Municipal drinking water

— AWARD: GWI Global Water Awards 2020 Water Project of the Year —

The Choa Chu Kang Waterworks (CCKWW) upgrade was commissioned by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, as part of a strategic effort to implement innovative technologies in large-scale water treatment. Officially opened in 2019, the project followed an 18-month pilot phase that validated the performance of ceramic membrane filtration and ozone pre-treatment under local conditions.

This initiative aimed to:

• Integrate the world’s largest ceramic membrane filtration system into an operational treatment facility

• Mitigate membrane fouling challenges through the use of ozone oxidation

• Enhance long-term resilience to variable raw water quality and climate impacts

Context

To enhance water security and climate resilience, Singapore developed the Marina East Desalination Plant — the first dual-mode facility capable of treating both seawater and freshwater from the Marina Reservoir. Located in the heart of the city, the plant required a compact, energy-efficient, and future-ready solution to meet the nation’s growing water demands while minimizing environmental impact.

Solution

Nijhuis Saur Industries (NSI), part of Saur Group, designed and delivered eight High Rate concrete i-DAF modules as pre-treatment for the Marina East Desalination Plant. The system includes coagulant and flocculant dosing, top mixers, corrugated plate packs, skimmer systems, and the Nijhuis i-AERATION flotation system. The i-DOSE intelligent dosing control ensures stable effluent quality and optimized chemical usage. The plant integrates ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis for final treatment, enabling dual-mode operation with high efficiency.

The Andijk III Water Treatment Plant was designed to treat 120 million liters of surface water per day from the IJsselmeer. The project was commissioned by PWN, the drinking water utility of North Holland, and was driven by the need for a more sustainable and effective pre-treatment system to ensure high water quality while reducing environmental impact and energy consumption.

In operation since 2014, the plant required the integration of advanced technologies to:

• Remove a wide range of trace contaminants, including dissolved organic carbon, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides.

• Minimize reliance on chemicals and reduce the environmental and operational footprint.

• Ensure the system’s long-term reliability, scalability, and compatibility with existing and future infrastructure.

The Quellwasserwerk Sonnenberg is a spring water treatment plant commissioned by ewl (energie wasser luzern) and started operation in 2018. The plant’s purpose is to increase the proportion of spring water in Lucerne’s drinking water supply from approximately 12% to about 50%, improving water quality and sustainability.

The project faced these main challenges:

• Utilizing the natural spring water sources while preserving water quality and ecosystem balance.

• Minimizing energy consumption by using gravity-fed water flows, limiting the need for mechanical pumping.

• Designing a treatment process that maintains the natural water quality, removing turbidity and contaminants without chemical additives.

• Ensuring reliability and long-term operational sustainability.