Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2023

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 

www.waterwastewaterasia.com 

“Data is the new 

water”: Monitoring 

water infrastructure 

with digital twins 

From unknown 

organism to effluent 

remover: The story 

of Anammox 

Micro effects, Macro 

leaps: Effective 

irrigation in a water 

scarce world

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BOOMING OPPORTUNITIES 

IN VIETNAM WATER MARKET 

www.waterwastewaterexpo.com 

14-16 

SEP 

2023 

VENUE : 

WTC BINH DUONG 

NEW CITY EXPO 

Binh Duong, Vietnam 

CHANGING 

THE FUTURE 

OF WATER 

Google Map 

QR code to 

WTC Expo 

Jointly organised by: 

WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA 

VIETNAM 

ENVIRONMENT 

INDUSTRIAL 

ASSOCIATION 

WORLD TRADE CENTER BINH DUONG NEW CITY 

SUBSIDIARY OF BECAMEX IDC 

Partnership with: 

Vietnam Water Supply & Sewerage Association 

Vietnam Urban Environment and Industrial Zones Association 

Contact us: 

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Korea Water Resource Association sales@pabloasia.com 

+65 62665512

CONTENTS 

26 

40 

CONTENTS 

04 Editor’s Note 

06 News 

49 SWA Newsletter 

63 What’s Next? 

64 Advertisers’ Index 

SINGAPORE FOCUS 

11 NanoPure: Novel nanofiltration 

membrane for water and 

wastewater treatment 

BENTLEY SYSTEMS SPECIAL 

14 Winners of the 2022 Going Digital 

Awards in Infrastructure 

15 “Data is the new water”: 

Monitoring water infrastructure 


17 “The path of least resistance”: 

Managing data efficiently with 

Bentley’s software 

19 Predictive maintenance of water 

infrastructure with OpenFlows 

technology 

IN CONVERSATION WITH 

21 From unknown organism to effluent 

remover: The story of Anammox 

24 Micro effects, macro leaps: 

Effective irrigation in a water 

scarce world 

26 Evermore: GenX and the future of 

water filtration 

2 WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

CONTENTS 

59 

47 

28 Greentech Festival: A platform for 

water innovators and educators 

IN THE FIELD 

30 A case study in NRW in Kuala Kumpur 

32 Containerised wastewater treatment 

plant 

34 Nanostone enables cost-effective 

wastewater reuse for semi-conductor 

foundry 

36 Managing excess rainwater with Wavin 

AquaCell 

FOCUS 

37 Condition assessment planning: Where 

to start and where to take it 

40 Overcoming excess: Adapting 

biological treatments to high ammonia, 

salt and chemical wastewaters 

43 Wars, salinisation and climate drive the 

demand for small, dual water plants 

45 Four countries, one river, one data 

platform, one voice 

HOTSEAT 

47 Imagine H2O Asia Cohort 4: 

Introducing the region’s water 

innovators 

ON OUR RADAR 

54 Digitalisation: The key to smarter 

facilities monitoring 

56 Andritz expands its range of 

C-Press screw presses for 

efficient dewatering 

57 Echologics introduces a new 

valve-based leak monitoring 

sensor 

58 NivuFlow Stick: “Simple and 

accurate” flow measurement 

of surface water bodies in 

accordance with ISO 

59 A smart water level sensor 

for long-term accuracy and 

reliability 

SNEAK PEEK & SHOW REVIEW 

62 The 12th edition of ASIAWATER 

2022 ends with a bang 

WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 3

FROM THE EDITOR 

AN ENDLESS JOURNEY 

Climate change-related water crises, such Key to this is digital technology. In this 

as droughts and floods, have undeniably issue, we spoke to various people about 

affected global water security. This fact the uses of Bentley Systems’ software 

has been repeated everywhere, including for the water and wastewater industry. To 

the recent COP27 which concluded in 

know more about how software solutions 

November 2022. But it is a fact worth 

can speed up the construction of water 

repeating over and over again. 

infrastructure, or better manage pipes and 

sewers, such as monitoring leakages or 

By 2050, at least 5 billion people 

damages, flip to page 14. 

worldwide will face at least one month 

of water shortage, according to World 

On page 24, we had the opportunity of 

Meteorological Organisation. Frankly, you speaking to Khaled Zalghoul, general 

do not need the World Meteorological 

manager of Rivulis Egypt, a micro-irrigation 

Organisation to tell you this to know 

solutions provider. Micro-irrigation can 

that our water security is threatened. 

help to improve water management, 

Uttar Pradesh, a northern state in India, especially for agricultural uses, and in turn 

faced extreme seesaws of drought 

this improves water security. However, 

and monsoon in different districts from irrigation methods are only one aspect of 

July to September 2022. Several states the solution. Zalghoul said: “We will have 

in Africa, the likes of Ethiopia, Kenya 

to provide more comprehensive solutions 

and Somalia, are facing extreme water to farmers addressing fertiliser usage and 

shortages. In turn, such water crises 

other sustainable farming methods… To 

affect other industries as well, especially succeed, it will require more partnerships 

the agriculture and food industries, such within our ecosystem between agricultural 

as droughts in Uttar Pradesh destroying input manufacturers, product buyers and 

sugarcane harvests. 

financiers.” 

Another thing that bears repeating is that Going into the new year, we hope that 

these crises of threatened water security, more and more businesses will come up 

and of climate change, are not felt evenly with innovative solutions to ensure water 

throughout the world. Singapore, for 

security in a long-run. When such solutions 

instance, has enjoyed some semblance of pop up, Water & Wastewater Asia will be 

water security for quite some time. Aiding sure to spread the word. Lastly, a Happy 

this is Binnies, who built Singapore’s 

New Year to all, and the team wishes 

water infrastructure critical to ensuring a everyone a fruitful and successful year! 

steady supply of water, and who recently 

celebrated its 100th anniversary of water 

excellence in Singapore in December 

2022. 

But let’s not be complacent: There is no 

panacea for water shortage or scarcity. 

Ensuring long-term water security is an 

endless journey, and we need to all do our 

Yap Shi Quan 

part. 

Editor 

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NEWS 

Singapore and around the world to address 

constantly evolving needs as we secure 

and safeguard a water future for all.” 

Since 1922, Binnies has been a present and 

supportive partner in Singapore’s journey 

to water self-sufficiency, playing significant 

roles in many water projects. 

From left to right: Mike Collins, head of sustainable infrastructure (APAC) for Department for International Trade 

(DIT); William Yong, managing director of Binnies Singapore; Alan Ryder, CEO and founder of RSK Group; Dr Amy 

Khor, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore; Her Excellency Kara Owen, 

British High Commissioner to Singapore; Goh Si Hou, CEO of PUB; and Lucy Thomas, managing director of RSK 

Centre for Sustainability Excellence (Image: Binnies Singapore) 

BINNIES CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF 

WATER EXCELLENCE IN SINGAPORE 

Binnies, a RSK Group company providing 

water, wastewater and flood resilience 

solutions, has celebrated its 100th year 

of water excellence in Singapore on 

5 Dec 2022. 

As they look back on a century of 

partnering with Singapore in securing 

adequate and affordable water supply 

for future generations, Binnies prepares 

for a future powered by new digital water 

technologies, with advancements in 

artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins and 

data analytics. 

Singapore is considered one of the most 

water-stressed countries in the world with 

limited land for water storage and a lack 

of water resources, but it is also a global 

success story in water resilience. 

As Singapore strides forward with plans 

to achieve a water-sustainable future, the 

collaboration of Binnies across the RSK 

Group and with innovation leaders will 

ensure the next 100 years see as much 

success as the first. 

Having already developed an advanced 

digital twin platform, Binnies will 

reportedly look to expand into AI, 

augmented reality (AR) and more 

granular data collection for a more 

technologically advanced platform that 

will yield greater efficiencies at a lower 

cost. 

“Celebrating the centenary of Binnies in 

Singapore is a momentous occasion for 

us to acknowledge our heritage as we 

look to the future,” said William Yong, 

managing director of Binnies Singapore. 

“Binnies is committed to drawing 

on our expertise and experience in 

solving complex global water and 

environmental challenges, and working 

with governments and stakeholders in 

In recent years, Binnies has provided 

engineering solutions and technology for 

four out of the five desalination plants in 

Singapore: SingSpring Desalination Plant, 

a large-scale seawater desalination facility 

for the country located in Tuas; Tuaspring 

Desalination Plant, a seawater reverse 

osmosis desalination plant; Keppel Marina 

East Desalination Plant, the only facility 

capable of treating both sea and reservoir 

water in Singapore; and Jurong Island 

Desalination Plant, an energy-efficient 

facility. 

More recently, Binnies has delivered a 

feasibility study commissioned by PUB, 

Singapore’s National Water Agency for 

underground stormwater drainage and 

storage systems to mitigate the impact of 

rainfall-induced floods. 

“Binnies is a name synonymous with 

world-class engineering and has seen great 

success in Singapore and the region, and 

it is great to see the organisation thrive 

further since joining the RSK Group in early 

2021,” said Alan Ryder, CEO and founder of 

RSK Group. 

“With Binnies and the other businesses 

in the RSK Group leveraging each other’s 

expertise, our low- and zero-carbon 

solutions and digital innovations are helping 

global governments and organisations 

mitigate environmental impacts. 

“As we celebrate Binnies’ 100th 

anniversary in Singapore, we look forward 

to collaborating closely with various 

stakeholders to advance Singapore’s 

standing as a global hydro hub.” 


NEWS 

XYLEM APPOINTS MATTHEW PINE AS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER 

Xylem has announced the appointment 

of Matthew Pine as COO, effective 

1 Jan 2023. In this role, Pine will 

accelerate Xylem’s operational 

excellence, driving cost leadership and 

scaling innovation across the global 

organisation. He will report to Xylem 

president and CEO, Patrick Decker, and 

will oversee the company’s business 

segments and regions. 

“Xylem is a global leader in solving 

water challenges in thousands of 

communities around the world,” said 

Decker. “We are evolving our operating 

structure to make sure every customer 

benefits from both our global scale 

and the local agility we bring to each 

community’s challenges. Matthew has 

an exceptional track record of delivering 

operational excellence, and we will 

be working hand-in-hand to serve 

our customers, deliver above-market 

growth with margin expansion, and 

continue to create economic and social 

value for Xylem’s stakeholders.” 

Pine has more than 25 years of 

experience in general management, 

sales, marketing, digital and product 

management. He joined Xylem in 2020, 

most recently leading the applied 

water systems and measurement and 

control solutions segments, and Xylem 

Americas. He previously held senior 

and international leadership roles at 

United Technologies Corporation, Vestas 

Wind Systems, and Lennox International. 

“It is a privilege to step into this role 

and partner with Patrick to continue 

to sharpen our focus on operational 

excellence across the organisation,” said 

Pine. “With strong technology leadership 

on a proven business model, and a large 

and growing installed base in attractive 

markets, we are already exceptionally 

well positioned on the long-term water 

trends driving demand for our solutions. 

Now, we are further tuning our operating 

model to remove complexity and drive 

cost leadership as we scale innovation 

globally and provide solutions to serve our 

customers.” 

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NEWS 

HOW ADVANCED ALGORITHMS ARE OPTIMISING WATER MANAGEMENT 

AT THE BIGGEST SPORTING EVENT OF THE YEAR 

A LEGO-like modular stadium, a 

ball with an inertial measurement 

unit (IMU) sensor to detect off-side 

incidents, artificial intelligence (AI)- 

based player tracking, and climatecontrolled 

stadiums, have been a 

few of the innovations showcased 

at the 2022 World Cup. 

However, FIFA faced a major 

challenge: the efficient use of water 

during an event attended by over 

1.5 million people, in a country with 

one of the world’s highest water 

stress rates. 

To respond to this issue, Idrica 

Qatar (Aguas de Valencia WLL), 

through its GoAigua Sewer Twin 

solution, was involved in optimising 

water resource operations and 

management to provide greater 

control and monitoring over critical 

locations. This tool integrates, 

processes and exploits data from 

multiple sources, thanks to the 

application of advanced algorithms, 

thus centralising indicator 

visualisation and asset control. 

The digital solution monitored 

the areas around seven football 

stadiums, the teams’ training and 

accommodation areas, and the 

‘fan zones’, where 76 sensors and 

1,500 field signal meters have been 

installed. 

Christian Perez, Idrica’s technical 

manager, pointed out that this 

initiative started after the 2021 FIFA 

Arab Cup, “where shortcomings 

were detected in the monitoring of 

stadiums, water levels in manholes, 

and in treated water pressures and 

odours”. 

At this point, both the Arab Cup 

and the World Cup were held 

during the rainy season, when 

rainfall was very heavy and caused 

severe flooding. 

“Despite being an arid climate,” 

said Perez, “the rainy season was 

a challenge, because Qatar was 

not sufficiently prepared to provide 

a solution to this type of critical 

events that led to flooding and 

crippled the region.” 

Therefore, in addition to real-time 

monitoring, alarms had also been 

set up based on rainfall forecasts. 

“The integration of GoAigua Sewer 

Twin with the Qatar Met Office 

has maximised the mobilisation 

of resources specifically for the 

areas of the country that would be 

affected by a rainfall event,” Perez 

explained. GoAigua can display 

data from multiple sources, making 

it more efficient and reliable. 

MONITORING, A KEY FACTOR 

Thanks to the installation 

of pressure gauges and the 

deployment of operational plans, 

the GoAigua solution has provided 

Ashghal, Qatar’s Public Works 

Authority, with greater control 

over potential adverse situations 

that could occur during the World 

Cup. 

As FIFA states on its website, 

many stadiums have systems 

for detecting leaks and 

measuring water flows, helping 

administrators with management, 

optimising response times and 

streamlining water use. The 

Idrica specialist pointed out that 

GoAigua Sewer Twin “monitors 

water levels, water speed and 

flow rates in the sewage and 

rainwater network manholes, and 

keeps check on the pressure 

in the treated water network, 

setting up alarms to prevent 

potential issues and improve 

operability”. 

At the beginning of October, 

Idrica Qatar was given a ‘Green 

Award’ for its work in boosting 

sustainability. More specifically, 

Idrica won first prize in the 

Green Awards’ Green Design 

category with the smart irrigation 

pilot programme in which the 

GoAigua Smart Green solution 

was deployed in two parks in the 

city of Al Khor. Thus, Ashghal, 

Qatar’s Public Works Authority, 

was acknowledged for the 

hard work carried out by the 

company in a project regarded 

as a Sustainable Development 

initiative, in line with the Qatar 

National Vision 2030, as well 

as with environmental and 

sustainability policies. 

Thanks to these projects, Idrica 

Qatar has established itself as 

one of the companies that has 

helped Qatar on its road to digital 

transformation. 


NEWS 

DE NORA AND ACLARITY SIGN AGREEMENT 

TO DEPLOY PFAS DESTROYING TECHNOLOGY 

De Nora has signed a Memorandum of 

Understanding (MoU) with water technology 

company Aclarity to target treating harmful 

contaminants, such as per- and poly- 

fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in water at an 

industrial scale. 

The MoU combines Aclarity’s PFAS 

destruction technology with the De Nora 

SORB FX product line to quickly and safely 

eliminate PFAS in groundwater. 

“De Nora is committed to contributing to 

achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 

defined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda,” 

said Daryl Weatherup, De Nora’s water 

technologies general manager. 

“While looking for partners, we seek likeminded 

organisations that are driving 

change. Aclarity embodies that and their 

PFAS destruction technology is an exciting 

development in the fight against PFAS.” 

Nearly all industries around the globe, 

including water, are impacted by PFAS 

contamination. In the US, the Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) estimates more 

than 10,000 known chemical substances 

containing PFAS, establishing preliminary 

advisory levels that will eventually transition to 

federal law. 

Under the terms of the MoU, De Nora and 

Aclarity have agreed to pilot novel water 

Aclarity team with their PFAS destruction 

technology (Image: Aclarity) 

treatment applications with concentration 

and destruction steps for PFAS and other 

contaminants of emerging concern in 

groundwater, where 98% of the Earth’s 

available freshwater can be found. 

“PFAS contamination in groundwater is a 

great concern across the globe,” stated Julie 

Bliss Mullen, CEO of Aclarity. “Partnering with 

De Nora is a tremendous milestone, as we 

are both focused on delivering sustainable 

water treatment solutions that can solve this 

worldwide problem.” 

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NEWS 

MEMSIFT RECEIVES 37.2M RUPEE 

CONTRACT TO BUILD RESOURCE 

RECOVERY PLANT IN INDIA 

Singapore-based industrial liquid-waste 

treatment company Memsift Innovations 

has received a 37.2m rupee contract from 

India to build a resource recovery plant for 

the manmade fibres (MMF) industry using its 

improved membrane distillation technology, 

the TS-30. The plant will be commissioned in 

the Q3 of 2023 at the state of Gujarat in India. 

The technologies from Memsift recovers more 

than 98% of water and up to 100% chemicals 

from industrial liquid-waste streams with a 

benefit of lower carbon footprint compared to 

the currently available best technologies. The 

‘no chemicals, no steam’ project may achieve 

a negative carbon footprint by considering 

the manufacturing carbon footprint of the 

chemicals to be recovered in this project. The 

estimated emission reduction will be about 

1.47 million kg of CO2 every year, which is 

equal to 3,356 barrels of fossil fuel. About 

67% of the emission reduction is due to the 

direct energy savings compared to the current 

method in place and the remaining 33% 

emission reductions comes from the tonnes of 

chemicals to be recovered. Typically, it takes a 

mini forest of approximately more than 58,000 

trees to absorb the same amount of carbon 

from the atmosphere over a period of one year. 

Dr J Antony Prince, founder and CEO of 

Memsift Innovations, said, “This project 

is a key stepping stone for the full-scale 

commercialisation of membrane distillation 

technology for real-world applications. Memsift 

will continuously focus on the key industrial 

verticals (pharma, chemical, pulp & paper, 

mining and metal finishing) to achieve resource 

Memsift will provide its TS-30 improved 

membrane distillation system for the resource 

recovery plant in India 

circularity by closing the liquid-waste loop and 

play our part in decarbonising these industries.” 

With the growing demand for resource 

circularity and the challenges in handling 

toxic industrial liquid-waste due to the 

emerging stringent global legislation and 

heightened corporate environmental 

consciousness, Memsift has opened its first 

round of fundraising to capture the emerging 

green circular market. Memsift is seeking to 

accelerate its growth to build its first full-scale 

membrane manufacturing and engineering 

hub to scale larger industrial production of its 

membranes and the modules, expand market 

share by opening oversea sales and aftermarket 

service offices and strengthen its organisation 

capabilities. 

