treatment plants, the colossal scale of the project dovetails with India’s massive drinking water ambitions: as the country looks to further expand its Jal Jeevan rural piped water connection programme, projects like TK Halli indicate that the advanced water treatment capacity can be deftly delivered in parallel.
- The plant is designed for ultra-low operational requirements: reduced chemical and power consumption were baked in from the start, a crucial component in a region where operating costs are a key issue for water service providers.
- High-rate inclined tube clarifiers were deployed on a very minimal footprint, taking up a third of the space needed for conventional treatment and ensuring minimal disruption to the development area.
Upper Wawa Bulk Water Project, Philippines
What is it?
A dam and bulk water delivery service creating an alternative strategic water supply for the East Zone of Manila, through the supply of up to 710,000m3/d of raw water, bolstering security for around 7.8 million people in the Philippine capital.
Who is involved?
The project was delivered and operated by developer WawaJVCo, a Prime Infrastructure-led joint venture that was later fully acquired by local offtaker and concessionaire Manila Water. The project was supported by regulator Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System. Design and construction was led by PowerChina (dam and reservoir works) and PrimeBMD (pumping station and transmission).
What makes it special?
- The project represents a colossal stride towards system reliability in one of Southeast Asia’s largest and most climate-exposed water systems. It backs up the Angat Dam system that had previously been the sole source for the region and represented a single-point-of-failure risk that was exposed in a major water shortage crisis in 2019.
- It has also become a crucial measure in reducing the serious risk of floods for communities downstream in extreme weather events, with a structure designed to dissipate water energy, reduce turbulence and control downstream flow.
- By replacing systemic vulnerability with engineered resilience, the project puts Manila on course to capably handle its expanding population and surging water demand, even as El Niño conditions look set to make a return this year.
Zrenjanin Water Treatment Plant, Serbia
What is it?
One of the most significant urban water infrastructure reforms in the Balkans; the upgrading, expansion and long-term operation of a 30,240m3/d water treatment plant serving around 70,000 people in the northern Serbian city. Local water sources deal with a highly complex hydrogeological profile, including elevated arsenic, ammonia, methane, and increased mineralisation.
Who is involved?
The project was developed and will be operated by Metito Utilities under a 25-year PPP contract. The contract was awarded by the City of Zrenjanin, in partnership with public water utility Vodovod i Kanalizacija Zrenjanin. Metito Overseas was EPC lead for the first phase of construction, supported by an extensive team of Serbian contractors.
What makes it special?
- The project allows for an astounding and immediate historical milestone: following successful commissioning, a 2004 ban on the use of municipal tap water for drinking was lifted, putting an end to more than two decades of water worries.
- The success of the contract, in a city that has had a chequered experience with the private water sector, shows that PPP can continue to make effects for water service and security in new markets.
- Following commissioning, the plant threw open its doors: it is now host to educational and informative visits through its “Behind the tap programme”, fostering local understanding of the technology and expertise behind utility services.