10 Global News
January/February 2010 World Water
Field Notes
Argentina
Barrick Gold Corporation, the
largest gold mining company in
the world, through its subsidiary
Barrick Exploraciones Argentina
awarded Veolia Water Solutions
& Technologies Argentina and
Whittier Filtration, a contract to
deliver one of the largest filtration
systems of its kind for the Pascua
Lama project, located on the
border between Argentina and
Chile, in January 2011.
Veolia will provide 10 Whittier
Filtration Filtra-MaticTM pressure
leaf filters, with 3,400 feet of
surface area each and a capacity,
to treat 6,600 m3/hour of gold
and silver-bearing sodium cyanide
leaching solution for a Merrill
Crowe process.
Australia
The nation's largest seawater
desalination plant, currently
under construction in the state of
Victoria, will be powered by a high
voltage underground cable link,
supplied by Nexans of France. The
company won a US$ 38.4-million
contract to supply approximately
260 km of 220-kV XLPE cable,
made and tested as a 275 kV
cable, to Thiess Degr�mont. This
company is contracted to design
and construct the US$ 3.19-billion
Victorian Desalination Project to
deliver up to 150 billion liters of
water a year to Melbourne and
regional communities.
The project includes an 84-km
underground pipeline to connect
the reverse osmosis plant to a
transfer main and then back to
the reservoir. The 87-km-long
underground cables co-located
with the pipeline � creating the
world's longest high voltage AC
underground link operating at
this power level, will supply the
electric power required by the new
plant. An underground link was
the preferred option for the project
since it is both more energy efficient
and secure than overhead lines.
China
A new flagship sustainable
development project in northern
China, the US$ 22-billion Tianjin
Eco-City, aims to become
an international center for
environmental expertise and green
innovation, serving as a model
for eco-cities in the developing
world. The UK consultancy Mott
MacDonald will provide technical
assistance in developing a
sustainable strategy for the eco-
city, which includes green building,
infrastructure, and transport.
Highlights will include innovative
public transport and pedestrian-
oriented urban design to limit the
use of private motorized transport;
a wetland to provide natural
treatment for recycled wastewater,
and the use of organic waste to
produce heat and power, with 60%
of the city's waste being recycled.
In addition, management of power
and water consumption combined
with clean and renewable electricity
generation will be used to limit
carbon emissions. The ten-year
project is part of an agreement
between the Chinese and
Singaporean governments. Once
completed, the Eco-City may cover
an area of approximately 30km2
and house up to 350,000 people.
Kenya
The Fluidra subsidiary Astramatic
designed, manufactured, and
installed a two-channel inverse
osmosis unit for treating 96 m3 of
water at the Nairobi South thermal
power station in Kenya.
A technical study called for
the installation of two inverse
osmosis water treatment lines with
a capacity of two m3 per hour to
produce water quality of 10 �S/cm,
which is the level of conductivity
required. Completed in September
2009, the project is valued at
US$ 329,000. Fluidra is based in
Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain.
Mexico
According to the US company
Pressure Pipe Inspection Company
Ltd. (PPIC), its PipeDiverTM
technology set a new distance
record of more than 22 miles during
the inspection of a 99-inch-diameter
water transmission main in central
Mexico. This milestone inspection
represented the longest distance
traveled by an electromagnetic-
based system while the water main
remained in service.
Electromagnetic technologies
offer a solution to help manage
the water infrastructure-funding
gap faced by municipalities. On
average, identifying and repairing
individual lengths of pipe can be
accomplished for a fraction of cost
of a full line replacement, allowing
pipeline operators to maximize their
budget investments. PipeDiver is
a free-swimming tool that provides
information about the integrity of
prestressed concrete cylinder pipe.
Vietnam
Saigon Water Corporation selected
MWH Soft's H2OMAP Water
Suite software for advanced water
distribution modelling and design
of the Ho Chi Minh City water
supply network. The Ho Chi Minh
City metropolitan area, home to
more than nine million people, is
expected to grow to 20 million by
2020 creating enormous demands
for clean drinking water and efficient
system operations. It currently
produces 325 million m3 of drinking
water every year, with the Saigon
River as the primary water source.
The city is also faced with a large
non-revenue water (NRW) problem,
with more than 140 million m3 of
water usage unaccounted for.
"Embarking on an NRW study
is a challenging project, but critical
to the long-term health of our
system," said Mr. Luu Khanh Toan,
deputy team leader of the project.
Project engineers are performing
this analysis using H2OMAP Water,
he explained, to run and simulate
a range of possible conditions
and determine the most likely
sources of unaccounted water.
The software system is a GIS
platform for water utility solutions
that combines spatial analysis
tools and mapping functions with
network modeling for infrastructure
(asset) management and business
planning analysis.
Germany
Cooperation between Messe
M�nchen and the Federation
of German Waste, Water, and
Raw Materials Management
Industry (BDE), organizers of
Germany's leading trade fairs IFAT
and ENTSORGA, will create the
world's leading trade fair for the
environmental sector, according to
the organizers.
The International Trade Fair
for Water, Sewage, Refuse
and Recycling (IFAT) will take
place under the name of IFAT
ENTSORGA from September 13-
17, 2010. This merger will bring
greater emphasis on the areas
of raw materials recovery and
utilisation and private operators.
In 2008 IFAT included 2,605
exhibitors from 41 countries and
approximately 120,000 trade
visitors from 170 countries.
Based in Berlin, the BDE, with
its 750 member companies, is
the largest association for the
recycling and waste-management
sector in Germany and Europe.
The cooperation between IFAT
and ENTSORGA opens up new
national and international markets
for its member companies.
"Today, on a worldwide
comparison, Germany can
boast the highest levels of
recycling. And that is due in
large part to the privately owned
companies involved in the waste-
management, sewage, and
recycling sector which have
invested in the latest technology
and systems," BDE President
Peter Kurth said.
IFAT ENTSORGA will be held
every two years in Munich,
Germany (www.ifat.de).

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