We are excited to announce the opening of our very first Water Resource Recovery Facility at the Verulam Wastewater Treatment Plant in South Africa. The Organica treatment plant serves dual purposes, namely showcasing the FCR Solution’s advanced capabilities and offloading the overstressed facility already operating on site. The combined treatment capacity of both plants can handle the equivalent of 21 000 households in the region, easily dealing with both the increased COD loadings and the neighbouring residents odour concerns.
Courtesy of “Murray & Roberts Water”
Ednick Msweli, Head, eThekwini Water and Sanitation comments “It is our aim to provide all citizens within the eThekwini Municipality access to appropriate, acceptable, safe and affordable basic water supply and sanitation services. The Organica demonstration plant allows us to apply innovative and sustainable technology to the water and sanitation services we provide to the people of eThekwini, specifically in the realm of wastewater services.”
Initiatives such as free basic water, flow limiters, the use of plastic bodied water meters, polypropylene water piping, ground tanks and semi-pressure water service levels, urine diversion toilets, anaerobic baffled reactors, the use of grey water for urban agriculture, customer services agents, condominial sewerage and a customer water debt repayment policy were first introduced to South Africa, here.
Oscar Palomino, Senior Manager, Organica Water comments: “An Organica-powered facility is more than just a wastewater treatment plant. It is also a water reclamation garden, educational facility, and symbol of sustainability in the community that enables cost-efficient water reuse and allows for maximized development opportunities – particularly in populated areas where footprint and odor are significant concerns.”
Within the next phase of local development, we are aiming at upgrading the original facility’s whole capacity of 12 000 m3/d to the „Organica standard”, creating not only an increased amount of fresh water supplies for the area, but implementing a highly efficient solution on a large scale to the citizens of the region. For now, the facility will operate for a year on the existing Verulam wastewater treatment plant site and will serve to pave the way for major, innovative upgrade projects that will address the challenges the City is facing here and potentially other facilities within the municipality that are also reaching their design capacity.