PERSTORP TO SAVE 

MORE THAN ONE 

MILLION LITRES OF 

FRESHWATER YEARLY 

AT STENUNGSUND 

PLANT 

Perstorp has invested in a project that will allow 

it to use wastewater from a nearby municipal 

treatment plant for production operations in 

Stenungsund, Sweden. This will save 1.1 million 

litres of freshwater per year. 

The project will enable Perstorp to secure the 

future supply of water for the Stenungsund 

plant. It also fits with the company’s longterm 

sustainability ambition to become finite 

material neutral. 

“This is an important development of core 

technology for Perstorp,” said Anna Berggren, 

vice-president of sustainability. “We plan to 

implement it at more sites around the world 

in the future in our drive to reduce freshwater 

consumption. Freshwater scarcity is already a 

fact around the world. The chemical industry 

has a responsibility to reduce its use and find 

new solutions that can also support society 

as a whole.” 

All Perstorp production plants use water 

for multiple purposes: as a solvent for 

chemical reactions, a carrier for products, 

a heat-transfer medium, and for cooling, for 

example. One way of reducing consumption 

of freshwater is to purify and recycle 

wastewater. The Stenungsund project will 

enable wastewater from the water treatment 

plant run by the municipality to be further 

purified and reused at the Perstorp Oxo 

production plant. 

The recycled water will also be used for 

production of renewable hydrogen via 

electrolysis for Perstop’s Project Air, as well 

as for other investments. 

“This project is a key enabler to combining 

business growth and sustainable 

development,” added Berggren. 

Project Air is an initiative to transform the 

chemical industry towards climate neutrality. 

Perstorp Group and its partner Uniper will 

produce sustainable methanol for chemical 

manufacturing using circular production 

methods, reducing carbon dioxide 

emissions by about 500,000 tonnes per 

year. This is equal to the annual emissions 

of around 340,000 new cars running on 

fossil fuel. 

Andreas Utbult, project manager from 

global technology and investment, 

commented: “This exciting water treatment 

and recycling project will involve close 

collaboration with several partners in the 

Stenungsund region. It exemplifies how 

Perstorp uses its technology expertise 

to transform a sustainability vision into 

concrete investments.” 



NANOPURE: 

Novel nanofiltration 

membrane for water 

and wastewater 

treatment 

Fig. 1: NanoPure 

hollow fibre NF 

membrane and 

module 

Nanofiltration (NF) membrane 

process is a pressure-driven filtration 

process that employs membrane with 

a pore size in the range of 0.5-5nm 

which can reject solute via steric, 

dielectric and/or Donnan exclusion. 

In general, the NF membrane 

process would benefit from a higher 

water flux at a lower operating 

pressure as compared to the 

reverse osmosis (RO) membrane 

process. Its applications in water and 

wastewater treatment encompass 

water softening, micropollutant 

decontamination, colour removal, 

heavy metal removal, etc. 

In addition, NF membrane process 

also exhibits great potential in 

replacing the ultrafiltration (UF) 

membrane process for RO pretreatment 

due to its better organic and 

salt rejection for effective mitigation 

of fouling and scaling issues of the 

subsequent RO membrane process. 

To date, most of the commercial NF 

membranes are available in spiralwound 

modules that are consisted of 

flat-sheet NF membranes. 

The major suppliers of spiral-wound 

NF modules in the market are DuPont 

(FilmTec), Hydranautics, Suez (GE- 

Osmonics), and Toray, to name a few. 

These NF membranes are usually 

made up of polyamide and produced 

through interfacial polymerisation 

process which forms a thin skin layer 

with pore size down to 200 Dalton 

molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) on 

top of a substrate membrane. 

Since the chemical composition and 

module configuration of these NF 

membranes are fairly similar to those 

of the RO membranes, they share 

numerous similarities in terms of the 

membrane characteristics, application 

conditions, as well as the technical 

limitations. It is well-known to the 

industry that the omnipresence of 

chlorine in water is detrimental towards 

the polyamide spiral-wound NF or 

RO membranes since the polyamide 

bond can be easily degraded by free 

chlorine, which leads to performance 

loss over the long-term operation. 

Moreover, polyamide membranes 

barely withstand the high and low pH 

conditions because of the hydrolysis of 

polyamide bond. 

NANOPURE HOLLOW FIBRE 

NF MEMBRANE 

Herein, Mempure offers an alternative 

option with the novel hollow fibre 

NF membrane, i.e., NanoPure, for 

water and wastewater treatment 

applications. In contrast to the 

spiral-wound membrane module, the 

configuration of NanoPure membrane 

module (Fig. 1) is much simpler and 

identical to the traditional hollow fibre 

UF membrane module which exhibits 

several advantages e.g., low operating 

pressure, high packing density, etc. 

The operating pressure for NanoPure 

membrane module is designed at 

three to four bar that consumes much 

less energy as compared to that of 

the spiral-wound configuration that 

usually requires more than seven 

bar. Notably, NanoPure is backwashable 

that reduces the membrane 

fouling tendency owing to its robust 

membrane structure. The fabrication 

of NanoPure membrane utilises 

charged-polymeric solutions that does 

not comprise any polyamide-related 

material and thus able to handle tough 

feed water conditions. 

For instance, the membrane 

performance is able to sustain 

under the chlorine exposure up to 

250,000ppm/hr contact time, which 

is significantly higher than that of the 

polyamide NF membrane, typically at 

1,000ppm/hr. 

Hence, the membrane is able to 

operate with 1-5ppm free chlorine 

in the feed water and the free 



Fig. 2: Performance 

of NanoPure 

membrane for 

hardness removal 

(left) and its 

application for 

drinking water 

treatment (24 m 3 / 

day) in Myanmar 

(right) 

chlorine can prevent the membrane 

According to the World Health 

provides one-step direct treatment of 

from bacteria growth to mitigate 

Organization, water with hardness of 

surface water for hardness reduction. 

the biofouling issue that commonly 

more than 120ppm is defined as hard 

The membrane was tested with a 

occurs in the spiral-wound membrane 

water and the hardness of drinking 

feed solution of 300ppm MgSO4 at 

module. The chemical stability of the 

water is an important consideration 

50% recovery and two-bar operating 

NanoPure membrane over the pH range 

for healthy lifestyle and economical 

pressure. A stable membrane 

of 0-14 enables handling of acidic and 

system operation. There are several 

performance was observed with an 

caustic wastewater without worrying 

techniques available to reduce 

average 85-90% MgSO4 removal over 

about disintegration of the membrane 

the hardness in water and among 

the two months’ operation (Fig. 2), 

structure. 

them, membrane filtration and water 

bringing down the concentration from 

softening are the popular solutions in 

300ppm to approximately 30-45ppm, 

With the above-mentioned membrane 

drinking water treatment. 

which is within the range of soft water 

features, the NanoPure NF membrane 

less than 60ppm for potable usage. 

can be applied for various water and 

wastewater treatment applications. 

These applications include, but not 

limited to, water softening for drinking 

water, industrial wastewater treatment 

In comparison with water softening 

process, membrane filtration process 

produces less waste with easier 

system operation and maintenance. 

As such, NanoPure membrane system 

Textile wastewater treatment: 

Colour removal 

Removal of colour and organic content 

of wastewater in textile industry 

Fig. 3: Colour 

removal using 

NanoPure membrane 

for organic and colour removal, pretreatment 

for seawater RO with a higher 

recovery, acidic and caustic resource 

recovery from industrial processes, etc. 

The following paragraphs showcase 

several recent case studies with the 

NanoPure membranes. 

Drinking water treatment: Hardness 

removal 

In drinking water treatment process, 

hardness removal (predominantly 

calcium and magnesium cations) is 

often required because excessive 

hardness in the drinking water will 

cause undesired scaling and corrosion 

issues in the water distribution system, 

while exposure to hard water may 

cause skin irritation and potentially 

eczema. 



remains challenging as regulations 

around the world are tightened to 

restrict the discharge of wastewater 

with high colour and organic content. 

In Singapore, the discharge of 

wastewater into public sewers would 

require control on the chemical oxygen 

demand of less than 600ppm and the 

discharge of trade effluent into the 

watercourse must comply with colour 

content of less than or equal to seven 

Lovibond unit. Conversely India which 

houses a huge textile industry, is 

producing thousands of cubic metre 

wastewater daily while adopting similar 

control on the wastewater discharge. 

Currently, this wastewater is sent to 

centralised-treatment facilities for 

treatment and charged based on the 

wastewater volume and content to be 

Semiconductor wastewater 

treatment: Fluoride removal 

In semiconductor industry, hydrogen 

As shown in Fig. 4, the membrane 

demonstrated a consistent fluoride 

removal efficiency up to 85%, resulting 

Fig. 4: Application of 

NanoPure membrane 

for fluoride removal 

treated. 

fluoride, also known as the ‘etching 

in about 2.5ppm fluoride content in 

gas’, is an essential chemical that 

the permeate collected, well below the 

As a consequence, there is a strong 

is used in the etching process. Due 

regulatory requirement level. 

demand for a wastewater treatment 

technology which can provide a 

de-centralised solution to the textile 

industry in treating their wastewater 

to the extensive usage of hydrogen 

fluoride, the wastewater from 

semiconductor industry generally 

contains a significant amount 

EFFECTIVE WATER 

AND WASTEWATER 

DECONTAMINATION 

effectively and economically. Nanopure 

of hydrogen fluoride. A typical 

NanoPure hollow fiber NF membrane, 

NF membrane technology provides a 

semiconductor wastewater treatment 

as a unique type of NF membrane 

well-fitted solution for such application. 

consists of chemical treatment 

with optimal membrane properties 

for pH neutralisation, followed by 

such as good chlorine tolerance, 

A case study on the colour and organic 

precipitation technology (e.g., fluidised 

wide pH range stability, low energy 

removal for dye solution was conducted 

crystallisation bed) to precipitate 

consumption, and is back-washable, 

using the NanoPure membrane with a 

out the fluoride content from the 

can treat various water and wastewater 

100ppm Reactive Blue 19 dye solution 

wastewater. The remaining trace 

to meet the desired water quality. 

as feed water, three-bar operating 

amount of fluoride content in the 

pressure and 50% recovery. The test 

wastewater usually requires a finishing 

The application scenarios presented 

was run over a period of more than 

step such as NF membrane technology 

with the membrane ranging 

two months with a stable total organic 

in order to meet the regional regulatory 

from drinking water to industrial 

carbon (TOC) removal recorded 

requirements. 

wastewater justified the robustness 

averagely at 90% (Fig. 3). Nevertheless, 

of the membrane for effective water 

clear and transparent permeate 

Taking Malaysia as an example, the 

and wastewater decontamination. 

solution was collected throughout 

fluoride content of the final discharged 

More applications of the NanoPure 

the test period which aligned with the 

wastewater needs to be less than or 

membrane beyond the current scope 

TOC removal efficiency. Therefore, the 

equal to 5ppm. Hence, a study on 

which potentially include removal of 

NanoPure membrane has potential in 

the fluoride removal using NanoPure 

heavy metal and micropollutants, 

efficient colour and organic removal for 

membrane was established with 

as well as resources recovery from 

the application of textile wastewater 

15ppm fluoride solution as feed water, 

wastewater, are yet to be explored in 

treatment. 

operating at three-bar pressure. 

future studies. 


GRID 

Company: POWERCHINA Hubei 

Project: Full Lifecycle Digital 

Application in Wuhan Xudong 

200kV Substation Project 

Location: Wuhan, Hubei, China 

Winners of the 2022 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure (Image: Bentley Systems) 

WINNERS OF THE 

2022 Going 

Digital Awards in 

Infrastructure 

Bentley Systems, the infrastructure 

engineering software company, has 

announced the winners of their 2022 

Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure. The 

annual awards programme honours the 

work of Bentley software users advancing 

infrastructure design, construction, and 

operations throughout the world. 

The finalists presented their projects at the 

2022 Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital 

Awards event in London before global press 

and 11 independent jury panels, illustrating 

how Bentley’s users master project 

challenges and achieve set objectives by 

leveraging the latest digital advancements. 

Jurors determined the winners of the 12 

award categories from 36 finalists that were 

shortlisted from over nearly 300 nominations 

submitted by more than 180 organisations 

from 47 countries. 

The award winners of the 12 categories are: 

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS 

Company: Ferrovial Construction and 

Project: 

Alamo Construction 

IH35 Nex Central Station 

Location: San Antonio, Texas, US 

CONSTRUCTION 

Company: ACCIONA 

Project: 

Safely Removing 

Dangerous Level 

Crossings through Digital 

Construction 

Location: Melbourne, Victoria, 

Australia 

ENTERPRISE ENGINEERING 

Company: Mott MacDonald 

Project: 

Location: UK 

Smart Object Library for 

the Environment Agency 

FACILITIES, CAMPUSES, AND 

CITIES 

Company: Sydney Airport 

Project: 

Maps@SYD 

Location: Sydney, New South 

Wales, Australia 

GEOPROFESSIONAL 

Company: Mott MacDonald 

Project: 

Driving Efficiency and 

Sustainability in Material 

Reuse through GeoBIM 

Location: Birmingham, West 

Midlands, UK 

PROCESS AND POWER 

GENERATION 

Company: OQ Upstream 

Project: 

Location: Oman 

OQ Asset Reliability 

RAIL AND TRANSIT 

Digitalisation with Purpose 

Company: PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) 

Project: 

Tbk 

Integrated High-Speed 

Rail and Station Jakarta – 

Bandung 

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia 

ROADS AND HIGHWAYS 

Company: Waka Kotahi and FH/HEB JV, 

Project: 

BECA Ltd. 

Takitimu North Link 

Location: Tauranga, Western Bay of 

Plenty, New Zealand 

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING 

Company: WSP 

Project: 

Unity Place Delivered with 

Optimised Design by WSP 

Using Innovations from 

Bentley 

Location: Milton Keynes, 

Buckinghamshire, UK 

SURVEYING AND MONITORING 

Company: Singapore Land Authority 

Project: 

SG Digital Twin Empowered 

by Mobile Mapping 

Location: Singapore 

WATER AND WASTEWATER 

Company: Jacobs and PUB, Singapore’s 

Project: 

National Water Agency 

Tuas Water Reclamation 

Plant (TWRP) 

Location: Singapore 


“DATA IS THE NEW WATER”: 

Monitoring water infrastructure 


From building water treatment plants and developing flood warning systems, 

to detecting cracks and leakages in pipes and sewers, digital twinning 

can contribute to healthier and longer-lasting water infrastructure, 

as Francois Valois, vice-president of civil infrastructure with 

Bentley Systems, tells Water & Wastewater Asia. 

How have digital twin solutions from 

Bentley Systems been used in the water 

industry? 

Francois Valois: Bentley Systems has been 

working with PUB, Singapore’s National Water 

Agency, to build one of their largest water 

treatment plants, to treat, recycle, and reclaim 

water directly over there. It was actually one 

of the winners this year in the Going Digital 

Awards In Infrastructure, in the water and 

wastewater category — a fantastic project 

that leverages digital twin technologies for 

the design and modelling aspects, going 

3D from the ground up, using that same 

information for construction and to monitor 

the construction by flying drones around the 

site. With digital twins, all these aspects and 

information are connected, becoming a system 

instead of just being a bunch of files. And 

with the data visible, users can unlock it for 

design, construction, and operations, making 

it easier to study. Plus, in this project, the 

team connects the data with gaming engine 

technologies like the NVIDIA software to 

enable virtual and augmented realities, all to 

train the staff on the job, and to see how they 

would operate the plant in the future. 

What do you hope to achieve with Bentley 

Acceleration Initiatives, especially in 

relation to the water industry? 

Valois: If we look at it from a macro level, what 

we are trying to do with Bentley Acceleration 

Initiatives is to elevate the playing field. There 

is a lot of information locked in engineering 

files, but about 5% of this information is 

actually being used to make 100% of the 

decisions in projects. Hence, we want to make 

the information available for engineers and 

infrastructure professionals at their fingertips 

to make the right decisions, by having these 

acceleration programmes unlock the data and 

make them usable for design, construction 

and operation, across all phases. Also, the 

data is there to be reused. The engineer and 

infrastructure professional do not have to redo 

or relearn the data. All these are through our 

various initiatives and Bentley Infrastructure 

Cloud, enabled by our iTwin Platform that 

connects all of it — that is the secret sauce. 

Our various products, from ProjectWise to 

SYNCHRO and AssetWise, every one of them 

is now iTwin-enabled, sharing the Bentley 

infrastructure schema, thus allowing information 

to be shared across the whole lifecycle and 

ecosystem of the project. In this context, we 

really want to accelerate all infrastructure 

aspects using digital twins across various 

industries, from water, to transportation, to 

energy, to smart cities. 

For example, for the PUB project, when it 

is completed in 2026, it will be the largest 

membrane bioreactor in the world. With 

the Bentley initiatives, there is a significant 

improvement in the savings and efficiencies. 

It was reported among the contractors that 

by using 3D models, the process was more 


efficient by 50%. The contractors had to create 

the detail model, returning into the system and 

around the Bentley Infrastructure Cloud and 

ProjectWise software, and this made the data 

exchange between the various contractors and 

teams easier, saving 50% of the time invested. 

This sets a new benchmark by using modelbased 

digital delivery and bidding. 

As I mentioned earlier, what we are trying to 

do is to elevate the playing field. Now it takes 

half the time to do the same thing with Bentley 

software. You can use that extra time to make 

better and more informed decisions, and 

really make sure that the engineering is done 

right. This is opposed to projects that do not 

use digital twin technology, instead, using 2D 

or 3D plans and printing them. They will end 

up losing all the information upon giving the 

contractors the plans, because you cannot see 

them virtually. That is not to say that plans and 

files are not useful. They are fundamental to 

the whole process. But modelling unlocks and 

provides real-time data. People say data is the 

new oil, but I would say data is the new water. 

It is fundamental and essential for the survival 

of our infrastructure in the long term. 

How else can the water industry use 

digital twins in our processes and to our 

advantage? 

