World News

1 US: TEXAS

The city of Beaumont, Texas, lost access to its clean water supply as a result of rising flood waters from tropical storm Harvey. PBS reported the city’s police department issued a statement, confirming it lost power at its main pump station along the Neches River and from its secondary source of well water in an adjacent county. The area was one of those hardest hit by Harvey, receiving 29 inches of rain as the storm made landfall. Nearly 120,000 residents lost access to clean water, and will need to wait until the water levels recede before their service will be restored.

2 US: WASHINGTON

The Bureau of Reclamation will provide $3.62 million to conduct laboratory and pilot-scale desalination and water purification research in 13 states. Sixteen laboratory projects, four new pilot-scale projects and one continuing pilot-scale project were selected. The $3.62 million in federal funding is being matched by $3.52 million in non-federal funds. The laboratory projects are bench-scale studies that are completed within one year. Pilot-scale studies will be completed within two years.

3 BRAZIL

Petrobras has awarded SUEZ a €6 million contract to provide desalinated water to 11 offshore oil platforms in the Campos Basin in the State of Rio de Janeiro. SUEZ will provide seven mobile reverse osmosis desalination units with a capacity of 90 m3/day, including operation and maintenance assistance. In 2013 SUEZ provided nine water treatment units to supply process water to five floating production storage and offloading platforms of “pre-salt” oil reserve.

4 UAE

In a bid to upgrade its water network, the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) will be adopting smart water meters. FEWA, who provides more than 300,000 customers in the Northern part of the United Arab Emirates with electricity and water, signed an order for 30,000 intelligent water meters from Danish metering company Kamstrup. Installation is expected to begin in September, with the meters providing data to help detect leakages faster and collect information about the network.

5 SAUDI ARABIA

Months after Doosan secured the Shoaiba 4 desalination development and the Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC) has awarded Pöyry with the owner’s engineer services assignment for the project. Pöyry will review the contractor’s engineering and supervise construction, erection and commissioning. In April SWCC awarded Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction the US$422 million contract to build the 400,000 m3/day reverse osmosis desalination facility.

6 DIJIBOUTI

A €63 million development in Djibouti will see up to 45,000 m3/day of drinking water delivered by renewable powered desalination. The country’s Economy and Finance Ministry has commissioned the deal, with the National Water and Wastewater Treatment Office (ONEAD) serving as project manager. French engineering company Eiffage Génie Civil, taking €37 million from the deal, will deliver it in a consortium with Spanish water company Tedagua.

7 VIETNAM

Singapore-based water treatment company De.mem has sold a water treatment plant located in the Nghe An province in Vietnam. The plant was purchased by local Vietnamese company Hung Thanh Environmental for approximately $AUD510,000 ($USD 400,000). Prior to the sale, De.mem designed, built, owned and operated the plant on a Build, Own, Operate basis. By 2025 all Vietnamese urban cities are expected to have wastewater treatments systems.

8 CAMBODIA

Cambodian water utility Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) has awarded a US$23.5 million contract to French company Vinci Construction Grands Projects to upgrade the Chamkarmon water treatment plant. As part of the work, water production capacity will be expanded from 20,000 m3/day to 52,000 m3/day. Expected to start construction next month, this is the second contract PPWSA has awarded to the French company, after the second phase of the Niroth 2 water treatment plant in 2014. The utility currently has the capacity to produce 600,000 m3/day of drinking water but plans to more than double this by 2025.

9 SWEDEN

The 2017 Stockholm Junior Water Prize has been awarded to US students Ryan Thorpe and Rachel Chang for constructing a system that detects and purifies water contaminated with Shigella, E. coli, Salmonella, and Cholera more rapidly and sensitively than conventional methods. The system detects as little as one reproductive bacteria colony per litre instantaneously and eliminates bacterial presence in approximately ten seconds.

10 UK

Tens of thousands of businesses in England have switched water utility suppliers since the market opened up in April. Called the biggest transformation since water utility privatisation, the change meant that 1.2 million affected businesses could switch water suppliers as they can with their electricity or gas supplier. Data released from Market Operator Services after three months showed that more than 36,000 water or wastewater services have switched.