Learn more about this growing trend in wastewater management across South East Asia and China
by Suresh Muthusamy, Sales Director – South East Asia at Organica Water
The concept of industrial parks have always existed in rapidly industrializing cities in South East Asia. Originally this has been a portion of a city where light industries and assembly shops would cluster. However, in the last two decades we observe much larger industries also moving in to industrial parks for various reasons, including but not limited to:
- Uninterrupted access to utilities
- Very minimal permits and license required as they are in an industrial park
- Availability of top notch infrastructure within the Industrial park and to neighbouring cities & ports
- Improved logistics and access to port, thus improving trade
- Efficient operation, improved productivity and profits
- Happy employees lead to better employer-employee relationship
Although there are many other factors, the list above are the most important aspects driving an industry to move or set up their base in an industrial park.
Industrial Parks helps tenants focus on core activities
Traditionally, power, water and wastewater services are referred as necessary utilities for an industry, although nowadays, there are some industrial parks that even offer steam and chilled water to their tenants. When these services are made available by an industrial park operator from the very first day a tenant begins its occupancy, it allows tenants in the industrial park to concentrate on their core activities by outsourcing utilities. This allows the businesses set up in the industrial park to expand their core activities at a much faster pace than their counterparts not located in areas without the same amenities.
As industries strive for improved efficiency and productivity, demand for space or lots in industrial parks have increased across South East Asia. In order for operators of industrial parks to cope with extra demand for utilities, existing parks will need to build facilities to treat additional wastewater. However, this expansion is constrained by many factors.
Choosing and locating a site for wastewater is a tremendous challenge that is faced by most of these industrial park operators. As demand grows, land prices are driven upwards. Every square meter matters. This means operators can no longer afford to choose conventional technologies that result in facilities that occupy hectares of land and still emit bad odours, requiring a much larger buffer zone. Furthermore, although the definition of utilities includes wastewater, tenants have traditionally paid only for power and water; resulting in wastewater simply becoming a burden to water. This adds additional pressure on the industrial park operators to choose technologies that minimize operating costs.
Organica: A boon for Industrial Parks
Organica presents itself as a boon to these industrial park owners with its unique FCR (Food Chain Reactor) solution that occupies just half the footprint required for conventional technologies, without emitting any bad odour and providing for an aesthetically pleasing facility that has the appearance of a botanical garden. In recent years, we have come across cases in Indonesia where industrial park owners choose Organica to solve their wastewater management issues:
- A large multinational automobile company threatened to leave an industrial park if the industrial park owner did not deal with the bad odour emitted by the treatment facility sitting right across their lot
- In another case, the industrial park owner was unable to expand their wastewater facility without acquiring the surrounding plots occupied; Organica made it possible to do so
- In yet another case, the power consumption for an Organica powered wastewater treatment facility was little over one third of a conventional technology offering
In all the above cases, Organica is eliminating the buffer zone and allowing the industrial park to reclaim and sell that land (including the lots shouldering the wastewater treatment facility!). Every square meter of land saved translates into dollars generated, thus making Organica an attractive value proposition to industrial park operators.
Centralize or Localize?
The big question is always whether to centralize a wastewater treatment facility or build localized facilities with an optimum capacity catering to smaller pockets. The decision has to be based on various factors such as economies of scale, capital expenditures, and operating expenses for the collection network and treatment facility. Most industrial parks prepare a master plan that involves selling plots over a period of 20 to 40 years. Building a centralized facility with such an extended timeline would mean locking massive capital investment in a large wastewater facility and related networks, although the pumping stations and some networks for future development can progress in a phased approach in later years.
On the contrary, Organica offers tremendous flexibility to those who want to approach building facilities in a localized manner. This flexibility is often not available with other technologies as smaller facilities utilizing conventional solutions would mean significantly more land needed for buffer zones for each individual facility – which is not present in Organica’s case. Additionally, given that industrial parks usually cover an area of at least a few hundred hectares, the capital expenditures that can be saved by refraining from developing a centralized network is often very high.
Transformation of Industrial Parks to Town and Cities: Future Challenges
Industrial parks were traditionally built well outside cities due to lower land cost. With rapid urbanization in Southeast Asia, cities are expanding at a very fast pace in all directions. Life always seems to flourish around a successful industrial park, as employees try to settle in the neighbourhood of their workplace. Oftentimes, burgeoning cities and flourishing industrial parks meet and their boundaries merge, offering almost no boundary to industrial parks in the suburban parts of a city. At that point, they are not merely industrial parks anymore: they transform to towns and even mini cities often with office buildings, hotels, golf courses, restaurants and even housing estates. It becomes a challenge for industrial park owners treat the wastewater effectively and efficiently in a smaller footprint without requiring a buffer zone.
This is where Organica fits in. It is a robust wastewater solution with the appearance of an aesthetically appealing botanical garden that can tackle all of the challenges listed above: the last missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that developers have been looking for which will allow them to explore and experience the potential of their industrial park without being limited by wastewater management issues.