Valois: There are multiple things we want 

to do with utilities. Not everywhere is the 

water being used fully. There would usually 

be leaks in the water network. Unlike oil, 

people typically do not see the problem in 

this, but in a few years, this is going to be 

a bigger and bigger problem. There have 

also been an increasing number of places, 

like India and South East Asia, where these 

problems are getting critical. So, this whole 

idea of addressing leakages, whether it is 

in developed or developing countries, can 

be solved by our solutions like WaterGEMS, 

which can identify leaks. Another thing our 

solutions can do is optimise pumping, such as 

Digital twinning can unlock 

data and make it available 

for the design, construction 

and operations of a project 

reducing pumping by having better network 

design. For instance, WaterGEMS has 

helped cities like Rotterdam save up to 30% 

in energy costs. 

Another thing: We also encourage people 

to focus on flooding. Are your stormwater 

system and network resilient to a huge storm 

or floods? Which areas will be affected? 

We have just added new capabilities to 

our SewerGEMS product to consider the 

whole network. We call this 2D flooding 

analysis — 2D in the sense that we analyse 

the surface, and the 1D aspect in analysing 

the pipes. The two are connected, and they 

provide a single way to model and analyse 

the flooding considerations in a city or region. 

And you could do this for an existing network 

or planning; are you planning a big enough 

network for the next storm event? Our 

technology therefore connects all the phases 

and makes the data available. 

In your opinion, how do you think the 

water industry can improve using digital 

twins? 

Valois: The next frontier is enabled by our 

WaterSight product. WaterSight is essentially 

a digital twin solution for the operation of 

the water utilities. It leverages modelling our 

strength — for the water flow within the piping 

and sewage networks — and combines it 

with sensor information from supervisory 

control and data acquisition (SCADA) and 

Internet of Things (IoT) systems. WaterSight 

helps to fill gaps in these systems with a 3D 

model. Because the SCADA systems are 

not installed everywhere in the network, the 

modelling helps to make users understand 

what is going on between one sensor and the 

other. If something abnormal is detected, then 

it is probably a leak to be fixed. So, users 

have that real-time context with WaterSight 

models. Compared to static modelling, which 

occurs maybe once every year, WaterSight 

can help to constantly model and get IoT 

information to improve the network state. And 

that is really the next frontier, and where I think 

the industry is going. We have early adopters 

of this technology in Brazil and around the 

world, trying to push the boundaries and get to 

the next level. 

Another thing is dams. We have been 

working on — and there have been early 

adopters — the AssetWise Dam Monitoring, 

which combines IoT and reality modelling 

capabilities. Like our Bentley infrastructure 

cloud, this is iTwin-enabled, so there is an 

iTwin capture product that flies drones around 

the dam, generating wonderful 3D models 

which you can use to overlay and detect cracks 

through artificial intelligence (AI), discover 

where issues are in the large dam, and tag, 

label, and inspect them. Then there is also the 

whole notion of IoT, installing sensors in the 

dams and bridges. It goes back to what I said 

earlier about constant monitoring. We want 

every infrastructure to be monitored, whether it 

is for bridges, tunnels, or dams. 

What do you think the future of digital 

twins will be like in the next five years? 

Valois: I think a lot of this will be around AIenabled 

cloud services that can react faster 

and better to events like flooding, or constant 

network monitoring, or detecting of cracks in 

pipes and sewers. I hope we will not leave 

anyone behind. I hope we will consider the 

whole problem realistically. It is not only about 

rich countries, because water is very important 

for everybody, right? It’s really important we 

bring the whole world with us. And Bentley is 

all about this, and doing it in a sustainable way 

— helping the infrastructure industry design, 

construct and operate better, not only for profit, 

but also to help global problems. 

Francois Valois, 

vice-president of 

civil infrastructure in 

Bentley Systems 


“THE PATH OF LEAST 

RESISTANCE”: 

Managing data efficiently with 

Bentley’s software 

Building large water treatment plants requires the efficient management of data 

and resources. Moving away from 2D drawings and relying instead on digital 

twins and data visualisation is a step towards a quicker, more efficient and simpler 

workflow, as realised at the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) project. 

Without proper software systems to handle 

large amounts of resources and data, the 

project might crumble under the weight of its 

complexity. 

The Tuas WRP project by Jacobs and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency 

THE SCALE OF TUAS WRP 

reclamation and disposal needs. The first 

Seventy-five facilities, 16 contractors, 

phase of the DTSS covering the eastern half 

50-over hectares of site space: This is the of the country was completed in 2008. The 

magnitude of the Tuas WRP project that PUB, second phase is currently under construction, 

Singapore’s National Water Agency, and consisting of a conveyance system of deep 

Jacobs, a technical services provider serving tunnels and link sewers and Tuas WRP to serve 

the engineering and construction industries, the western and southern parts of Singapore. 

had to contend with. 

The scale and complexity of the Tuas WRP 

The Tuas WRP is part of the larger, two-phase project is daunting: the initial capacity of the 

Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) project Tuas plant is expected to be 800,000m 3 per 

in Singapore, developed for the country’s day. As of December 2022, 11 out of the 

long-term used water collection, treatment, 16 contract packages have been awarded. 

“There are not only many contract interfaces 

from a horizontal perspective, but also the 

vertical layering of different contracts that 

have to interact with each other, such as 

‘mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, 

control and automation (MEICA)’ upon Civils 

and Structures,” explained Matt Warburton, 

Jacobs’s project director for Tuas WRP. “The 

software and the technology that we adopted 

should fundamentally be able to manage 

such a level [of data]. We would not be able 

to manage it with a traditional method and for 

the level of interface we are dealing with.” 

Using traditional 2D drawings was therefore 

not an option. Jacobs recommended 

PUB to use software by Bentley Systems, 

whose software solutions leverage on 

digital twinning and data visualisation to 

complement construction projects. 

FAST, EASY, ACCESSIBLE 

But the design and management teams soon 

encountered another problem. Since the 

Tuas WRP project was expected to last over 

10 years — the project began in 2017 — the 


previous generation of Bentley software they 

used could not easily comprehend its scale 

and complexity. 

“Time is of the essence,” said Mark Wong, 

PUB’s chief engineer of Tuas WRP. “When 

the project started, we envisaged our 

engineers using a tablet to deftly open, 

zoom and review the data-rich model 

anytime and anywhere.” 

Hence, to tackle the scale of the project 

and to render models fast and efficiently, 

Jacobs and PUB had to update their range 

of Bentley software. From OpenBuildings 

and OpenPlant to ProjectWise and iTwin, 

the new Bentley software that Jacobs 

and PUB are using allowed the design, 

engineering, and construction management 

teams to access the construction models 

and interfaces anywhere on-site, and 

also are able to track the progress of the 

construction in real-time. All these tapped 

into photogrammetry, which extracts 3D 

information from photos, digital twins, virtual 

and augmented realities, model-based 

tendering, and more. 

“With the latest Bentley software, it is 

possible to load the models faster, where 

unimportant features could be turned off so 

that they will open easily,” Wong elaborated. 

The various teams were therefore able 

to standardise the workflow and data, all 

while considering each other’s different 

perspectives and disciplines during 

construction. One example is using 

iTwin, Bentley’s digital twinning solution 

which creates data blueprints of the water 

reclamation plant in-progress. As Warburton 

said: “Using the iTwin platform is part of our 

engineering team’s day-to-day job. Users 

can go in and navigate easily, as opposed 

to the old-school method which would have 

required 2D physical drawings, where they 

would have to mark all of them up by hand 

and identify any clashes or errors. All that is 

over now, and we work in a very close matrix 

organisation, with the design team working 

with the other engineering and construction 

management teams, yet still completing their 

roles effectively.” 

1 

2 

1 Rendering of Tuas 

Nexus, comprising 

of PUB’s Tuas 

WRP and National 

Environment Agency 

(NEA)’s Integrated 

Waste Management 

Facility (IWMF) in a 

simulated model 

2 The design, 

engineering, and 

project management 

teams can access 

the BIM files anytime 

and anywhere 

Although Jacobs has rendered about 3,500 

building information modelling (BIM) files, 

they only needed five people in the team to 

manage them successfully. Even so, there 

was initial resistance from the contractors 

to using Bentley software due to the novelty 

of the work process. However, once the 

personnel were accustomed to it, once they 

experienced the benefits first-hand and saw 

how the software could speed up the project, 

it become part of their roles. 

“I believe people usually adopt new 

technology to make their work and life 

easier, if it is shown to be the path of least 

resistance. So, if you can show them that 

BIM is the path of least resistance — it is 

very intuitive and quick to use — that really 

is the game-changer. It has been useful in 

our project to de-conflict potential clashes 

at interfaces, and presents more visual 

information that you would not be able to 

appreciate on a 2D drawing. And with real-life 

images taken by the drones or laser scans, 

you can overlay them on the BIM model to 

see the actual progress of the project,” said 

Wong. 

“THE POTENTIAL FOR ROI” 

Having invested significantly on BIM, PUB 

plans to keep the model for future operations 

and maintenance of Tuas WRP. They believe 

in the value of investing in BIM, and the 

returns they bring not only to the plant, but to 

the water industry and beyond. 

However, no matter how time- and costsaving 

using digital twinning and BIM can be, 

they ultimately need to be useful for the end 

user and everybody in the ecosystem — be 

it Jacobs or PUB, or the contractors, the 

designers or engineers. 

Warburton concluded: “From a commercial 

perspective, it is about the return on 

investment (ROI). If you can do things with 

less resource and quicker, if you can do them 

right for the first time with fewer mistakes, 

you can deliver value back to everybody. 

Once people see the potential for the ROI, 

they start to come onboard with the initiative. 

This is a springboard for future projects 

in Singapore, we hope to see more of this 

happening because of the good track record 

we have experienced at Tuas WRP.” 

Images: Jacobs and PUB, Singapore’s National Water 

Agency 


PREDICTIVE 

MAINTENANCE OF 

water infrastructure 

with OpenFlows 

technology 

understand what is happening underground 

in those pipes,” explained Gregg Herrin, 

vice-president of water infrastructure 

division in Bentley Systems. “[With 

OpenFlows], you can make better decisions 

about your planning, designing, and how to 

operate the infrastructure.” 

OPENNESS 

Interoperable with GIS, SCADA, billing 

records, and other data formats, OpenFlows 

takes all the sensor information that comes 

in, simulates it, and recognises if something 

in the system is behaving differently than 

it should. Operators can then analyse it 

to understand why, and send out a field 

crew to inspect or fix the infrastructure, if 

necessary. 

Water distribution networks, in all their large 

and complex pipe and sewer systems, buried 

underground, can be difficult to manage and 

maintain. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that 

gather geographic information system (GIS) 

and supervisory control and data acquisition 

(SCADA) data have been helpful in detecting 

problems and making better infrastructural 

decisions. What if there is a software that can 

pull all these data together to generate more 

immediate, and more complete insights into 

the infrastructure? 

OpenFlows technology by Bentley Systems 

aims to do that. In essence, OpenFlows 

simulates and models water networks. As 

utilities have increasingly been installed with 

sensor technology in recent years, acquiring 

better GIS and SCADA data, OpenFlows 

brings all the data together and provides 

users more connected insights into what is 

happening in the system at that moment. 

Any type of water distribution network, 

wastewater collection network, stormwater 

collections and management, from the size 

of a small site up to an entire city, can be 

managed by OpenFlows. This technology has 

been also used for designing and managing 

water treatment plants as well, such as the 

Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (TWRP) project 

in Singapore. Furthermore, it can cover the 

entire lifecycle of an asset, predicting where 

likely problems might appear, allowing 

operators to react before these problems 

occur. 

“You have to be able to understand 

the networks through simulation tools, 

Herrin emphasised that the OpenFlows 

technology is able to bridge other Bentley 

and non-Bentley technologies together, 

enabling the whole infrastructure network 

to work better digitally. He elaborated: 

“We want our software to become more 

flexible, more open, and connect more 

broadly into the lifecycle phases [of a water 

infrastructure]. We have a history of being 

the first software provider that can do this 

type of water modelling. This is different 

from other vendors where they take what 

they want and try to control your data and 

environment, so that you only use their 

tools. But the infrastructure itself will be 

here for 100 years.” 

He added: “The other thing that we focus on 

is trying to make sure that everything we do 

is usable. Part of that is the user interface, 

making sure that engineers can interact 

with these tools well. We are expanding 

that to make it friendlier for operators and 

non-engineers to use. The easier it is to 

use the software, the more options you can 

evaluate, the better decision you can make 

about what choice you are going to use.” 

PREDICTING UNPREDICTABILITY 

Water crises caused by climate change, 

including but limited to issues like water 


scarcity, droughts and floods, and industry 

problems like non-revenue water (NRW) 

have posed various challenges to the 

water industry. Different regions may face 

different intensities of the same problem. 

“Depending on where you are, you might 

not have enough water, you might have too 

much water, or the water you have might 

not be clean. You may be taking water from 

a source that might not be there in five 

years,” clarified Herrin. 

Addressing these challenges is at the top 

of everyone’s minds, but to Herrin, there 

is a bigger problem at hand: “I think the 

biggest problem, overall, is unpredictability 

— not knowing what might happen, and 

then trying to prepare for the worst case.” 

And this unpredictability extends to water 

infrastructure as well. Leakages, cracks, 

NRW, among other problems, might occur 

without notice. 

That is where OpenFlows technology, with 

its capabilities of assessing an asset’s 

lifecycle, might come into play. Herrin 

explained that with OpenFlows and other 

software solutions by Bentley, users 

can anticipate and identify where the 

likely problems are, and understand the 

magnitude of the problem. Users can also 

plan around how to create district metered 

areas to help control the flow of water better 

through the city, and then manage the 

pressures better. And once the engineers 

finish analysing the problems, managers 

or operators can take that information, 

visualise it in laymen terms, and explain 

to decision-makers clearly where that 

particular problem in the infrastructure lies. 

This, Herrin explained, can help companies 

to get better funding to solve the problem, 

or to put bigger plans in place, such as a 

water conservation programme. 

“We have gotten better today at predicting 

better what might happen in the future,” 

declared Herrin. “If we are looking at 

something like water scarcity, for example, 

if we understand what the city is likely 

to look in 10-20 years, we can look at 

the plans and understand what we can 

do with the people to try to adjust their 

behaviour. For instance, what happens 

if we can get individuals to reduce their 

water consumption by 10%? Get industries 

to reuse and recycle more water, instead 

of just taking freshwater? We can help 

evaluate these what-if scenarios to 

help understand which can make a big 

difference, and which cannot.” 

ADVANCING INFRASTRUCTURE AND 

SUSTAINABILITY 

This predictive maintenance, in turn, can 

help utilities and infrastructures to improve 

sustainability measures. According to 

Herrin, sustainability comes back to 

ensuring that water utilities do what they 

need to do — be it a water distribution 

utility ensuring potable water, or a 

wastewater utility collecting and treating 

wastewater effectively. But each utility 

doing their job may not be enough. Digital 

twinning, such as OpenFlows solutions, 

would therefore be at the centre of this 

communication, connecting different 

utilities. 

OpenFlows technology 

can cover the entire 

lifecycle of an asset, 

predicting where 

likely problems 

might appear in it 

“Any individual utility might think it is 

doing okay, but the bigger picture is still 

changing in a way that is not sustainable,” 

said Herrin. “With Bentley, we see the 

connection of the different professionals 

that are responsible for infrastructure 

as being very important, when these 

professionals communicate with each 

other — whether it is a water utility and 

a power utility working together to figure 

out, for example, if there is a better time for 

the electric grid [to function], or the water 

utility to pump its water. Or if there is a 

more efficient way of doing things that will 

reduce the carbon footprint of the entire 

city.” 

Ultimately, even though Bentley sees 

themselves as a software provider they 

hope to help the entire ecosystem of the 

water industry by advancing successful 

infrastructure. In doing so, they can 

advance successful communication, 

connection, and sustainability too. 

Herrin concluded: “We are seeing a lot 

of changes where utilities are looking for 

better ways to improve their operations, 

and we know that there is so much value in 

the planning and design that can improve 

through construction and operations. 

As such, we see ourselves helping the 

industry take advantage of connecting 

the dots between those different lifecycle 

phases.” 

Gregg Herrin, vice-president of water infrastructure 

division in Bentley Systems 



FROM UNKNOWN 

ORGANISM TO 

EFFLUENT REMOVER: 

The story of Anammox 

Kimberly Liew speaks to Prof Mark van Loosdrecht, 

head of section, environmental biotechnology at 

Technical University of Delft, Willie Driessen, global 

technology and product manager at Paques and 

Victor Lim, CEO of MattenPlant, about Anammox, an 

ammonium wastewater removal process that could 

be a carbon-friendly alternative to present technologies. 

Anammox biomass 

come in various 

shades and sizes 

— the specific red 

colour of Anammox 

bacteria is due to 

the heme c group 

of the protein 

cytochrome c that 

plays an important 

role in Anammox 

metabolism 

How did the concept of 

Anammox first come about? 

Prof Mark van Loosdrecht: 

In an anoxic pilot plant in Delft, 

the Netherlands, ammonium 

unexpectedly disappeared from the 

wastewater. Upon investigation by 

the Technical University of Delft, 

it appeared to be due to a then 

unknown type of micro-organism. 

After studying and understanding 

the microbiology, a process was 

designed to exploit this microbial 

conversion for efficient wastewater 

treatment. The process was named 

Anammox — an acronym for 

anaerobic ammonia oxidation. 

Then, Anammox was scaled up 

by Paques, a Dutch environmental 

technology company, and applied 

for the first time at a wastewater 

facility in Rotterdam in 2002. This 

technology was based on granular 

sludge since that gives the most 

compact and efficient conversion 

process. 

The first application was a process 

where ammonium with nitrite was 

converted to nitrogen gas. Soon 

after, a technology was developed 

based on a community of nitrifying 

and Anammox bacteria in granular 

sludge. This technology allowed 

direct conversion of ammonium 

to nitrogen gas, and it is mostly 

suited for higher temperatures as well 

as higher concentrations — such as 

sludge digestor effluent and industrial 

wastewater. Currently, the research is 

focused on the potential of integrating 

Anammox in municipal wastewater 

treatment plants. 

How has the process of ANAMMOX 

been refined since its creation in 

2002? 

Willie Driessen: The first Anammox 

reactors, like in Rotterdam, were 

built using a two-step approach — 

in which partial nitritation (PN) and 

the Anammox (A) process were 

conducted by two separate reactor 

systems. Paques later developed the 

one-step Anammox reactor system, 

where nitritation and Anammox 

were combined in a single reactor 

system (PN/A). The development 

of well settleable concentrated 

granules helped allow for compact 

reactor systems, facilitating the 

start-up of new reactors. Currently, 

most Anammox installations are for 

the treating of industrial effluent or 

municipal side-stream dewatering 

rejects. 

