GLOBAL WATER YEAR REVIEW: 2014

Leak detection: TaKaDu won a contract extension Quensland utility UnityWater. The trial installation in 2013 claimed to
have saved nearly a billion litres of water (equivalent to AUD$2 million)

10-year operation and maintenance

phase. Other recent awards include a
Rs164.60 Cr ($26.6 million) order from
Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage
Board (BWSSB) to improve the citys
water distribution system, reduce
unaccounted-for water and undertake
leakage control, topped by a fve-year
O&M phase.
AUSTRALASIA
Municipal desalination has lost its
impetus in most urban areas apart from
Perth with the easing of Australias
big dry with more abundant rains.
Many of the countrys landmark projects
including the Melbourne, Sydney
and Gold Coast plants (and shortly
Adelaide, when its two-year trial period
is completed in January) have been
mothballed.
The practicalities remain pretty
unimpressive, Lloyd Owen remarks.
Now that dams are flling up again,
the one area of change may well be
in considering private investment in
maintaining and managing dams as well
as pondering new ones.
On the industrial side, he notes that
Queensland is pondering offering
50-year leases for 16 industrial water
pipelines operated by Sun-Water.
Some of the biggest contracts this
year have involved supplying water
to remote mining and industrial sites.
GHD undertook a key element of a
major AUD$300 million ($258.3 million)
contract to construct the Mundaring
water treatment plant in Western
Australia, a 165,000 m3/day facility
expandable to 240,000 m3/day.
Helena Water will operate and
maintain the plant for 35 years, and
further contracted Acciona and Trility
to design, construct and commission the
facilities, with the design undertaken
in collaboration with GHD. State utility

Hunter Water Corporation also awarded

Veolia a contract this year to operate and
maintain 25 of its water and wastewater
treatment plants in New South Waless
Hunter region.
The 193 million ($241.8 million)
contract is the largest ever awarded by
the utility and involves Veolia operating
and maintaining the plants, which
supply services to over half a million
people in the region.
In New Zealand, Mott MacDonald
won a contract from Watercare Services
to design the NZD63 million ($49.5
million) expansion of Aucklands
Rosedale wastewater treatment plant,
one of a series of projects intended to
cater for predicted population growth.
The expansion includes a new 3
km pipeline and pump station, an
additional primary sedimentation tank,
digester and feed tank system, and a
modifed Ludzac k Ettinger reactor to
treat wastewater. The project is due to
complete in 2019.
Meanwhile, TaKaDu won a contract
extension from Queensland water
utility Unitywater on an expansion of
a trial project to improve the utilitys
operational visibility and effciency
and reduce costs and water losses.
Jacobs, TaKaDus Australian technology
partner, managed the deployment.
The contract extension will increase
the amount of network being monitored
by the TaKaDu solution since its trial
installation in 2013, nearly a billion litres
of water (equivalent to AUD$2 million,
or $1.7 million) has been saved, the
company reports.

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The article was produced by WWi magazine

with assistance from David Lloyd Owen,
managing director of consultancy Envisager.
The article can be found online at www.
wwinternational.com. For more information,
email: tomf@pennwell.com
For more information, enter 10 at wwi.hotims.com
DECEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015

WWINTERNATIONAL.COM

21

THE BIG QUESTION PUMPS

THE

BIG QUESTION

In the next instalment of WWis technology series, we tackle the key industry product of pumps. With winter in
full swing in Europe and headlines circulating about fooding threats, we ask the question: How can pumps help
meet the growing environmental concern of food alleviation?

Post-food measures
By Kenth Hvid Nielsen, group vice president, water utility Grundfos.

looding is not just the most

common cause of disaster in the
world; it is also by far the fastest
growing. At the same time, not all foods
are alike. Some foods develop slowly,
while others can develop in just a few
minutes even without visible signs of
rain. Some foods are local, impacting a
neighbourhood or community; others
are very large, affecting entire river
basins and multiple countries.
That means that for reliable food
control theres a lot at stake. Initially,
the protection of people, their homes,
production facilities, crops and livestock
is a priority. And in the longer term,
proper food control solutions that can
prevent contamination of drinking

22

WWINTERNATIONAL.COM

water supply systems, damage to

infrastructure and the potential risk of
famine are required.
Limiting the potential damage of
coastal and inland fooding requires
among other necessary aspects - a
pumping solution that is dependable.
And that is as true for preventive
food risk management as for food
event management (during an event
of fooding) and as well for post food
measures.
Preventive food risk management
requires dependable pumping
solutions. These range from house
drainage pumping stations and
stormwater solutions, to network
pumping stations that handle rainwater

DECEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015

in scattered settlements and urban

areas. Also required are solutions
ranging from main pumping stations
in rainwater systems with associated
stormwater basins. This is as well as
mega stations for handling water fows
in tributaries to larger rivers and outlet
to the receiving waters or the sea.
Flood event management requires
reliable pump solutions where effcient
control and monitoring plays a major
role in securing effective operations
during the fooding occurrence.
Concepts for service, preventive
maintenance and preparedness for
existing installations are central to this.
Post-food measures are needed.
Immediately after a food, a
community faces great challenges.
The population is at risk, as drinking
water supplies may be infected. To
get the infrastructure back on track,
sewage must be removed and entire
areas cleaned up. Pumping of excess
water requires suitably portable pump
solutions as well as mobile disinfection
solutions to maintain a drinking water
supply.
The amount of food scenarios has
increased over the past decades and
at the same time populations have
also become more vulnerable, due to
increased settlement in low-lying areas
and near river deltas. This is partly
due to climate changes and an increase
in population and urbanisation. We
cannot make fooding disappear, but
we can prepare ourselves to act in the
best possible way. Reliable pumping
solutions are defnitely one of the key
aspects in doing so.

THE BIG QUESTION PUMPS

Smartphone
applications
Colin Sabol, senior vice president and
president of Xylems dewatering business

looding is one of the most universal and destructive

challenges facing communities. World Bank research
suggests that foods are the most frequent of all natural
disasters and that the number of food events is rising rapidly.
In 2010, 178 million people were affected by foods, with losses
exceeding $40 billion.
It is now widely accepted, including as part of the United
Nations Hyogo Framework for Action, that the private
sector has an essential role to play in disaster risk reduction.
Companies are working to help communities anticipate,
prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters,
and to ensure continuity of basic services.
We believe increasing the resilience of urban areas is one of
the most complex challenges facing public leaders around the
world. Innovative pump technologies working in tandem with
early warning systems can help cities to prepare for, minimise
damage and recover from food losses.
Real-time situational awareness and control of wastewater
networks allow city managers to manage capacity through
lift station networks and lower the probability of dangerous
sewer overfows.
Dewatering pumps play a critical role in 24/7 disaster
response and resilience planning. Our Godwin pumps played
a key role in the response to Hurricane Sandy after the super
storm hit New York in 2012.
To counteract Kuala Lumpurs notorious fash fooding
problem, the Malaysian government introduced the SMART
(Storm Water Management and Road Tunnel) project. This
ingenious food control measure uses a diversion tunnel for
storm water, which doubles as a motorway link during the
drier periods. A total of 76 Flygt pumps were used in this
ambitious project.
Rental business models enable cities to contract for
emergency, 24/7 dewatering pump services allowing them
to avoid capital expenditure on dewatering equipment while
securing access to vital food control services in times of crisis.
Dewatering pumps designed to work in any environment
on a range of power sources, including gas, diesel, and even
car batteries help to ensure resilience even in the event of
power failure. Dewatering smartphone applications now
allows cities to locate the nearest service provider and
calculate requirements based on friction loss, pressure, power
and fow conversion.
The best time to build resilience to a natural disaster is
before it strikes. As cities learn from past disasters, water
technology experts need to work with urban planners and
community leaders to build both the physical and social
infrastructure needed to reduce risk exposure and create more
resilient cities.

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For more information, enter 11 at wwi.hotims.com
DECEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015

WWINTERNATIONAL.COM

23

THE BIG QUESTION PUMPS

Updating pump station capacity

Lucy Ogden, marketing manager, Bedford Pumps

s we head into the depths of

winter, food alleviation becomes
once again paramount in our
minds. The long hot days of summer
become a distant memory and we recall
with clarity the devastating foods that
affict our country on a too regular basis.
Flooding can have devastating
consequences. It affects our food supply
and sadly too often our shelter. In the
past we had the luxury of leaving areas
of land uninhabited for the express
purpose of directing the water away from
our dwellings, however with an ever
growing population and the demand for
more housing many of our traditional
food plains are being lost.
The objective of Flood Alleviation is to
remove high volumes of water as quickly
as possible before it is allowed to do any
damage. When the water levels rise it is
critical that we can use our waterways
and rivers as conduits in order to channel
the water to designated food plains
and/or to sea. This is where pumping

is crucial. Strategically placed pumping

stations within the infrastructure serve
to raise the water levels in low lying
drains and ditches into the main rivers
which then act as high level carriers that
discharge to sea.
Pumping stations installed on our
rivers offer protection from the risk of
fooding to towns and cities as well as
Grade A agricultural land. Unfortunately
however, many of the pumping stations
throughout the UK, for which we rely
on for our protection, are between 40
and 80 years old. These stations are
predominantly diesel driven, therefore
high on emissions and maintenance and
low on effciency.
When called to action, all too often
the pumping capability at the station is
insuffcient to deliver the fows required
to stem the food. This leads to the type
of situation which sadly afficted the
West Country last year in the UK and
which hit the headlines worldwide.
It is imperative that these pumping

stations are brought up to date.

