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Case Studies

Ujams industrial project: Low footprint and high-efficiency water reclamation plant

Initial Situation – every drop counts

Windhoek lies in the middle of Namibia, the driest nation south of the Sahara. The city has always struggled with water shortages and – as an answer – since the 1960s, has been employing Water Reclamation facilities to enhance water security.

The Ujams Industrial Water Reclamation Plant is located in the city’s northern industrial area and treats around 1.5 million m3 industrial effluents per year. The existing WWTP had to be replaced with a new treatment plant to meet the new discharge regulations into sensitive freshwater sources.

Requirements

The aim of the new advanced industrial wastewater treatment plant was to purify the effluent and reclaim the water for further reuse in augmentation of the Klein-Windhoek River and other applications such as dust control during road construction. The plant treats a cocktail of effluents: an abattoir, a brewery and a tannery are the main sources of the wastewater. The major challenge was to cope with extreme variations in terms of influent load and characteristics – high and fluctuating COD (peaks > 10,000 mg/L) and nitrogen (peaks > 300 mg/L) concentration.

The solution – showing an extremely compact and flexible process design.

Within the framework of an international tender the City of Windhoek chose WABAG as an innovative and reliable partner to realize the water reclamation plant on BOOT model.

WABAG designed a compact, highly-efficient and flexible process including its new fine sieving technology MICROPUR® as advanced pre-treatment. This innovative fine sieving system significantly improves removal efficiency for organic contaminants & fibres as well as oils and fats, resulting in enhanced operational safety and reducing the load on downstream treatment steps. This ensures optimization of the complete wastewater treatment plant in terms of efficiency as well as a reduction in operating costs.

MICROPUR-MBR® – WABAG employed a combination of advanced fine sieving technology MICROPUR® with the well-known membrane bioreactor technology MARAPUR® This complete low footprint technology is characterised by high biomass concentrations in the activated sludge tanks, enhanced phosphorus and nitrogen removal and reduced activated sludge tank volumes.

The entire process scheme comprises fine screen, grit separation, dry weather buffer tank including pH-correction, microsieving of raw wastewater, biological process of denitrification and nitrification, membrane filtration with hollow fiber membranes, UV-Disinfection, clear water tank incl. utilities and firefighting, sludge treatment and odour treatment.

Prior to full-scale installation, the proposed patented, low footprint process design was verified by setting up a pilot plant and diligently testing for 7 months.

Public-private partnership – BOOT project

WABAG not only financed the project through a long-term loan from the German DEG, but also provided innovative, in-house developed technologies for sustainable water recycling. Moreover, the WABAG JV is responsible for professional plant management for a period of 21 years.

Know-how transfer right from the start

WABAG has been committed to continuous development of local expertise for effective plant management through training modules of international standards, starting with the operation procedure of the pilot plant. The project presents an exemplary cooperation in Windhoek, Namibia. It is the first BOOT project in the water sector for the city of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

Sustainable solutions. For a better life.

The WABAG Group head quartered in Chennai with its global presence in 4 Continents and more than 20 countries has a work-force of more than 2,000. With a history dating back more than ninety years, the group has emerged as a leading pure play water technology player across the globe with focus on emerging markets.

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