What were the specific roles 

of Paques and MattenPlant in 

developing or promoting Anammox? 

Driessen: MattenPlant and Paques, 

both owned by SKion Water, have 

teamed up to promote and develop 



Anammox opportunities in the 

With the Anammox process, the 

South East Asian region. Paques is 

set-up is not just about building 

a global provider of environmental 

the plant or having key equipment 

technologies that operates regional 

in place. Equally important, if not 

business entities in Europe, North 

more vital, is the availability of 

America, Latin America, India, China, 

sufficient Anammox biomass for the 

and the Asia-Pacific. 

technology to work and we have 

secured globally a steady supply of 

Victor Lim: While Paques 

the Anammox bacteria. By working 

has a presence in South East 

closely with the customer, Matten 

Asia, MattenPlant adopts the 

will devise a seeding plan for the 

active role of recommending 

Anammox biomass and ensure the 

the Anammox technology to 

plant is ready to go, right when the 

industrial manufacturers or 

bacteria arrive on-site. 

factories, consultants, and 

municipal operators, where it is 

Similarly, what were some 

deemed suitable. With our in- 

challenges encountered during 

house engineering capabilities, 

the initial test runs of Anammox at 

Matten partners with and supports 

Paques’s facilities? 

customers with a full suite of 

Driessen: When we were starting 

services, including design, supply, 

up the world’s first Anammox 

project execution, as well as 

plant in 2002, there was hardly 

operation and maintenance. It is our 

any Anammox biomass available 

desire to stay close to our customers 

in the region and to provide timely 

deliveries. Our team manufactures 

the various pre-treatment equipment 

and Anammox reactor internal 

for seeding other than some small 

lab-scale units. The first order of 

business was to grow enough sludge 

for seeding. Although this initial 

start-up took almost three years, it 

in China, has been handling a 

load of 11,000kgN per day since 

2009, and there are many more 

installations involving thermal 

From left to right: 

Victor Lim, Willie 

Driessen, Prof Mark 

van Loosdrecht 

separators in our facilities, which 

has been running for 20 years now. 

hydrolysis process (THP), which 

helps to cushion against any supply 

Since then, nearly 70 Anammox 

make the application even more 

shock and logistics issues. 

installations have been built using 

challenging. Throughout these 

and producing granular Anammox 

plants, what we have observed is 

What were some challenges that 

biomass. 

that the Anammox installations are 

MattenPlant encountered when 

implementing Anammox? 

Lim: As every project is unique 

“A COST-EFFECTIVE AND 

SUSTAINABLE APPROACH” 

all working well, even under tough 

conditions. 

— from wastewater load factor, 

What are some benefits of using 

Compared to conventional 

physical space consideration, 

Anammox? Could you also 

nitrification and denitrification 

to greenfield or retrofitting — we 

share with us some successful 

methods, the Anammox technology 

believe that having local presence is 

applications? 

offers a cost-effective and 

paramount. We have found that the 

Lim: The Anammox process as 

sustainable approach to ammonia 

ability to understand project specific 

a side-stream nitrogen removal 

removal. The innovative biological 

requirements and stay close to our 

application has been gaining ground 

process is an elegant shortcut in 

customers is key. Matten’s regional 

over the years. Aside from the 

the natural nitrogen cycle where 

presence has enabled us to connect 

fact that it is offered by Paques, 

ammonium is directly converted 

with customers readily, and my 

the technology has proven to 

into nitrogen gas. Some of the 

team’s engineering competence and 

be effective and reliable in both 

key benefits include savings on 

the timely support that they render 

industrial and municipal sectors. 

energy from aeration, minimal 

provides a firm assurance to the 

For one, the world largest industrial 

waste sludge production, and the 

customer. 

Anammox installation, located 

ability to achieve very compact 



installations. Furthermore, the 

process eliminates the need for 

a carbon source while allowing 

the production of useful granular 

biomass. 

Driessen: The Anammox process 

has been used for treating industrial 

and municipal wastewater. The 

industrial application typically 

includes sectors like food, 

fermentation, and rendering 

industries, while the municipal 

application involves mainly sidestream 

sludge dewatering reject 

liquors. These reject liquors are 

derived from anaerobic digestion 

of sewage sludge, sometimes 

including co-digestion of organic 

waste residues. 

What are some trends observed 

with the application of Anammox 

technology across the world? 

Prof van Loosdrecht: Most 

attention for research is to 

integrate Anammox in municipal 

wastewater treatment, to make it 

more energy efficient. In tropical 

regions, Anammox is sometimes 

spontaneously present, while for 

more temperate conditions, there 

are several potential processes to 

integrate Anammox in wastewater 

treatment. 

Driessen: Sewage treatment 

plants that have been primarily 

built for wastewater purification 

are increasingly being regarded 

as water and resources recovery 

facilities (WRRF). Increasingly, the 

application of anaerobic treatment 

of wastewater and sludge for 

producing biogas has resulted 

in the growing interest in the 

Anammox process for the energyefficient 

removal of nitrogen. The 

application of thermal THP for 

reducing sewage sludge amounts 

and improving biogas production, 

has led to increased nitrogen 

loadings in the sludge dewatering 

rejects. The Anammox process 

is an ideal process to treat these 

reject liquors, removing the nitrogen 

without the need for a carbon 

source (COD), using up to 60% less 

aeration energy than conventional 

processes. 

Lim: We see more interest and 

adoption in biological treatment 

processes like Anammox, and 

also for nitrogen and phosphorus 

removal solutions such as Phospaq. 

This is likely a direct result of 

countries adopting higher standards 

of effluent discharge to protect 

humans and the environment, and 

this trend is observed across both 

industrial and municipal sectors. 

What are some challenges faced 

by the water treatment industry 

today and how can Anammox 

technology mitigate those 

issues? 

Prof van Loosdrecht: The 

greatest challenge is to become 

energy neutral or positive. By 

having ammonium removed by 

Anammox, the organic carbon can 

be converted into biogas instead 

of being needed for the nitrogen 

removal processes. 

Driessen: Aeration energy, 

currently still mainly fossil fuelbased, 

often represents the 

main operational costs for many 

wastewater treatment plants. 

The production of excess waste 

sludge is another major concern. 

The use of the Anammox 

process in combination with 

anaerobic sludge digestion allows 

the production of biogas, or 

renewable energy, and 

the saving of aeration energy, 

producing a minimum amount 

of excess sludge. Paques’ 

Anammox process produces 

granular sludge, which can 

be considered as an asset 

for starting up other new 

installations. 

Could you share with us any 

upcoming projects that utilise 

Anammox? 

Driessen: There is a 

commissioning of a side-stream 

plant in Hong Kong planned for 

2023. This plant, comprising the 

Anammox process for nitrogen 

removal and a Phospaq struvite 

reactor for the recovery and 

removal of phosphorus, will 

be treating sludge dewatering 

rejects from thermally hydrolysed 

and anaerobically digested 

biosolids. 

A typical Anammox 

plant layout 

comprises three 

reactor tanks with 

connected walls, 

with the Anammox 

separator openings 



MICRO EFFECTS, 

MACRO LEAPS: 

Effective irrigation 

in a water 

scarce world 

In the face of rapidly depleting water resources 

and increasing demand for agricultural 

commodities, how should farmers approach 

irrigation for a more sustainable future? 

By Agatha Wong, assistant editor 

witnessing the challenges water scarcity 

could unleash upon a country: in 2018, the 

country’s pure water production reached 

a historic low of 555 cubic metres. For the 

company, which was founded in 1966 in a 

kibbutz (a small agricultural community) in 

northern Israel, improved water management 

for a more robust agriculture landscape 

seemed a necessary step forward in the 

water-scarce nation. And as the conversation 

on water scarcity evolved from regional 

cases to a global issue, Rivulis now offers 

its solutions to over 120 countries, based on 

technology developed in its R&D centres in 

Israel, California, and Greece. 

Specific to the Egyptian market, Rivulis has 

produced drip lines, online drippers, filters, 

hydrocyclones, and ReelView, a mobile app 

providing agronomic satellite imagery of one’s 

crops. 

DRIP BY DRIP 

“2022 has seen some of the most severe 

droughts in centuries in regions that were 

not used to such water stress. Last summer, 

dinosaur footprints in dry rivers in Texas 

dating back more than 100 million years or 

sunken World War II warships in the Danube 

River appeared in the heart of Europe. All 

stakeholders — farmers, decision-makers, 

and society — understand that our approach 

to water consumption must change. This is 

where micro-irrigation systems come in to 

address this challenge,” explained Khaled 

Ζaghloul, general manager of Rivulis Egypt. 

Since the turn of the century, the global 

South has been home to immense changes 

sweeping through its diverse landscape; 

from a surge in urban population to a 

rise in industrial growth, culminating in 

an emerging middle-class with greater 

purchasing power and shifting demands. 

Accompanying this climbing trend is also 

the participation of the global South in the 

agri-food market as both exporters and 

importers. 

Yet, the region is more vulnerable than ever 

to the tides of climate change: a record of 30 

wildfires in Greece were observed barely a 

few months into 2022; on the other hand, the 

harsh 2022 Pacific typhoon season continues 

to wreak havoc across South East Asia, 

ravaging homes and livelihoods. 

Rivulis Egypt, the Egyptian subsidiary of 

Rivulis, a micro-irrigation solutions provider 

based in Israel, has had a front row seat in 

Unlike conventional forms of irrigation, such 

as surface irrigation, which results in water 

loss from evaporation, infiltration, and runoff, 

micro-irrigation delivers water slowly and 

precisely in the form of discrete droplets, 

continuous drops, and streams. This ensures 

an efficient use of water resources with 

minimal wastage, using only what is needed 

for the crops. 

There are, according to Zaghloul, four types 

of micro-irrigation: Sprinkler irrigation utilises 

high-pressure sprinklers to supply the plant 



with the exact amount of water needed for 

optimum growth. Spray irrigation, meanwhile, 

relies on a jet spray to deliver water. It is also 

mobile, and can be applied in smaller lawns 

or across larger farms. 

Drip irrigation, on the other hand, uses 

emitters to deliver water directly to the plant 

root into the soil. These emitters optimise and 

distribute the pressure from the water source 

using vents, twisters, and convoluted or long 

flow paths which allow only a limited amount 

of water to pass through. Emitters may be 

placed on the ground or planted deep into 

the soil, where water flowing through moves 

without barriers at the desired speed. 

Lastly, subsurface irrigation applies water 

to plants from below the soil surface. Highly 

efficient, the system requires only low-levels 

of water pressure to perform effectively. In 

this system, tubes and pipes are hidden under 

the soil for water delivery, which means there 

is no waste of water. 

Besides reducing water consumption by 

90%, micro-irrigation also yields a host of 

other benefits. Zaghloul elaborated that 

micro-irrigation systems are often used to 

“fertigate”, a process where liquid fertilisers 

are injected directly into irrigation pipes rather 

than spread across the field. As a result, 

fertilisers are distributed more accurately and 

evenly, saving energy by pumping less water, 

or keeping a patch of soil moist where the 

microbiome thrives. In all, farmers can expect 

greater yields and improved crop quality. 

RACE TOWARDS CONSERVATION 

As the world faces increasing water scarcity, 

micro-irrigation will rise to the fore as a viable 

means of conserving previous resources. 

Indeed, the Intergovernmental Panel on 

Climate Change has assessed that “most 

regions have already experienced negative 

impacts on the water cycle and agricultural 

productivity”. 

Zaghloul believes that micro-irrigation 

technology will benefit from double-digit 

growth in the coming 5- 10 years. This will, 

of course, be accompanied by other solutions 

that can work hand-in-hand with microirrigation 

to enhance water management: 

Wireless monitoring, for example, can enable 

remote management of irrigation systems and 

an easier control of pressure, flow, and water 

levels anytime, anywhere, supporting greater 

cost-effectiveness and sustainability. 

Meanwhile, manufacturers will continue with 

the reduction of their environmental footprint 

through the upgrading of manufacturing 

capabilities, which can support the increased 

use of recycled materials in their products. 

Collecting used products and circling 

them back into the manufacturing process 

also create a more resilient supply chain, 

according to Zaghloul. 

“We are starting to see more control, 

more intelligence, and more integration. 

For example, we are seeing more control 

over each valve and each outlet, bringing 

precision irrigation to the next level,” 

observed Zaghloul. “We are also seeing 

more intelligence through forecasting and 

predictive analysis. This is a game-changer 

for agriculture. It helps to reduce errors and 

minimise the risk of crop failures. Additionally, 

it gives growers a better idea of general water 

trends in their soil to create more efficient and 

effective plans. 

“Also, we expect more integration between 

designing the system, manufacturing, and 

installing it on the ground, as well as operating 

and monitoring it. We strongly believe in this 

concept of more integration which is why we 

acquired our own irrigation design software 

in 2022 called WCADI.” Rivulis is currently 

integrating the software into their own 

production systems and monitoring solutions 

to create a smooth process from design to 

monitoring. 

A DROP IN THE OCEAN 

Consistent to the theme of water conservation 

are teamwork and cooperation. In that regard, 

micro-irrigation is but a small step towards 

Khaled Ζaghloul serves as the general manager of 

Rivulis Egypt 

a larger picture of sustainable agriculture 

and climate resilience. Fortifying soil 

health, for example, can yield more carbon 

sequestration from the atmosphere, increase 

biodiversity, and promote more sustainable 

food production. 

Bringing in key players, such as farmers 

and smallholders, are also vital to enabling 

change. In 2022, Rivulis established a 

customer financing division to expand its 

financing solutions for their distributors and 

farmers; the company had been cognizant 

of the financial hurdles that farmers might 

experience, as they are investing in a 

technology that will pay-off only once their 

harvest has been sold. For smallholders, 

Rivulis has also partnered with Agriwise, 

an India-based agri-financier supported 

by Temasek Holdings and a sugar mill in 

Maharashtra. The mill pays Agriwise and the 

farmers pay back their loans directly through 

the deduction of the cane harvest at the 

factory, with the payback period for the farmer 

being less than three years due to the yield 

increase. 

Zaghloul concluded by adding: “Irrigation 

methods is only one aspect of the solution. 

We will have to provide more comprehensive 

solutions to farmers addressing fertiliser 

usage and other sustainable farming 

methods (such as cover crops, tillage, residue 

management, etc). Moreover, this transition 

can only go hand in hand with affordable 

financing solutions to support farmers in this 

transition. To succeed, it will require more 

partnerships within our ecosystem between 

agricultural input manufacturers, product 

buyers and financiers.” 



EVERMORE: 

GenX and the 

future of water 

filtration 

Henrik Hagemann serves as CEO of Puraffinity 

In 2013, while studying bromide sources 

at the Cape Fear River watershed in North 

Carolina, US, Dr Detlef Knappe and his team 

of researchers discovered high levels of 

industrial chemicals in the area’s drinking 

water. Among familiar names of per- and 

polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which 

include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), 

perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), they 

also found GenX, a Chemour trademarked 

compound for exafluoropropylene oxide 

dimer acid (HFPO-DA). 

At its inception, GenX was created as 

replacement for PFOA in the manufacturing of 

fluoropolymers, as the latter was discovered 

to be toxic and carcinogenic. However, 

subsequent studies have shown that GenX 

was just as liable to causing the same health 

issues as PFOA. More than that, GenX 

belongs to the family of PFAS, a collective of 

4700 man-made chemicals deemed “forever 

chemicals” as they do not degrade naturally 

in the environment. Highly mobile, these 

chemicals have been found across in drinking 

water, surface water and seawater across the 

world. 

“We used to think that these persistent 

forever chemicals would be discharged 

locally and then eventually disappear, like 

most other chemicals in water. However, what 

we have seen is that the GenX chemicals 

integrate across the water cycle, from a local 

discharge point to a river, to the clouds, to 

the oceans,” shared Henrik Hagemann, CEO 

of Puraffinity. “Prior to the 2020s, we really 

only had estimates about what happens with 

GenX once it hits the oceans for example. 

Now, there has been pioneering studies to 

show what happens. GenX and other lipophilic 

chemicals end up concentrating in something 

called the sea Surface MicroLayer (SML) — a 

tiny layer at the top of the oceans — where it 

then forms little transportable droplets called 

aerosols, which nucleate water vapour to form 

clouds. What surprised me about the studies 

was just how concentrated forever chemicals 

get in this little SML layer.” 

The hydrophobicity of the SML layer attracts 

forever chemicals by a much larger factor, 

with more than a 500-fold increase in 

concentration according to Dryden 2022 1 . 

The concentration of GenX in clouds is thus 

very high. This is problematic, as these clouds 

provide surface water refills in reservoirs. And 

with climate change exacerbating droughts 

and drought-prone regions like the Colorado 

River basin relying on reservoirs as their main 

source of drinking water, there is an urgent 

call across the water industry for effective 

materials to capture PFAS and remove them 

from water sources. 

CAPTURING PFAS 

London-based science materials company, 

Puraffinity, has developed a bio-based 

and highly-selective absorbent material 

designed to capture and retain a wide 

range of PFAS species, including GenX, via 

binding mechanisms based on a combination 

of electrostatic charge attractions and 

absorption. 

“They bind like building blocks as the water 

flows past,” explained Henrik Hagemann, in 

a separate news release. “And, once all the 

Puraffinity material is filled up with GenX, the 

material is engineered to unclick the bound 

GenX using a safe regeneration step. The 

Puraffinity material can then be re-used for 

non-point-of-use (non-POU) applications, 

like industrial or environmental remediation, 

enabling a circular economy for the future of 

water filtration materials.” 

In comparison with ion exchange and 

activated carbon technologies, which were 

developed in the 1940s, and are effective 

at only tackling the more contaminants and 

pollutants such as chlorine residuals and 

heavy metals, Puraffinity’s material can 

capture PFAS at the levels which the US 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has 

mandated. This is also in light of dropping 

health advisor levels for PFAS; Hagemann 

noted that in the US alone, PFAS regulations 

have gone down 37.5 million times for the US 

alone — equivalent to a lower concentration 

of almost 10 times every two years. 

To that end, Puraffinity’s media can capture 

and retain highly toxic forever chemicals of 

both short and long-chains, and its targeted 

materials allow for broad-spectrum removal 

performance with higher throughput and 

longer lifespan. In fact, according to a trial 

conducted at the Water Hub at Colorado 

School of Mines and at the Heritage Research 

Group, Puraffinity’s PFAS-absorbent material 

was shown to remove GenX chemicals to 



below the health advisory guidelines as 

proposed by the US EPA (10 parts per 

trillion), treating three times the amount of 

GenX compared to the aforementioned 

ion exchange and activated carbon 

technologies. It also lasts longer. 

