WATER TREATMENT
Clean water for 500 000 Gauteng residents
In a joint venture with a local construction, concessions and manufacturing group, WEC Projects has designed and built a water treatment plant that will supply potable water to a large community in Gauteng.
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he R270 million plant is undergoes dissolved air flotation to time through a filter system containing designed to provide remove any remaining solids and oils. granular activated carbon. This process 60 Mℓ/day and was The clarified water then enters a removes organic chemicals and other commissioned as part of rapid gravity sand filtration system to similar impurities. a R1 billion upgrade project for the remove particles. This type of filtration The final process is the chlorification community, which has experienced a system was specified due to the higher of the water to ensure that any harmful considerable increase in demand for filtration rate it provides compared to impurities such as bacteria are removed. potable water over the last few years. conventional sand filters – which is “This was a challenging project. The The scope of work for design of the plant required WEC Projects included the water to undergo mechanical, electrical and a complex processing instrumentation work. solution to achieve the WEC Projects, with a quality level required by the joint venture partner, was local municipality. We were awarded the contract also required to integrate to expand the existing the new plant module into facility in 2016. However, the existing treatment plant. due to the complexity of As a result, the plant uses a the project and the need sophisticated and advanced for buy-in from the local control and instrumentation communities benefiting system to ensure consistent from the treatment plant, quality and plant uptime. final commissioning only While the requirements took place in 2021. were for a water treatment The new plant can successfully treat 120 Mℓ/day of water plant capable of delivering Treatment process necessary for a plant required to supply 60 Mℓ/day, the new plant has been Raw water is drawn from a nearby dam more than 500 000 people. tested successfully to 120 Mℓ/day, and pumped to the facility – where After exiting the sand filter, the water is ensuring that it will be able to handle it undergoes clarification to remove pumped to the ozonation facility for rapid increased demands well into the future,” suspended solids. After the primary oxidation and disinfection. It is then put concludes Wayne Taljaard, MD of clarification process, the water through a second filtration process – this WEC Projects. J A N /F E B 2022
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