Berkefeld, a subsidiary of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, developed mobile water treatment for emergency water supply; first deployment of Berkefeld TWA 15 UF system
02 November 2009 - The new mobile water treatment plant TWA 15 UF, recently developed by Berkefeld, a subsidiary of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, together with the federal German technical disaster relief organisation THW (Technisches Hilfswerk), has successfully passed its first major deployment under real-life conditions. The modular system, whose equipment includes ceramic ultrafiltration, was requested for the town of Hellental, in Lower Saxony (Germany). The reason: considerable impurities were noticed in the local drinking water. The THW, which had acquired two plants of this type, quickly went into action and put the system in operation in only a few hours.
Initially, a clouding of the water in Hellental was noticed. Then over the following days, the water quality fluctuated strongly, but its cause could not be explained. In order to eliminate chemical and biological impurities the operator added chlorine, and furthermore people affected were asked to boil the water before using it. When the existing treatment plant could no longer filter out the pollution, the responsible utility in Stadtoldendorf asked the THW for help. The THW, with specially trained drinking water experts for national and international relief operations, set up the mobile plant and provided water for cleaning and disinfection of the two water reservoirs. In addition, the task force filled each of the reservoirs with 100,000 litres and are providing the local inhabitants with an extra 30,000 litres of drinking water a day.The system was used for two weeks until the problem was solved by the local utility.
The modular Berkefeld system is equipped with a multiple barrier against germs, viruses and particles and depending on the composition of the modules it can supply up to 5, 10 or 15 cubic metres of clean water per hour. It is suitable for deployment worldwide. The plant was designed in such a way that it fulfils the German drinking water regulations (TVO) and thus also is approved for drinking water supply in Germany. Besides the UF, the modular system includes the components of pre-filtration with disc filters, flocculation and adsorption, disinfection with ultraviolet light, depot chlorination, and drinking water storage and distribution. The various process steps can be adjusted individually to every mission and combined with each other in different ways. The plant fits in the cargo hold of every common scheduled aircraft.