The new technology is also mindful of the 

most common concern raised by end-users 

and water companies: disruption to existing 

water infrastructure. While customers are 

keen to remove forever chemicals from their 

plants, they often find it costly to implement 

treatment technology in current plants that 

will be amortised over 10-30 years. 

“Therefore, our customers incorporate 

our media into their existing systems and 

solutions, combining Puraffinity’s advanced 

material with other adsorbent technologies 

more focused to tackle common 

contaminants and pollutants,” elaborated 

Hagemann. “The fast kinetics of Puraffinity’s 

advanced material means water and 

wastewater industry can choose to do more 

with less: They can increase the treatment 

capacity of an existing plant to fulfil 

requirements to treat PFAS to lower levels, 

without needing to expand their treatment 

plant. This combination maximises the water 

treatment performance and amplifies the 

spectrum of unwanted substances removal, 

allowing customers to get sustainable 

removal of PFAS at the lowest total cost of 

ownership.” 

FOREVER… AND EVER 

Another issue that goes hand-in-hand with 

the removal of forever chemicals is the 

development of sustainable solutions in 

water filtration technologies. According to 

the US National Institute of Environmental 

Health Sciences, current PFAS removal 

processes have “involved extreme 

heat, sorbents, and bioremediation (the 

use of microorganisms to break down 

contaminants), all of which can be costly 

and inefficient, and create secondary 

pollutants”. In that regard, the goals of 

safeguarding drinking water for the masses 

and ensuring sustainable, reusable water 

filtration processes go hand in hand with 

one another. Hagemann concurred with this 

view: 

“Ultimately, we want to see a reusable 

media addressing PFAS — driving down 

waste generation and improving the carbon 

footprint of treatment. Demonstrating a 

longer lifespan in third-party case studies 

is a key step on that journey and gives 

confidence in the performance, stability 

and longevity of the material. We think of the 

development cycle much like a stage gated 

approach, where we have strict internal 

success criteria before we proceed to the 

next stage of applications.” 

Puraffinity’s third-party validated material 

thus serves residential and commercial 

market sectors with POU and point-ofentry 

(POE) solutions. These decentralised 

systems, especially as a sustainable 

material can reduce the carbon footprint of 

treating PFAS in these applications. 

“In a larger scale, we supply our media 

across the industrial space. Each segment 

has different needs and specific challenges, 

but all of them has been under pressure by 

evolving changes in the various regulatory 

frameworks across the globe,” added 

Hagemann. “We believe in sutainable, 

green materials, with low carbon footprint 

and zero impact to the environment. Our 

current development efforts have been 

focusing on developing a safe and efficient 

regeneration process, which will be a 

major milestone across the water treatment 

industry since the media can be re-used 

for non-POU applications, like industrial 

or environmental remediation, enabling a 

circular economy for the future of water 

filtration materials.” 

References: 

1 https://journalijecc.com/index.php/IJECC/article/view/1392 

Puraffinity’s renewable material binds and retains a wide spectrum of PFAS species, 

including GenX. Deemed “forever chemicals”, these compounds pose health risks to 

the human body 

Puraffinity’s material can be implemented into current water treatment processes 

with minimal disruptions 



GREENTECH FESTIVAL: 

A platform for water 

innovators and educators 

The Greentech Festival made its 

splashing debut in Singapore in 

November 2022. How can the water 

industry benefit from participating in 

such an event? Founder Nico Rosberg 

provides his insights on the matter 

and more. By Kimberly Liew 

Nico Rosberg, former 2016 F1 World Champion, is now an advocate for 

sustainability and is the founder of the Greentech Festival, which hosted 

its inaugural edition in Singapore. (Image: Tom Ziora) 

Water scarcity has become a pressing issue, 

as its effects are felt throughout the globe in 

various ways — from the livestock industry 

consuming up to 70% of all freshwater 

consumption worldwide, to developed areas 

like Berlin facing record-breaking droughts 

that affected agricultural outputs during the 

summer of 2022. 

Even Singapore, which has come a long 

way from its water rationing exercises in the 

1960s, still has issues with water security. 

Although the country has made strides 

in rainwater and reservoir technology, it 

continues to be dependent on Malaysia for 

freshwater. This issue is compounded by 

water consumption per head increasing by 

20% over the course of the last two years, 

from 130l to 160l per person per day. 

Nico Rosberg, founder of Greentech Festival, 

felt it was essential for Singapore to reduce 

water consumption to “guarantee a stable 

future” in water security. Technology is one 

front in tackling water security. However, 

innovations can only go so far. Education 

needs to be paired with innovations in order to 

create an effective impact. 

“I am sure not many Singaporeans even know 

this problem that they are using more water 

than before and are using too much water,” 

Rosberg said. “It is really about education, and 

this is where we, the Greentech Festival, as a 

platform wish to support, in as many ways as 

we can.” 

GREENTECH FESTIVAL AND ITS GLOBAL 

SPREAD 

Greentech Festival aims to promote ideas 

and innovations in the field of sustainability. 

Particularly for the water industry, the festival 

showcases innovations aligned with the sixth 

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 

(SGDs), pursuing clean water and sanitation. 

Rosberg came up with the idea of the festival 

in 2018 during a Formula-E event. Formula-E 



is a motorsport championship race for 

electric cars, with the purpose of promoting 

sustainability. From there, Rosberg met 

his fellow co-founders Marco Voigt and 

Sven Krüger, who helped to set up the first 

Greentech Festival in Berlin in May 2019. The 

event was met with great success, attracting 

more than 35,000 visitors on-site and 80-over 

exhibitors. 1 

Following this optimistic start, the three 

founders decided to expand the festival’s 

outreach beyond its initial home in Berlin. 

Confining Greentech Festival to Berlin would 

limit the festival’s outreach to just Europe, as 

not many people from far-away places would 

be able to attend the event. When it was time 

to host the festival in Asia, Singapore was the 

“perfect choice”. 

Although this is a first for the festival in 

Singapore, for Rosberg, the island is more 

than familiar territory. The former motorsports 

racer has been throughout the course of his 

“past life” a racer in the F1 Race, clinching 

the championship here back in 2016. Now 

a sustainability advocate and entrepreneur, 

Rosberg hopes to raise awareness on creating 

a better environment for humans to live in and 

the ideas that could make that dream possible. 

It was not just familiarity that made Rosberg 

gravitate towards Singapore, however. 

Singapore has been pivotal in “leading 

the way” in accelerating South East Asia’s 

transition to sustainability, particularly through 

the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which sets 

long-term goals for the country to work 

towards in achieving growth, while minimising 

its impact on the environment. Rosberg thus 

felt the “most opportunities” could be yielded 

from hosting the Greentech Festival here. 

Singapore’s inaugural Greentech Festival was 

held from 17-18 Nov 2022. The festival was 

attended by over 1,000 delegates, including 

organisations like Audi, World Wildlife 

Federation (WWF), Imhotep Industries, Hydro 

Intelligence and others. Entrepreneurs and 

innovators had opportunities to showcase their 

ideas for a sustainable future through events 

such as product exhibitions, conferences, 

fireside chats and awards shows. 

GREENTECH FESTIVAL AS A PLATFORM 

FOR INNOVATION AND EDUCATION 

Through these fireside chats and 

conferences, Greentech Festival aims 

to promote sustainability education with 

relevant experts, as well as collaborations 

with local celebrities, such as singersongwriter 

JJ Lin, whom Rosberg had a 

fireside chat with earlier that day. Rosberg 

noted that Lin could use his public 

presence to reach his “over 4 million fans” 

on Instagram and spread a message of 

sustainability, hopefully attracting a wider 

audience in working towards that goal. 

Apart from being a platform for education, 

Greentech Festival aims to “have a direct 

impact” on businesses selling their solutions. 

Companies can showcase their products 

and create new business deals through 

connecting with new clients at the festival, 

increasing their customer base and income 

in the process. This is especially helpful for 

the water industry, which Rosberg laments 

receives visibility compared to the other 

causes such as carbon neutrality or zero 

emissions. 

Over the course of visits to Greentech Festival 

exhibits throughout the years, Rosberg has 

seen a few outstanding inventions that tackle 

different problems within the water industry. 

Of note, he cited Technical University of 

Munich (TUM)’s Water 3.0, which utilises 

microplastic retention technology to filter 

microplastics out of drinking water, which will 

make the water healthier for consumption. 

He also cited HydroWater’s contamination 

detection technology. 

As for the exhibits during Greentech Festival 

Singapore that left an impression on Rosberg, 

Imhotep Industries’ PHANTOR atmospheric 

water generator (AWG) impressed him 

through its ability to efficiently extract drinking 

water from the humidity in the air. 

“The technology is old, but it is the efficiency 

that they are leading the way,” he commented. 

“Out there, they were producing 600l of water 

from the air in 20 minutes.” 

Rosberg also believes that Greentech Festival 

is an opportunity for different stakeholders— 

ranging from governments, start-ups with 

sustainable solutions, non-governmental 

organisations (NGOs), to business leaders and 

even local celebrities— to “come and sit at the 

table” and create effective action plans that 

they could act on and stick to. 

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE 

Rosberg stated that there were no current 

plans to change the festival’s locations apart 

from planning to add an additional stop, but 

provided no further details. Rather, Greentech 

Festival intended to focus on growing their 

satellites, as well as having a “measurable 

impact” as a platform through the number of 

partnerships formed and actions agreed upon 

on their platform, particularly through B2B 

partnerships. 

Greentech Festival’s measurable goals are 

not just business-oriented, however. Rosberg 

also hopes that the festival will encourage 

employees to adopt sustainable practices 

within their own businesses through utilising 

the technologies they have acquired during 

Greentech Festival, such as reducing their 

water consumption. He also hopes that festival 

has been a platform for “discovery” in finding 

new sustainable technologies, ideas for 

sustainability and finding inspirational figures 

that had a chance to share their voice on stage. 

Rosberg concluded: “I hope people can 

walk out today with optimism. Seeing so 

many like-minded people coming together 

with such a passion and optimism is quite 

beautiful, so I hope that they can go away 

with that kind of energy. I could see that in 

everyone today.” 

References: 

1 Greentech Festival Facts and Figures 2019, https:// 

greentechfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GTF_ 

FactsFigures.pdf. 


IN THE FIELD 

A CASE STUDY 

in NRW in Kuala Lumpur 

An example of the 

90-series Cla-Val 

pipes installed in 

Kuala Lumpur 

In 1998, Kuala Lumpur, the capital 

city of Malaysia and home to over 1.5 

million people, was running out of 

water. 

To avert the looming crisis, the nonrevenue 

water performance-based 

contract (NRW-PBC) project was 

implemented. A pilot phase ran for 18 

months, with a target to reduce NRW 

by 18.5 megalitres per day (MLD). 

After the implementation of this 

phase, the contractor, Cla-Val, was 

awarded phase two, which had an 

implementation period of nine years 

and a target to save 198.9 MLD. 

Cla-Val reported that they were 

able to reduce NRW by 198 million 

litres per day, which was equal 

to about 10% of the city’s total 

water production at the start of 

the contract. They repaired more 

than 11,000 leaks across the city, 

replaced 119,000 water meters, 

avoided capital expenditure on 

additional water sources estimated 

at US$110m, and added revenue 

from the sales of saved water. They 

also reduced operating cost per 

units of water sold, in addition to 

establishing more than 220 district 

metered areas (DMAs). 


IN THE FIELD 

1 

2 

The company stated that the use of 

pressure reducing valves was a key 

element of the process and helped 

to regulate the network, even in 

low-pressure situations. They also 

claimed that much like what they 

observed in Jakarta 1 , the results 

in Kuala Lumpur showed that 

even as the benefits of lowering 

pressure have been utilised in 

various parts of the world, the 

impact that pressure management 

had on low-pressure situations 

was less appreciated, with the 

application resulted in NRW 

savings. According to Cla-Val, 

over 600 Cla-Val 90-series valves 

were installed in Kuala Lumpur 

and continue to operate to this 

day. 

1 The pilot phases of the 90-series Cla-Val pipes occurred in two 

phases: the first over 18 months and the second over nine years 

2 The 600 90-series Cla-Val pipes installed in Kuala Lumpur managed 

to reduce 198 million litres per day, which was equal to about 10% 

of the city’s total water production at the start of the contract 

Reference 

1. Water & Wastewater Asia. Reducing leaks in Jakarta’s 

water networks. 


IN THE FIELD 

CONTAINERISED 

wastewater treatment plant 

WOG has set up containerised wastewater treatment 

plant based on WOG’s SMART Membrane bioreactor (MBR) 

technology with automation, producing negligible amount of 

sludge from the plant. Complete plant is executed in two phases. 

By Manpreet Kaur, process engineer, WOG Technologies Pte Ltd 

(Image: Thakur Dutt 

Sharma) 

CHALLENGE 

• Chemical oxygen demand (COD) 

to biological oxygen demand 

(BOD) ratio was high for the 

complete biodegradation through 

bacteria 

• Space constraint for the 

expansion of the plant 

• Tie in points integration with 

existing and new set up 

PROCESS DESCRIPTION 

Plant process comprises the oil 

skimming chamber for removal of oil 

and grease, and equalisation tank for 

equalising the effluent parameters 

throughout the day. 

Inline screens are provided to remove 

the particles for protection of MBR 

modules which are placed downstream 

for BOD, COD, organic and total 

suspended solid (TSS) removal. 

After inline screens, anoxic tank 

and bioreactor tank which are 

containerised, are placed with high 

efficiency jet aerators for providing 

oxygen to the system. In the anoxic 

and bioreactor tank, active biomass 

is being maintained and total Kjeldahl 


IN THE FIELD 

(Image: Manpreet Kaur) 

(Image: Thakur Dutt Sharma) 

nitrogen (TKN), BOD, COD are being removed 

in these tanks by providing oxygen through jet 

aerators, placed in the tanks. 

From bioreactor, effluent passes through 

the MBR modules which remove the active 

biomass as well as suspended solids and 

turbidity to provide clear effluent at the outlet 

of MBR modules. 

This effluent is further polished through the 

advanced oxidation system using ozonator to 

remove remaining BOD/COD which is hard to 

biodegrade. 

(Image: Sunil Rajan) 

BENEFITS 

With containerised wastewater treatment 

plant, automated, human-machine interface 

(HMI)-based plant with less manpower and 

negligible sludge production as compared to 

other conventional biological process can be 

achieved. 

In addition, the laboratory facility is available 

within the container with panel, MBR 

modules, motor control centres (MCCs) or 

programmable logic controllers (PLCs) housed 

inside. It also features advanced oxidation 

system using ozonator for further polishing 

organics and UV for reducing bacteria count in 

the treated water. 

TECHNICAL FEATURES 

Anoxic tank retention time is two hours for 

de-nitrification. Nitrification-denitrification is 

a simultaneous process which is performed 

by bacteria in the presence and absence of 

oxygen respectively. 

Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS mg/l) 

or bacteria population which is consistently 

maintained high in the anoxic and bioreactor 

tank is on the tune of 18,000-22,000mg/l. 

In the bioreactor tank, biodegradable BOD 

and COD are removed, and the oxygen 

transfer rate per ejector for providing 

oxygen is considered as 1.2kg O2 per hour. 

Permeate flux through the MBR modules is 

kept as 65 litres per m 2 per hour. 

RESULT 

BOD: 95% removal achievement 

• BOD in: 1000mg/l 

• BOD out: 50mg/l 

COD: 90% removal achievement 

• COD in: 4000mg/l 

• COD out: 400mg/l 

TSS: 98% removal achievement 

• TSS in: 120mg/l 

• TSS out:

IN THE FIELD 

NANOSTONE 

ENABLES COST- 

EFFECTIVE 

WASTEWATER 

reuse for semiconductor 

foundry 

CHALLENGE 

A leading global foundry sought 

to increase capacity in a limited 

footprint while managing a challenging 

wastewater that made stable operations 

difficult to maintain. The foundry 

struggled with: 

• Lost productivity: Chemicalmechanical 

planarisation (CMP) 

wastewater irreversibly fouled existing 

tubular ceramic membranes, reducing 

treatment capacity by nearly 25% 

• Limited footprint to accommodate 

expanded capacity: Tightening 

regulations necessitated expansion 

of the CMP wastewater treatment 

capacity; however, there was limited 

space available for expansion 

• Prolonged downtime: The existing 

tubular membrane system operated 

in cross-flow filtration resulting in 

concentrate build-up in the feed tank, 

which required frequent shut down to 

drain manually 

• Increased operating cost: Monthly 

cleanings were required to restore 

membrane permeability 

SOLUTION 

Nanostone’s ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) 

addressed these challenges, enabling 

expanded treatment capacity within 

the existing footprint limitations. By 

adopting Nanostone, the foundry was 

able to: 

• Increase capacity: Nanostone UF 

membranes were installed within 

the existing space constraints, 

doubling the capacity of the CMP 

wastewater treatment system 

• Ensure reliable, low-maintenance 

operation: Nanostone’s foulingresistant 

membrane coating 

extended time between chemical 

cleanings to longer than five 

months 

• Improve uptime: Nanostone 

membranes operate predominantly 

in dead-end filtration, sharply 

reducing concentrate build-up 

and avoiding system shutdown 

for feed tank cleaning; further, 

the less frequent concentration 

build-ups were drained using an 

automated back wash process 

• Reduce power consumption: 

Operating largely in dead-end 

filtration and eliminating an air 

scrub resulted in a 90% reduction 

in power consumption of 

compared to the existing tubular 

membranes 

1 

2 

1 Nanostone Membrane Module 

2 Nanostone Membrane Microstructure 

CMP WASTEWATER 

CMP — used widely in the 

manufacture of integrated circuits 

— introduces chemical oxidation 

and mechanical abrasion to remove 

unwanted material and produces 

high planarised polished surfaces 

for subsequent processing. CMP 

typically accounts for 30-40% of the 

total freshwater consumed in the 

manufacturing process. As transistor 


IN THE FIELD 

dimensions shrink, integrated circuits 

become increasingly complex and 

require additional processing steps, 

including CMP, leading to increased 

CMP wastewater generation. 