Replacing the diesel driven pumps
with electric pumps will increase the
resilience of the station. Removing the
diesel drives will reduce the carbon
footprint and adding a pump of a Fish
Friendly design will ensure that the
pumping station is no longer a barrier
to eel migration, thus ensuring that the
station is fully compliant with the Eel
Regulations of 2007.

Asking the right questions

Duncan Jackson, business manager Autoprime, SPP Pumps

s recent events have shown,

pumps are essential in our
defence against fooding.
Investment in pumping equipment has
been a relatively low priority for local
authorities and other land managers in
the past, but today we know that pumps
must form an integral part of regional
plans.
To ensure that equipment is well
matched to its circumstances and has the
maximum effect where it really matters,
the right questions must be asked
before buying or hiring. Consultation
with trusted pump suppliers and
manufacturers will help address the
important key issues.
Should the pumps be mobile or
fxed? Where are they most needed?
Where will they pump to? Important
and vulnerable elements of the

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WWINTERNATIONAL.COM

areas strategic infrastructure, such

as hospitals, fre stations and power
transformers, will need high protection.
Access and deployment should be
considered. Who will operate the
pumps, how will they be trained and
who will maintain the equipment? Are
framework agreements and partnerships
involved?
There is a lot to consider and levels
of investment by central and local
government can have a major bearing
on the choices available. Specifcation
questions include whether to go for
diesel or electric power, for large or
small pumps, and for compact and
manoeuvrable versus higher volume.
Noise levels, fuel consumption and
sustainability are other relevant issues.
In some cases remote monitoring
may be needed. All of the necessary

DECEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015

ancillaries, like hoses, should be

specifed and kept with the pumps.
Some pumps are for general use while
others are specifcally designed for
dealing with foods. Their advantages
may include an integral, reliable,
automatic priming system, good suction
lift characteristics and the ability to
handle solids. Engine selection in such
machines is matched to the pumps
hydraulic characteristics. Quality
materials and easy access for quick onsite repairs are also a must.
When planning a purchase, note
should be taken of manufacturers lead
times. It is best to avoid mixing pump
sets from multiple manufacturers, as this
can create logistical support, service and
parts supply problems. It is also sensible
to choose tried and tested equipment
over less well known products.

WASTEWATER REUSE

WASTEWATER REUSE

SAN DIEGO TO
SPEARHEAD
DIRECT POTABLE
WATER REUSE

In the history of wastewater

reuse, 2014 will probably go down
as a landmark year, when direct
potable reuse took off in the US.
In November the San Diego city
council voted unanimously for a
multi-billion dollar plan to recycle
over 300,000 m3/day of water.
By Robin Wiseman.

or all the media prompting about

toilet to tap, when faced with
the threat of prolonged drought
and water restrictions, communities in
Texas and California have proved to be
happy to trust their water utilities to
make the right decision.
Last year saw a number of forward
steps in providing alternative
technologies, mostly involving new
combinations of microfltration/
ultrafltration (UF)/reverse osmosis
(RO) membranes, which have been
the mainstay of most advanced reuse
projects to date. These have been
driven partly by drought, but mostly
by the lucrative contracts available for
providing cheaper ways of dealing with
wastewater resulting from new types of
oil and gas exploration.
PAST WASTEWATER REUSE
Most water reuse prior to the last
decade was primarily of secondary
quality for industrial or agricultural
purposes. These will still provide
major uses for lower grade reused
wastewater. However, for potable and

some industrial purposes, a high level of

treatment is required.
The techniques for potable water
reuse usually involve membranebased techniques such as UF and RO,
and using ultraviolet (UV) light or
ozone for disinfection. Lately, these are
fnding other applications in industry.
Engineers and scientists are also fnding
new uses for other techniques such as
electrodialysis, ceramic membranes and
advanced oxidation in wastewater reuse.
POTABLE REUSE
For potable purposes, the industry has
split wastewater reuse into indirect
(IPR) and direct (DPR) reuse, the
latter requiring much more stringent
standards and approvals than the
former. DPR is the planned introduction
of recycled water either directly into a
public water system or into a raw water
supply such as a reservoir. DPR has
inherent risks that differ from treatment
of traditional source waters and from
conventional IPR.
The city-state of Singapore has
long been the pathfnder in reusing

DECEMBER 2014-JANUARY 2015

WWINTERNATIONAL.COM

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