PROJECTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
HOW A MODULAR WATER TREATMENT PLANT USING SHIPPING CONTAINERS IMPROVED WATER QUALITY FOR A REMOTE NT COMMUNITY A complex problem presented itself to Eric Vanweydeveld, a senior project manager at Power and Water Corporation, when he was asked to deliver a water treatment solution for one of Australia’s most remote communities. Through creativity and innovation, this engineer and his project team solved this complex problem.
Borroloola School children helped decorate the water treatment plant with their paintings of culturally significant animals (Source: Power and Water)
Borroloola is located on the McArthur River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, about an eight-hour drive from the nearest major centre and has a permanent population of around 1,000. The potable water supply is sourced from underground and therefore had corrosive tendencies associated with low pH, low alkalinity and high concentration of carbon dioxide. Without appropriate water treatment in place, the aggressive water had damaging effects on the distribution infrastructure such as pipes, fittings and tanks. The low pH and corrosive tendency of the source water also had the capacity to affect chlorine efficacy, further impacting the delivery of safe drinking water to the community. Due to these factors, the water treatment system required extensive repairs or replacement.
In Darwin, we duplicated the Borroloola site precisely to enable testing of the system. By doing this we were able to correct a lot of the problems before the equipment was transported to Borroloola, which saved both time and money and reduced the risk profile of the project.
The community of Borroloola were engaged in the project (Source: Power and Water)
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