CMP slurries generally consist of 

a suspension of abrasive materials 

— silica, alumina, or ceria — and 

chemical additives (e.g., complexing 

agents, oxidisers, corrosion 

inhibitors, pH adjustors, surface 

active agents, high molecular weight 

polymers, and biocides) in ultrapure 

water. Wastewater procured from 

CMP processes contains high solids 

content (often exceeding 10% by 

weight) with total concentrations of 

used silica reaching up to 4000mg/l. 

This high solids content together 

with total organic carbon (TOC) 

concentrations of up to 15mg/l 

makes CMP wastewater challenging 

to treat. 

SOLVING TREATMENT 

CHALLENGES AND CAPACITY 

EXPANSION IN A CONSTRAINED 

FOOTPRINT 

A leading Taiwanese manufacturer of 

customised logic, integrated circuits, 

and discrete components relied on a 

tubular ceramic filtration membrane 

system to treat CMP wastewater; 

treated water was recycled and used 

for cooling tower make-up water. 

The tubular filtration system suffered 

irreversible permeability loss due to 

membrane fouling, which resulted 

in a decrease in treatment capacity 

of nearly 25% (from 168m 3 /d to 

130m 3 /d). This capacity reduction 

coincided with a need to expand 

treatment capacity (in a constrained 

footprint) due to regulation promoting 

recycling and reuse of reclaimed 

water. To address these issues, the 

foundry piloted and subsequently 

installed Nanostone ceramic UF 

membranes, increasing the treatment 

capacity by 200m 3 /d. 

Nanostone’s compact system design 

enabled this expanded capacity 

within the existing constrained 

footprint while simplifying operations 

by eliminating the air scrub. Further, 

operating predominantly in dead-end 

filtration mode (rather than crossflow, 

which is required by the tubular 

membrane system) reduced pumping 

requirements, significantly lowering 

power requirements by 90%. This 

approach also eliminated frequent 

shutdown required to clean the feed 

tank due to concentrate build-up 

caused by cross-flow filtration. The 

Nanostone system has proven to be 

reliable, requiring minimal cleaning 

and oversight, achieving 80% recovery 

rate with no sign of permeability 

degradation. 

Nanostone’s advanced 

manufacturing plant 

is home to the largest 

ceramic membrane 

production capacity in 

the world 


IN THE FIELD 

MANAGING EXCESS 

RAINWATER 

with Wavin AquaCell 

and gradually released to the ground or sewer 

network slowly. Attenuation and infiltration 

can help to control the level of surface water, 

especially in areas prone to flooding or heavy 

rains. 

Climate change is having a visible toll on infrastructure 

Due to climate change, cities worldwide 

constantly face challenges such as floods, 

droughts, heat stress, groundwater 

depletion and surface-water pollution, 

putting tremendous pressure on their civic 

infrastructure. To tackle these burgeoning and 

ongoing challenges, businesses need to adopt 

future-proof and smart measures that help in 

building climate-resilient cities designed on a 

sustainable pattern. 

MANAGING EXCESS WATER IS KEY TO 

CREATING CLIMATE-RESILIENT CITIES 

Excessive rainfall is one aspect of climate 

change which causes places to collect 

rainwater or results in a full-fledged floodlike 

situation, creating emergencies in the 

process. Therefore, it is necessary to manage 

the excessive water to avoid damage to civic 

infrastructure and provide optimal living 

conditions for human beings residing there. 

Finding a smart and future-proof solution 

to manage excess water due to heavy rain 

is key to creating cities that are designed to 

tackle future challenges arising due to climate 

change. 

MANAGING EXCESS WATER AT BAPTCARE 

RETIREMENT LIVING 

Recently, Wavin completed an AquaCell 

project in the Asia-Pacific region. At Baptcare 

Retirement Living, Victoria state, Australia, 

managing excess rainwater was one of the 

major requirements in creating a climateresilient 

and sustainable retirement living 

facility. A solution that could handle the 

excess water and manage it to create a floodproof 

and sustainable system was sought. 

Wavin’s AquaCell system was selected for its 

technology that could manage excess rainfall, 

in addition for its ability to be assembled to 

create an underground structure, either as 

a temporary attenuation tank or infiltration 

soakaway. 

The soakaway crates or attenuation tanks, or 

on-site detention tanks, are interlocking crate 

systems that allow surface water to be stored 

To create a fool-proof attenuation and infiltration 

underground system at Baptcare Retirement 

Living, two on-site detention tanks (OSD), 

each having a total volume of 105m 3 /min, were 

installed to create a sustainable excess water 

management facility that will provide a system 

in green zones for a period of 50 years without 

requiring any maintenance, as claimed by 

Wavin. 

Wavin AquaCell was the technology-of-choice 

for a variety of other reasons. Firstly, the 

attenuation and infiltration units were made of 

modular and versatile virgin polypropylene units, 

allowing for the underground tanks to be built 

quickly. Unlike traditional concrete attenuation 

tanks, these units required no-drying time and 

less excavation, which resulted in less labourintensive 

installation and made them easier to 

manipulate and position due to their light weight. 

Secondly, the Wavin AquaCell Lite units reduced 

the risk of flooding through their management 

of excess water, as well as being inspectable, 

accessible and cleanable. 

Lastly, the units also provided the controlled 

release of stormwater into watercourses such 

as sewer systems, could also be used to 

recharge groundwater, and offered a sustainable 

and cost-effective management of the water 

environment. 


FOCUS 

CONDITION ASSESSMENT 

PLANNING: Where to start 

and where to take it 

By Laura Sproule, product manager, 

Mueller Water Products 

The term condition assessment has been used 

in the water distribution industry to refer to 

anything from a desktop analysis to destructive 

testing. There is a time and a place in any 

asset management or condition assessment 

programme for each of these approaches, but 

knowing when and how to best leverage these 

tools is imperative to optimising condition 

assessment and asset management. This 

article highlights some key considerations 

and best practices utilities should consider 

when building a condition assessment or asset 

management plan. 

Two field technicians use Echologics acoustic sensors to collect data on buried pipe, which will be used to 

calculate the average remaining wall thickness 

Utilities across the world are facing 

challenges of ageing infrastructure in their 

drinking water distribution systems. To be 

able to continue serving their communities 

and customers, utilities have been putting 

an increasing emphasis on effective asset 

management planning for sustainable asset 

management. To build an asset management 

plan that allocates spending efficiently to 

areas that need it and defers for areas that 

do not, an understanding of current asset 

condition is necessary. 

That is where condition assessment comes 

in, particularly when it comes to distribution 

networks where the assets are buried, and 

visual or operational assessments are not 

possible. Condition assessment is important 

in ensuring that utilities are not replacing 

a pipe that has many years left in service, 

while other pipes are left in the ground that 

need replacement. Time and time again, 

the efficiency of replacement programmes 

has seen an improvement by capitalising on 

condition assessment tools, technologies, 

and services, whether it is quantified by 

dollars not spent replacing good pipes, or 

by reduced replacement expenditure, or 

other social, economic, and environmental 

benefits. 

SETTING OBJECTIVES TO DETERMINE A 

BUDGET 

Effectively building a condition assessment 

plan hinges on the knowledge and 

understanding of the key objectives and 

budget. These two criteria are important 

in managing expectations of the condition 

assessment plan and in narrowing down 

possible technologies or solutions to fit users’ 

needs. While many utilities may not have any 

immediate control over the budget allocated 

for condition assessment, defining objectives 

and programme success criteria can be a 

great place to get a condition assessment 

programme started. Often, building a plan 

within this framework for condition assessment 

as part of an asset management programme 

can serve to identify where a budget is needed 

or can be better allocated. 

It is recommended that utilities look to answer 

the following questions to help ensure that 

the key objectives and programme success 

criteria are well-defined and understood: 

What problem are you trying to solve, such as 

ageing infrastructure, system maintenance, 


FOCUS 

or water loss? What are the targets to come 

out of the condition assessment to address 

the problems — for instance, is there a target 

break rate to achieve? Is there a reduction in 

network risk target? Is there a target to reduce 

replacement of good pipe? Is there a target to 

reduce replacement budgets? Finally, what is 

the plan of action for the data obtained from 

the condition assessment? This can include 

building long-term asset management plans, 

planning short-term condition assessment, or 

identifying repair or replacement needs. 

Establishing these criteria early in the planning 

process can help to manage expectations 

and provide support and justification for 

the selection of the appropriate strategy or 

technology to obtain the data. However, it is 

important that a utility is comfortable iterating 

on these criteria to ensure that objectives align 

with the budget as a utility moves into the 

approach and technology selection. 

DETERMINING WHAT CONDITION 

ASSESSMENT TOOLS TO USE 

Once the key objectives and success criteria 

are understood and with a budget in mind, a 

utility can then begin identifying the right type 

of condition assessment to meet its needs. 

Most asset management plans use some 

version of the inverse triangle with desktop 

analysis at the top and material testing at 

the bottom. The structure of the inverse 

triangle is such that the technologies at the 

top typically cover more area at a higher level 

and have lower time and money investment 

requirements per unit than the bottom of the 

triangle. 

At the top of the inverse triangle, as seen in 

Fig. 1, is the desktop analysis or risk model, 

which can provide an overview of risks across 

the entire distribution network. Effective 

models can provide information to support 

data-backed long-term asset planning. 

These models are valuable in targeting asset 

management resources, such as repair, 

replacement, or condition assessment, 

to areas that have a higher risk, likelihood 

of failure or consequence of failure, and 

ultimately enable budgets to go to the regions 

that need it the most. There is a range of 

options available for technologies that fall into 

the category of desktop models, from agebased 

asset tracking to artificial intelligence 

(AI) risk models that factor in multiple 

contributing factors to pipe failure. The latter 

has been proven to more effectively predict 

where the risk exists in a utility network and 

many have built-in planning functions to help 

utilities plan next steps such as condition 

assessment, repair or replacement. If a utility 

lacks funding, does not know where to start, 

or needs data to justify a budgetary request, a 

desktop model is a great place to start. 

Down the triangle is survey-level condition 

assessment, which can be done separately 

from or after desktop modelling. This level 

of assessment typically requires a higher 

per-unit investment of time and money 

than desktop modelling and therefore 

is often carried out on a smaller portion 

of the network to confirm the current 

actual condition of specific assets. It is 

recommended that utilities deploy surveylevel 

condition assessment on pipes that 

have been identified for assessment or 

replacement by desktop models to validate 

the need for replacement of those specific 

Fig. 1: The inverted 

pyramid of condition 

assessment solution 

shows solution types 

from the least to most 

invasive 

assets. Using desktop models, even as simple 

as an age-based asset model if needed, 

can enable utilities to target this level of 

condition assessment. There are several 

technologies that fall into this category of 

condition assessment, with an emphasis on 

a look at the overall structural integrity of the 

pipe, as opposed to localised defects. At this 

level of detail, utilities can make informed 

decisions about replacement plans to target 

replacements where needed. Due to the 

granularity of the data and the intended 

network coverage at this level of condition 

assessment, technologies offered in this band 

tend to strive to minimise impact on network 

operation during the survey assessment. 

For more critical pipes, larger transmission 

mains, pipes, or pipe types where localised 

defects have caused significant issues over 

time or ones where replacement is more 

difficult, there is often value in moving to the 

next stage of the triangle: detailed condition 

assessment. In some instances, utilities 

have used desktop models or survey-level 

condition assessment to identify specific 

pipes or areas of pipes where further, a more 

detailed inspection is required. Much like the 

level before it, this level of the inverse triangle 

involves a higher per-unit investment of time 


FOCUS 

and money than the previous level. These 

technologies and tools provide more discrete 

information about assets and are likely to be 

deployed to a subset of the network where 

the cost of replacement, consequence of 

failure or other utility-specific criteria are 

high. 

Finally, on a select portion of the network, 

utilities will look to do materials destructive 

testing to understand the actual condition 

of small sections of pipe that have been 

removed. Due to the requirement of 

physically removing a section of the pipe 

to facilitate this type of testing, it is not 

recommended to use this as a primary 

strategy for condition assessment. This 

type of testing can, however, be used to 

validate condition assessment or desktop 

analysis results, or to calibrate maintenance 

programmes, where necessary. 

The selection of the correct technology 

involves an understanding of both levels of 

the triangle and the available technology that 

fits within a utility’s budget and objectives. In 

many cases, the available budget allocated 

for condition assessment can drive a 

utility into one of the approach levels or a 

technology. 

CONDITION ASSESSMENT 

CONSIDERATIONS FOR SMALLER 

BUDGETS 

For utilities that are just starting out with a 

condition assessment approach, budgets 

allocated for this service are often lower and 

data on the network can be limited, making 

it hard to set objectives or make informed 

decisions about selection. It is typically 

recommended that utilities that fall into this 

category look to start with desktop models 

or survey level assessment. As these have 

lower cost-to-coverage ratios, a utility can 

typically get a better picture of more of 

its network sooner. These categories may 

be driven by budget alone or primarily by 

objectives, as there is significant variance 

within each category on price points and 

output data. 

Alternatively, if a utility has more immediate 

needs or risks to address through condition 

assessment, there may be value in 

circumventing the first two categories and 

focusing on detailed inspection. Utilities in 

these circumstances may not have a regular 

condition assessment plan, as it often involves 

a small area or set of pipes that a utility knows 

is a problem and wants to understand the 

problem more completely before making 

repair or replacement decisions. 

Below are some suggested approaches to 

manage competing interests for utilities that 

are striving for effective condition assessment 

but lack the budget to deploy: 

Restructure condition assessment plans to 

a phased approach: Spreading out condition 

assessment into phases across budget years 

can enable utilities to meet their objectives 

within severe budget constraints. Further, it 

enables the utility to better map out planned 

expenditure on condition assessment to 

identify and remedy potential future budget 

gaps. 

Reduce scope to maintain objectives: 

As an alternative to phasing, utilities could 

explore reducing scope by means of reducing 

additional features or add-ons of a service or 

narrowing the physical scope of pipes in the 

network that a condition assessment project 

will cover for that year. Though this would 

require lower network coverage, it could strike 

a balance between budget and objectives, 

depending on priorities. 

Proceed with a pilot project on targeted 

high-risk pipes or areas: This enables 

utilities to explore condition assessment 

solutions with a lower investment in a 

manner that, upon the success of the 

pilot, can provide strong justification 

to increase budgetary allotments for 

condition assessment in subsequent years. 

Many utilities also use this approach to 

validate technologies prior to making a 

larger investment when significant budget 

constraints are of concern. 

Reallocate budget from capital 

replacement plans: Leverage condition 

assessment to instead prioritise replacement 

where it is needed most. As noted above, 

conducting condition assessment can have 

financial benefits to the capital replacement 

expenditure. 

At each level of the inverse triangle, there are 

multiple technology options for a utility to 

choose from, each with its own advantages 

and disadvantages. Selection of the right 

technology for a given utility requires the 

utility to circle back to the established 

objectives and success criteria. 

IN CONCLUSION 

In an ideal world, every utility’s asset 

management plan would include condition 

assessment that is addressed in stages 

through the inverse triangle and hitting every 

step along the way. The reality, however, is 

that often the value of leveraging a staged 

condition assessment approach is not 

reflected in allocated budgets, and utilities 

are forced to be more selective about 

which levels of condition assessment to hit. 

The best way to manage the limitation on 

resources in delivering the best results for the 

utility is to circle back to the initial questions 

and leverage objectives and success criteria 

to select condition assessment approach and 

technology that will truly address specific 

utility needs. 

As a best practice approach, it is also 

important for utilities to evaluate the success 

of their asset management and condition 

assessment programmes at regular intervals 

to ensure that time and money expended 

on these plans continue to align with 

utility objectives. More specific steps and 

information on best practices of condition 

assessment can be explored in AWWA 

Manual M77. The manual is dedicated to 

condition assessment best practices and 

provides more detailed information on 

acceptable approaches and specifications for 

different types of condition assessments and 

pipe materials. 


FOCUS 

OVERCOMING 

EXCESS: ADAPTING 

BIOLOGICAL 

TREATMENTS 

to high ammonia, 

salt, and chemical 

wastewaters 

By Julie Holmquist, marketing content writer, Cortec Corp, and 

Tonya Decterov, technical sales representative, Bionetix International 

their normal life processes of growth 

and reproduction. The more carbon 

is available, the larger the colony 

can become, and the more waste 

the colony can degrade. Microorganisms 

also derive nutrients from 

wastewater pollutants in order to 

grow. To put it simply, wastewater 

provides food and nourishment for 

micro-organisms, making it an ideal 

environment for micro-organisms to 

flourish in, all while providing a service 

to humankind. 

One of the major challenges of 

wastewater treatment comes in 

dealing with excess pollutants from 

industrial wastewaters. However, by 

properly understanding the content 

of the wastewater loads, as well as 

the aptitudes and abilities of the 

microbes chosen, industrial and 

municipal wastewater operators can 

leverage biological treatment to the 

best advantage. This article will look at 

adaptability of biologicals with regards 

to three common factors of excess: 

high-ammonia, high-chemical, and 

high-salinity wastewater. 

HIGH AMMONIA PROBLEMS 

Ammonia is a common wastewater 

pollutant, both because of its 

widespread industrial use and 

because nitrogen is converted into 

ammonia under anaerobic conditions. 

Ammonia not only causes malodours, 

but can also be harmful to aquatic life 

and is therefore carefully regulated 

under wastewater effluent guidelines*. 

One option for ammonia removal is to 

add nitrifiers. However, nitrifiers are 

temperature dependent and require 

abundant oxygen to function. They 

Glove factories 

have high chemical 

wastewaters that may 

need an extra dose 

of chemical resistant 

biologicals (Image: 

Cortec/Adobe) 

Biological wastewater treatment takes 

advantage of what micro-organisms 

do best: biodegrade organic 

chemicals into harmless substances 

in the course of everyday activities. 

The main food source for microbial 

growth in heterotrophic bacteria is 

carbon, which happens to be the 

backbone of organic chemicals. By 

digesting organic compounds found in 

wastewater, the micro-organisms are 

able to consume carbon to support 

also need a certain level of alkalinity. 

Furthermore, the ammonia removal 

process by nitrification requires two 

steps: first converting ammonia to 

nitrites, before converting nitrites to 

nitrates. 


FOCUS 

HELPING BIOLOGICAL 

TREATMENTS RESIST CHEMICAL 

WASTEWATERS 

Another set of challenges arises with 

wastewater effluents from chemical 

plants or factories that use many 

chemicals in their processes. These 

problems are nutrient deficiency and 

chemical toxicity. While high chemical 

wastewaters often contain carbon-rich 

organic chemicals for micro-organisms 

to feed on, they often lack nutrients 

critical to microbial health. Just as 

humans need a full range of vitamins and 

minerals as well as carbohydrates, fats, 

and proteins to function healthily, microorganisms 

need the proper nutrients to 

support their growth into a colony that 

is large enough to handle digestion of 

abundant chemicals. When nutrients 

are deficient, the micro-organisms grow 

too slowly to keep up with pollutants, 

leading to problem indicators, such as 

foam and filament growth. 

Adding BCP10 

to waste at the 

chemical plant 

(Image: Cortec) 

In contrast, some heterotrophic 

bacteria have a better advantage and 

can use a variety of mechanisms to 

remove nitrogen from waste. They can 

bacteria. Ultimately, they can increase 

wastewater treatment efficiency. 

Since the main cause of high 

For this reason, biological treatments 

that need to function in a high chemical 

environment should be supplemented 

with the proper nutrients to support 

use organic nitrogen to build their cells 

ammonia levels is the presence of 

healthy microbial growth and resist the 

and grow, as well as act as denitrifiers 

anaerobic environments, it is also 

inhibitions of a chemical environment. 

when they use oxygen from nitrate and 

important to support healthy levels 

A simple solution is for operators to 

nitrite to grow. Nitrogen gas is thus 

of dissolved oxygen in wastewater. 

either add nutrients to the wastewater 

produced as a by-product and can 

Aeration can go a long way towards 

as a separate supplement, or buy them 

evaporate. Some bacteria can even 

helping micro-organisms have 

prepackaged in an enriched microbial 

use ammonia as a food source under 

sufficient oxygen for aerobic 

formula designed for high chemical 

favourable conditions. 

digestion, which is overall less 

environments. Bionetix International, 

odourous and is a faster process 

a biotechnology company based in 

Under certain conditions and when 

than anaerobic digestion. Another 

Quebec, Canada, offers both forms and 

the denitrifying bacteria population 

strategy for low-oxygen wastewaters 

has seen results with several examples 

is large enough, it can remove more 

is to use facultative bacteria that 

of the latter. 

nitrogen in the form of nitrate and 

can function in both aerobic and 

nitrite than nitrifying bacteria can. As 

anaerobic conditions, because 

In one instance, a chemical 

heterotrophs, these bacteria can also 

facultative bacteria can derive some 

manufacturing plant faced surcharges 

consume certain organic compounds 

oxygen from nitrates. A third option 

for excess chemical oxygen demand 

that can become toxic to nitrifiers. A 

for low-oxygen wastewaters is to add 

(COD) loading of wastewater effluent 

further advantage of heterotrophic 

an oxygen booster — a slow-release 

to the municipal plant at COD levels 

denitrifying bacteria is that they can 

supply of oxygen — to the effluent to 

ranging from 4,000-10,000mg/l. They 

be used in cooler temperatures and 

help micro-organisms carry out their 

began adding a three-day shock dose of 

at lower oxygen levels than nitrifying 

normal metabolism. 

a biological formula, BCP10, which was 


FOCUS 

designed to degrade phenols, benzene 

compounds, surfactants, and alcohols. 

This was followed by a weekly dose of 

BCP10 for the remainder of six weeks. 

By the end of this treatment period, 

COD had dropped to 2600mg/l. Six 

months later, COD had dropped to its 

lowest level since the plant opened.* 

In another case, a paint plant 

measured a pre-trial COD level of 

57,300 and 68,100mg/l in two holding 

tanks. A seven-week treatment 

with the biological formula BCP10, 

which was designed for a surfactant 

environment, brought the COD levels 

down to 33,800mg/l. Total suspended 

solids (TSS) also decreased. By 

lowering COD in their effluent, the paint 

plant was able to save on costs.* 

More recently, a glove factory in 

South East Asia was seeking to bring 

its high COD and biological oxygen 

demand (BOD) levels into compliance. 

They started a five-day shock dose 

of chemical-resistant biologicals, 

BCP11, and subsequently modified the 

dose as needed. Two weeks into the 

treatment, COD had already dropped, 

and the factory continued using the 

treatment with satisfactory results for 

the intervening year and a half.* 

In another example, in April 2021, 

an original equipment manufacturer 

(OEM) of toiletries in Malaysia 

experienced BOD levels of 200- 

400mg/l, along with heavy foaming 

in their wastewater. Cosmetics and 

toiletries create another chemical-rich 

wastewater environment — mostly 

from a variety of surfactants in soap, 

shampoo, and sanitisers that can 

create a high BOD or COD level. The 

company applied a shock dose of 

BCP10, a chemical-resistant biological 

formulation, targeting surfactants 

for one week, followed by a much 

lighter maintenance dose. Within a 

few months, BOD loading dropped 

to 81mg/l. Treatment has continued 

since April 2021, with the manufacturer 

modifying the dose according to BOD 

levels.* 

BIOLOGICAL TOLERANCE OF 

HIGH SALT ENVIRONMENTS 

Just as industrial chemicals can 

inhibit the growth of micro-organisms, 

wastewater with high salt content 

can also slow down biological 

activity. Many industrial wastewater 

environments, such as petrochemicals 

and leather production, have naturally 

high levels of salt that make biological 

treatments ineffective enough 

for wastewater operators to use 

more expensive physico-chemical 

treatment*. Biological treatment 

has not been completely ruled out, 

because some microbes tolerate salt 

better than others and have been 

shown to enhance COD removal in the 

presence of higher salt content.* 

With this concern in mind, Bionetix 

International decided to test some of 

its own probiotic strains to see how 

they fared in saltwater. The product 

chosen, BCP35M for treatment of 

petroleum wastewaters, included a key 

component of many of its wastewater 

treatment products. This meant results 

would be representative of how other 

products would function. 

The laboratory prepared samples 

with tryptone soya agar (TSA) as 

a bacterial growth medium in five 

different levels of saltwater content: 

0.5%, 1.5%, 2.5%, 3.5% (average 

seawater concentration), and 4.5%. 

BCP35M was added to each of 

the TSA plates and left to incubate 

at 35°C for 18-24 hours. At the 

end of this time, each plate had 

approximately the same number 

of colonies growing in it. The 

colonies in 3.5% and 4.5% saltwater 

concentrations were smaller than the 

others, but had grown, nevertheless. 

The laboratory concluded that the 

bacterial strains used could be viable 

in seawater environments. Although it 

may take slightly longer for the colonies 

to grow and make an impact, they are 

predicted to do so at an effective rate*. 

While this can be interpreted as a general 

indication of success, it would be ideal to 

examine each situation and treatment on 

a case-by-case basis. By consulting the 

manufacturer of the biological product, 

the operator can have help selecting 

the right formulation of biologicals and 

nutrients for the job and then perform 

necessary testing to confirm that the 

micro-organisms will tolerate the setting. 

BEING ADAPTABLE 

As long as industries — from gloves 

and paint to petroleum and toiletries 

— continue to be productive, they will 

have to deal with excess wastewater 

pollutants. It would therefore be good 

for them to be prepared with a biological 

solution that can adapt to the excesses 

of ammonia, chemicals, and chlorides. 

Part of that adaptability will depend on 

the products used. The other component 

of adaptability lies in the expertise of 

the one prescribing the treatment. By 

leveraging these resources and asking 

the right questions, wastewater treatment 

operators can tailor the right biologicals 

and nutrients to the scene, which could 

ultimately mean the difference between 

low and high BOD levels, between 

compliance and unwanted fines. 

*References are available upon request. 

Growth of Bionetix 

bacteria at 

different saltwater 

concentrations 

(Image: Bionetix 

and Cortec) 


FOCUS 

WARS, SALINISATION 

AND CLIMATE 

drive the demand for 

small, dual water plants 

Research results from the Mekong Delta are transferable to many 

regions worldwide, according to the Institute for Environmental 

Engineering & Management (IEEM). 

Fig. 1: Service water is 

distributed via the house 

network and can be taken 

from the outside water 

tap, while drinking water 

is only provided in small 

quantities when required 

at the stainless steel sink 

outside the operating 

building 

Water is becoming scarce in more and 

more regions worldwide, with technologies 

that were originally intended for use in arid 

regions being on the rise in Germany. The 

IEEM has developed a new concept for small 

waterworks, as part of a project funded by 

the German Federal Ministry of Education and 

Research (BMBF). 

This is intended to help where one natural 

water source alone is no longer sufficient. 

Small waterworks should be “multi-fed”, or 

fed from several water sources, in addition to 

being able to process groundwater, surface 

water, rainwater and, if necessary, treated 

wastewater, depending on the climate, current 

availability and demand. Since most of the 

supply water is used for washing, cleaning, 

and other uses, it is worthwhile to produce 

service and drinking water in parallel — a 

process known as “dual water” — whenever 

there is a shortfall of clean natural water. 

Therefore, IEEM has developed a technology 

called Multi-fed dual water system (MFDWS) 

and tested it at three pilot plants in the 

Mekong Delta, in cooperation with the 

industrial partner Wilo/Martin Membrane 

Systems. Project leader Dr Karl Rudolph 

expects growing demand for this new type 

of system: “The need is not only for remote 

settlements in coastal regions and river deltas 

but in all areas where central systems do not 

work. In addition to countries plagued by war 

and turmoil, this also includes cities where the 

public water supply fails or does not deliver 

reliably — whether for technical reasons or 

simply due to state failure.” 

ViWaT is a German-Vietnamese research 

project and is jointly supported by the 

respective ministries of both countries, BMBF 

in Germany and Ministry of Science and 

Technology (MOST) in Vietnam. The Ruhr- 

University Bochum is in charge of ViWaT- 

Planning, the University of Karlsruhe for the 

ViWaT-Engineering and IEEM is responsible 

for the project ViWaT-Operation. Part of the 

ViWaT-Operation includes a work package 

that helps to develop small waterworks 

for people living in the remote areas of the 


FOCUS 

Mekong Delta that are not accessible via 

central supply networks. 

After decades of over-exploitation of 

groundwater reserves and severe droughts, 

as well as increasing pollution from 

wastewater discharges into water bodies, 

there is a shortage of clean raw water in 

many places. In those areas, small water 

pilot plants produce water supplies from 

low-polluted rainwater, frequently polluted 

groundwater and heavily polluted surface 

water from a river or canal. Groundwater 

needs to be conserved as much as possible 

in those areas, because the available 

reserves are running out and the lowering 

groundwater levels in the Mekong Delta 

will lead to permanent salinisation of the 

soils and soil subsidence, which could have 

enormous damage to structures and nature. 

This scenario was the impetus behind the 

ViWaT-Operation project. Depending on the 

season, location and current conditions, 

comparatively clean rainwater is preferred 

as the first choice of raw water supply. 

As the second choice, depending on the 

current demand situation and pollution, 

surface water is used. Only after the previous 

two options have been exhausted that 

groundwater is used as the third choice, to 

save as much of the groundwater reserves 

as possible. Additionally, wastewater can be 

treated for water reuse. A successful pilot for 

this has already been conducted by a shrimp 

farm to refill ponds for breeding sensitive 

baby shrimps, which can only survive in 

high-quality water. 

For the small waterworks, automationcapable 

mechanical-physical processes 

were used and chemical or biological 

components were dispensed with. The heart 

of the plant is an ultrafiltration module, with 

an upstream protective filter. To ensure 

operation under optimal working conditions, 

the unit prepared for remote monitoring and 

maintenance using the Aquacube made 

by Wilo/Martin Membrane-Systems. The 

company is responsible for water recycling 

Fig. 2: Participants of a ViWaT-Operation workshop in front of the ViWaT-MobiLab, which is used for the 

monitoring of the pilot plants in the Mekong Delta 

in cruise ships, with the technology being 

adapted to fit the specific requirements in the 

Mekong delta and equipped with advanced 

UV irradiation for water disinfection. 

Due to the disadvantageous combination 

of the natural water resources with iron and 

manganese, salt and organic contaminants, 

which are measured as total organic carbon 

(TOC), an additional pre-treatment system 

had to be installed at two of the three pilot 

sites. This pre-treatment consists of a free-air 

drip aeration with a gravity downflow multilayer 

filter, which was manufactured by local 

craftsmen, using a design template from 

IEEM. 

To desalinate the raw water during dry 

periods, it was necessary to install a reverse 

osmosis (RO) system at two of the three sites 

for post-purification of the otherwise clean 

water from the Aquacube. To reduce the 

operating costs from this process, portable 

water was made available with a separate 

tap made specifically for that purpose and 

offering domestic water, made without 

downstream RO treatment, through another 

tap, as seen in Fig. 1. Thus, the RO system 

runs only when the salinity would otherwise 

exceed the permissible values, and only for 

the partial flow that is called up for drinking 

water. 

As similar needs exist and are emerging 

from not just the Mekong Delta, but also in 

many other regions across the world, IEEM 

expects growing demand for this new type of 

water supply plant. According to Dr Rudolph, 

not only would this demand come from the 

coastal regions and river deltas, but also 

inland areas affected by salinisation of inland 

waters. 

In addition, he said, the need for MFDWS 

systems is expected to expand to regions 

where centralised systems of water are 

unable to be implemented. This would apply 

not only to countries plagued by war or civil 

turmoil, but also where the public water 

supply systems fail, or do not work reliably 

enough — whether for technical reasons, or 

simply due to state failure. In these places, 

consumers who depend on a reliable water 

supply would desire for decentralised small 

waterworks, even if they are only able to 

supply themselves autonomously in the event 

of a malfunction. For instance, in developing 

and emerging countries, better-quality 

hotels would have their own water reservoir 

for safety, in case of supply interruptions. 

The larger, top-quality hotels would often 

maintain the quality of their own drinking 

water supply which the hotel management 

and their customers could trust — at least as 

precaution. 


FOCUS 

FOUR COUNTRIES, ONE RIVER, 

one data platform, one voice 

How the Mekong River Commission (MRC) aims to provide reliable, 

accurate water data to water authorities in Cambodia, Laos, 

Thailand, and Vietnam using Aquarius Systems. 

By Nicole Nally, regional manager, Oceania, Aquatics Informatics 

monitoring, 48 water-quality sampling 

stations, 41 active ecology health 

sampling sites, over 100 fisheries 

monitoring sites, and other places. 

Prior to 2016, this data was collected 

in Excel spreadsheets, which made it 

difficult to work with and was limiting 

when it came to sharing meaningful 

outcomes. With the addition of 

sensors, MRC captured more data, but 

still received manual entry data from 

its member countries. Turning raw 

data into usable information required 

modern data management software. 

The Mekong River 

has been used by 

millions of people 

for transport, 

fishing, agriculture, 

and more recently, 

hydropower 

The Mekong River is the third largest 

river in Asia, originating in the Tibetan 

Plateau and running through China, 

Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia 

and Vietnam. Millions of people rely 

on the river for transport, fishing, 

agriculture, and more recently, 

hydropower. Protecting this water and 

promoting collaborative sustainable 

use of the river is vital to the peace and 

prosperity of the region. 

The Mekong River Commission 

Secretariat (MRCS) is an intergovernmental 

organisation that is 

tasked with providing the basin’s four 

countries, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, 

and Vietnam, with information to 

sustainably manage and share these 

water resources. To do this effectively, 

they require dialogue and cooperation, 

and a lot of data and information to 

support their analysis for balancing 

protection and development. 

MRC’s collection of data can be traced 

back to the 1950s, with scientists and 

researchers going into the field and 

measuring, recording, and cataloguing 

information. Today, MRC collects data 

from more than 600 stations, including: 

73 automated telemetry hydrometeorological 

stations, 139 traditional 

stations for rainfall or water level 

Soukaseum Phichit, information 

system and database specialist of 

MRCS, said: “We recognised the 

need to centralise our data so that we 

could run quality assurances across 

the board and then turn this data into 

meaningful actionable insights that are 

easily accessible for all stakeholders in 

a timely manner. This was way beyond 

the limits of spreadsheets and manual 

entry.” 

MRCS chose the Aquarius Time Series, 

an analytics software programme that 

is used by monitoring agencies around 

the world to acquire, process, model, 

and publish data in real time. This 

would allow the four member countries 

to have access to the same data 

when they need it and further share the 

outcomes with other nations that are 

impacted by the Mekong River. 


FOCUS 

MONITORING THE HEALTH OF THE 

RIVER 

As the population in the area increases, the 

need for more food sourced from the river 

and water to irrigate the farms also increases. 

As development expands, wetlands shrink 

and the whole ecology of the river is affected. 

MRC monitors the health of the river for 

fisheries and collects water quality data 

to identify potential contaminants. The 

software gives MRC flexibility to measure 

water velocity, turbidity, carbon dioxide, 

photosynthetic light, and chlorophyll levels. 

The information provides the basis for 

discussion between river communities and 

governments on the implications of water 

usage and infrastructure developments. 

1 

1 Aquarius Time 

Series has a broad 

range of tools for 

in-depth analysis of 

hydrological data 

2 The MRC team at 

work 

2 

The Mekong basins’ discrete data on water, 

air, soil, and biology are stored and validated 

in the Aquarius platform for quick analysis and 

visualisation. The software allows integration 

of data from different sources, such as rainfall 

and stream loggers, as well as weather 

data. It also includes integrated data from 

upstream partners, such as China. The use of 

transboundary lens on data analysis allows 

communities at one location of the river to 

better understand water trends occurring at 

another. 

FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT 

The region is known for extreme seasonal 

variations causing flooding and drought. A 

major increase in flow can cause rapids in 

the river, making navigation difficult. The 

MRC data and information service portal 

can automatically inform authorities of rapid 

changes in flow levels outside of any set 

parameters, enabling authorities to warn 

the public and water traffic and prepare 

emergency services if necessary. 

Climate change is amplifying the need for 

better forecasting of floods and drought. 

Using data within Aquarius Time-Series data 

management, users can investigate various 

climate parameters, such as rainfall and mean 

temperatures, on an interactive map and 

assess the impacts of changing weather. 

QUALITY DATA ASSURES RELIABILITY 

Having reliable data is essential, especially 

when the basin’s four countries are entering 

into water usage agreements. Aquarius has 

a portfolio of capabilities for error detection, 

data cleansing and flagging, automatic bias 

corrections, and rating shift management. 

These automated procedures eliminate 

tedious manual data workup processes. By 

automating quality assurance and quality 

control activities, the MRC is confident that 

the information they are sharing is clean and 

without bias. 

Winai Wangpimool, director of technical 

support division management of MRCS, 

commented: “We have made considerable 

investments to improve our information 

system with easy-to-use assessment, 

modelling and forecasting tools so that our 

member countries can be assured that they 

have accurate, reliable, and timely data, 

as well as historical information to make 

evidence-based decisions.” 

ORGANISING AND VISUALISING DATA 

The MRC Data Portal allows users to search, 

discover, and download over 10,000 datasets, 

including current and historical hydrometeorological 

and climate time-series, 

spatial maps, atlases, photographs, and 

sectorial datasets that can be easily searched 

and filtered. For example, visitors can view 

daily or weekly water levels at various 

hydrology stations along the Mekong on an 

interactive map and examine weekly flood 

situation reports from 2008 onwards on the 

flood forecasting sites. 

Dr Sarann Ly, chief hydrologist of the MRCS, 

explained: “Having all our information 

securely stored and available online provides 

us with the opportunity to collaborate with 

other research institutions and organisations, 

further deepening our understanding of 

impacts on the region’s hydrological and 

ecological conditions.” 

The new Aquarius platform has strengthened 

MRC’s role as the regional transboundary 

knowledge hub. This allows them to have 

one voice for one river, allowing researchers, 

practitioners, and policymakers to access 

scientific data and information, and more 

easily monitor and understand the current 

trends of the Mekong River basin. 


HOTSEAT 

IMAGINE H2O 

ASIA COHORT 4: 

Introducing the 

region’s water 

innovators 

Thirteen companies 

will participate in the 

Singapore-based water 

accelerator and market 

access programme 

to tackle the region’s 

water and wastewater 

challenges. 

accelerator and market access 

programme. Several second- and 

third-time water start-up founders 

joined an equal number of founders 

who entered the water sector for the 

first time. As the spotlight turned to 

COP27, more water entrepreneurs 

than ever before referred to 

themselves as a climate start-up. 

Spanning six different countries – 

from Spain, to the Philippines and 

Timor Leste – the 13 companies 

selected for Cohort 4 this year 

are tackling a range of shared 

challenges across Asia-Pacific 

including flood prediction, septic 

tank cleaning, wastewater treatment 

process efficiency and more. 

Participating companies will benefit 

from start-up development, market 

access, and an expanded pool 

of pilot funding resources over 

the next 12 months. In addition, 

as a lifecycle partner, all Cohort 

4 companies can join a growing 

alumni network of 175 start-ups, 

which will continue to receive 

support from Imagine H2O to help 

deploy and scale their solutions. 

Similie’s IoT data 

logger being installed 

in Timor-Leste 

The pressures facing many communities 

on the frontlines of the global water 

and climate crisis across Asia are 

spurring new commitments to 

accelerate the uptake of innovation. 

India has committed to meeting 20% 

of overall water demand in cities 

through wastewater reuse. Singapore 

is operating one of the world’s first 

100% green waterworks systems using 

floating solar farms. Indonesia is rolling 

out its first digital flood management 

system in Jakarta this year. 

In response to these incentives and 

opportunities, the quality and diversity 

of innovators committed to solving 

the region’s water challenges is 

increasing. Imagine H2O Asia Cohort 

4 is no exception. Over 100 applicants, 

two-thirds of which were based in 

Asia, applied to the Singapore-based 

Led by Imagine H2O, Imagine H2O 

Asia is supported by Founding 

Partner Enterprise Singapore 

as well as Veolia, Xylem, Kurita, 

Kubota, PUB, Singapore’s National 

Water Agency, Singapore Water 

Association (SWA), World Bank and 

Asian Development Bank (ADB). 

Meet the 13 finalists and their 

solution offerings: 

NON-REVENUE WATER AND 

LEAK DETECTION 

Teredo Analytics (Singapore) 

An event-based anomaly detection 

system using acoustic monitoring 

technology, with applications in 

pipeline inspection, as well as 

water plant machinery to identify 


HOTSEAT 

leaks and machinery faults. The company 

has four ongoing projects in Singapore, 

approximately saving 100,000l of water and 

garnering SG$280,000 worth of savings 

from equipment monitoring and accident 

prevention. 

SANITATION 

Solinas Integrity (India) 

A suite of robotic solutions in the pipeline 

and sanitation industry, which includes 

semi-automated septic tank cleaning 

robots that homogenise hard sludge to 

create a pumpable slurry to minimise 

human interaction with waste. The system 

can reach tank depths between 5-7m, and 

reduce slurry particle size to 40-50mm. 

Other solutions offerings include water leak 

reduction and pipeline condition monitoring. 

PROCESS OPTIMISATION 

Createch 360 (Spain) 

Process control solutions that optimise 

processes in treatment plants and ensures 

effluent quality compliance throughout the 

plant’s lifecycle. The process intelligence 

platform includes self-customisation 

features and is hosted locally on-site using 

a PC server, allowing up to 50% in aeration 

energy savings and up to 40% reduction 

in chemical use. The product has over 150 

global installations and the company has 

nine projects in Asia over the last two years. 

WATER & WASTEWATER TREATMENT 

Power & Water (UK) 

A modularised sono-electrochemical 

treatment process that combines the 

power of ultrasound and electrolysis to 

address passivation and reduce energy 

consumption, while demonstrating lower 

costs than liquid chemicals for electrocoagulation. 

The company has secured 

commercial contracts across the municipal 

and industrial sector including oil and 

gas, construction and aquaculture in the 

UK. Some of their other ongoing projects 

are in carbon capture through Advanced 

Oxidation Processes, with utilities in Asia 

and the US. 

H2MO (Singapore) 

Biomimetic hollowfibre reverse osmosis 

(RO) membranes without Aquaporin 

that use bio-programmable membrane 

(BPM) technology to increase throughput 

by three times, to meet effluent quality 

and improve fouling resistance. The 

company’s multiple pilots in Singapore 

demonstrated 50% savings in energy 

consumption and over 80% reduction 

in chemical cleaning from reduced 

maintenance requirements. 

SideStroem (Singapore) 

A nanofiltration-type forward 

osmosis (FO) membrane technology 

demonstrating high water flux and 

salt extraction efficiency, compared 

to conventional FO membranes. The 

company is looking to scale technology 

for industrial production with a focus 

in textile, tannery and fermentation 

industries. 

DIGITISING OPERATIONS 

Similie (Timor Leste) 

An end-to-end solution that digitises rural 

water management systems by deploying 

sensors, gathering data on water flow, 

levels, quality and more, as well as 

generating insights for municipalities to 

monitor community water resources and 

supply. The company currently has two 

ongoing projects in Timor Leste. 

TeamSolve (Singapore) 

A digital knowledge companion that 

integrates institutional SOPs, workforce 

knowledge and field reports to generate 

problem-solving insights during daily 

operations, incident troubleshooting and 

management through a conversational 

artificial intelligence (AI) platform. 

WeavAir (Singapore) 

Predictive solution for operations and 

management teams looking to reduce 

energy in buildings and facilities through 

the holistic tracking, diagnosis and 

detection of anomalies using data. 

CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND 

ADAPTATION 

Komunidad (Philippines) 

A climate risk decision support tool that 

integrates multiple weather data sets 

with local environmental data to generate 

precise, customisable and communityspecific 

insights and alarms for improved 

climate adaptation and resilience. The 

company has multiple projects in the 

Philippines and India, working with local 

governments for disaster risk management, 

as well as across a range of sectors 

including energy, agriculture, transport and 

banks. 

Ekatvam Innovations (India) 

A community-level water governance 

tool that gathers and integrates locallygathered 

data on groundwater levels, water 

intensity of crops and satellite imagery 

to inform climate adaptation strategy for 

non-governmental organisation (NGO)-led 

projects in villages across India. 

Ossus Biorenewables (India) 

A combined electrical and biological 

process in a single reactor producing 

green hydrogen directly on-site using 

waste carbon from effluents or wastewater. 

Reactors are autonomously controlled, 

retrofittable into existing plants, and can 

be scaled up in capacity. The product has 

applications in steel, O&G, chemical and 

textile industries. A pilot has been set up in 

India, with a steel manufacturer recycling 

97% of effluents and producing 30kg of 

hydrogen gas from 6,000l of effluents per 

day. 

WATER QUALITY MONITORING 

Aprisium (Singapore) 

Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled 

electrochemical sensors for on-site 

contaminant profiling and early-warning 

detection and insights for industries. 

The product is currently available to 

profile heavy metals and volatile organic 

compounds (VOC), with plans to increase 

profiling suite and capabilities. 


NEWSLETTER 

OF THE 

SINGAPORE 

WATER 

ASSOCIATION 

BRINGING 

A NEW VIBRANCY 

TO SINGAPORE’S 

GROWING 

WATER INDUSTRY 

[Webinar]: IP Expert Series - 

Anchor Your Business with IA/IP 

for Sustained Growth 

Co-organised with IPOS international and TeamSolve 

22 Sep 2022, complimentary, WebEx 

Speakers Andrea Chiu (IP Strategist, IPOS International) and 

Mudasser Iqbal (founder and CEO, TeamSolve) shared the 

fundamentals of IA/IP perspectives on how water technology 

companies can sustain business growth; provided practical IA/IP 

management tips on how to boost your competitive advantage; 

and uncovered the IA/IP journey of a Singapore-based digital 

workforce start-up for the industries and utilities sector. 

The IP experts also shared actionable tips on IP and intangible 

asset management. This edition spotlighted the urban solutions 

and sustainability industry, and is an associated event of IP Week@ 

SG 2022. More than 40 attendees participated in this webinar. 

[Webinar]: 

State of Water in Australia 

Co-organised with Platinum Circle 

27 Oct 2022, complimentary, WebEx 

Co-hosted with Platinum Circle, Singapore Water Association 

brought this webinar “State of Water in Australia” with panel of 

speakers from DeltaPearl Partners and GHD who shared their 

insights and understanding of the state of water in Australia 

including real-time challenges and opportunities for Singapore 

water players.

[Webinar]: Sg-IL Connects: Sustainable 

Water Resources for the Future 

Co-organised with Israeli Economic and Trade Mission 

(Singapore) and supported by PUB 

9 Nov 2022, complimentary, WebEx 

Noa PartukEitan, head of the Economic and Trade Mission to 

Singapore at Ministry of Economy and Industry, Israel, gave the 

welcome remarks while Winnie Tan, PUB senior assistant director 

INTEC presented on “The Singapore Water Story”, followed by 

sharing session on “Sustainable Water Resources for the Future” 

by Biokube Asia, NeoTopWater Systems, SG Enviro and UET. 

More than 60 attendees attended the webinar and the presenters 

provided insight into the state of Water Resources globally and 

relevance to Singapore. 

[Webinar]: UK-Singapore Knowledge 

Information Transfer Briefing 

Co-organised with British Water and supported by PUB 

24 Nov 2022, complimentary, TEAMS 

More than 50 attendees got to hear how the Singaporean water 

market is structured, its challenges and the available water 

opportunities for the UK supply chain and companies. This 

session featured presentations from PUB, IPOS International, 

TeamSolve, Binnies Singapore, Jacobs and Mott McDonalds 

Singapore. 

[Webinar]: State of ESG Investing 

Co-organised with Platinum Circle 

30 Nov 2022, complimentary, WebEx 

Co-hosted with Platinum Circle for the 

third time, Singapore Water Association 

brought the webinar on “State of ESG 

Investing” to more than 40 attendees. 

Today, environmental, social and 

governance (ESG) investing continues 

to gain traction with investors seeking 

alignment with net zero outcomes, 

UN SDGs and long-term value. 

Speakers from Manualife Investment 

Management, Kilara Capital and 

Golden Equator shared the progress of 

ESG investing in Singapore and how can 

the frameworks that support reporting, 

evaluation and measurable outcomes 

be improved.

[Webinar]: Ozone and AOP: Going beyond traditional 

wastewater treatment 

Co-organised with De Nora Water Technologies 

12 Dec 2022, 3:00pm complimentary, WebEx 

Micropollutants such as 1,4-dioxane, recalcitrant organics, and 

others can pose serious human health concerns. Traditional 

wastewater treatments are not always powerful enough to render 

these contaminants harmless. Speakers from De Nora Water 

Technologies provided insights into how technologies in ozone, UV 

and advanced oxidation processes (AOP) offer effective solutions 

for destroying organic contaminants. 

[Visit]: Visit by The Polish Chamber of 

Waste Management (PIGO) 

31 Oct 2022, Singapore Water Exchange 

[Visit]: Visit by Sarawak’s LAKU 

Management Sdn Bhd 

9 Nov 2022, Singapore Water Exchange 

The Polish Chamber of Waste Management (PIGO) visited 

Singapore Water Exchange at PUB WaterHub (SgWX) on 31 Oct 

2022. Hosted by SWA and SICC, supported by PUB; PIGO, SWA, and 

PUB shared on Poland’s and Singapore’s Water Landscape while 

members of SWA and SICC had an eventful networking session. 

PUB gave a tour on the SGWX gallery. It was a fruitful session and 

the attendees enjoyed the afternoon with some snacks while 

networking. 

LAKU Management visited Singapore Water Exchange at PUB 

WaterHub (SgWX) on 9 Nov 2022. Hosted by SWA, supported 

by PUB; LAKU CEO shared their problem statements and water 

challenges with Singapore industry players while some members 

of SWA; each shared on their own company’s capability on water 

treatment, water quality, water discolouration and non-revenue 

water. Everyone had an eventful networking lunch and made new 

contacts while some attendees established connection to the 

upcoming Sarawak Project and Chapter. 

[Visit]: Visit by WILO Group 

16 Nov 2022, Singapore Water Academy 

Wilo Group’s senior vice-president of Sales for Region Emerging 

Markets, Jens Dallendoerfer, and WILO’s Singapore office visited 

SgWX. He shared about Wilo and its future plan in SEA region with 

SgWX tenants and SWA members. Dallendoerfer also took the 

opportunity to learn more about Singapore’s water management 

and met with Singapore’s water industry players to explore further 

the potential business partnership. Wilo’s entourage was given a 

tour of SgWX followed by brunch and networking.

[Trade show]: VietWater 2022 

9-11 Nov 2022 at SECC, Ho Chi Min City 

This was the 13th time SWA organised and 

led a Singapore pavilion at Vietwater 2022 

from 9-11 Nov in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

The Singapore pavilion was occupied by 

six companies with an exhibition space 

of 72sqm. The three-day exhibition has 

been excellent with many good business 

opportunities for the SG exhibitors; 

showcasing their water expertise and 

solutions, enquires for innovative 

technology, trading with solution providers 

and sharing best practices as well as staying 

up-to-date with the latest global trends 

with other exhibitors. For 2023, SG Pavilion 

will be expended to 90sqm. 

[Trade show]: Camwater 2022 

16-18 Nov 2022 at DIECC, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

For first time, SWA led and participated 

in Camwater 2022 with seven Singapore 

companies. It was held after three years 

hiatus. Seven Singaporean companies 

occupied a floor space of 171sqm and 

enjoyed an iMAP subsidy of up to 70% on 

booth participating fees. Registration was 

closed with an overwhelming 100% sign 

up two months prior to the event. 

[Visit]: Visit to Takeda Manufacturing 

Support Building (MSB) 

16 Dec 2022, Takeda’s Zero Carbon Emission Building 

Exclusive to 20 SWA members, a technical 

site visit to Takeda Manufacturing Support 

Building and tour to the Solar Panel 

and Rainwater Harvesting System were 

arranged to understand Takeda’s zero 

carbon emission. Participants were able 

to gain great insights into the new energy 

efficiency technologies and innovations. 

UPCOMING SWA ACTIVITIES 

[Technical Site Visit]: Keppel Marina 

East Desalination Plant 

11 Jan 2023, KMEDP 

Limited to only 30 participants, SWA is pleased to organise a 

technical site visit to Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant 

on Wednesday, 11 Jan 2023, SGT, 2pm. KMEDP incorporates 

innovative, energy-efficient systems and equipment, such as the 

compact Dissolved Air Flotation system which reduces the plant 

footprint by 30%. This is vital for land-scarce Singapore. It is also 

the first plant in Singapore to feature the energy-efficient direct 

coupling of the ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) 

systems, where water filtered from the upstream UF process is fed 

directly to the downstream RO process, eliminating intermediate 

break tanks and pumping stages while retaining booster pressure, 

resulting in significant cost and space saving, as omitting one 

pumping cycle saves 15% of the energy used in a pumping cycle. 

Join us at a fee of $30/pax to visit the Keppel Marina East 

Desalination Plant.

UPCOMING SWA ACTIVITIES 

46th Singapore Water Industry Nite, Sponsored by DuPont Water Solutions 

Singapore 

2nd Feb 2023, e2i West Hall 1 

The Singapore Water Industry Nite (46th edition) will be held on 

2 Feb 2023, 6pm to 9pm at e2i West Hall 1 with a Lo-Hei Session. 

The networking dinner is sponsored by DuPont Water Solutions 

Singapore and be attended by PUB, JTC and SWA Members. 

[Trade show]: WATER PHILLIPINES 2023 

22-24 Mar 2023 at SMX Convention Center, Pasar City Manila 

The 6th edition of WATER PHILIPPINES returns after four years from 

22-24 Mar 2023. Philippines' most comprehensive international 

water supply, sanitation, industrial wastewater treatment, and 

purification event, WATER PHILIPPINES showcases solutions in the 

fields of water management, sewerage, industrial wastewater, 

purification, irrigation and water resources management as well 

as the latest technology from around the globe with attendance 

of crucial buyers and sellers from all segments of the water and 

wastewater industry. 

https://www.waterphilippinesexpo.com/ 

Be a part of this growing industry today and join the leading 

water and wastewater event in Asia! 

More info contact: jasvinder@swa.org.sg 

Invitation to join Internationalisation 

Networking Consortium (INC) 

Hunt-in-a-pack initiative 

To form an Internationalisation Networking Consortium (INC) led 

by 10-20 selected SWA member companies who are capable, 

ready and willing, by pooling together resources for collective 

business development and market intelligence activities. This 

invitation is open to all SWA members. 

SWA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS 

(joined from October to November 2022) 

ASSOCIATE 

1. Aprisium Pte Ltd 

2. Zingametall (Singapore) Pte Ltd 

3. Grafoid Research (Singapore) Pte Ltd 

4. Waltero AB 

INDIVIDUAL & YWP 

1. Augustine 

Ho Choong Ming 

2. Li Rui 

For more info, click here: https://bit.ly/SWA_INC 

or contact: jasvinder@swa.org.sg 

2023 EVENTS CALENDAR 

2022 has been filled with ups and downs from the pandemic. 

Nevertheless, we thank all our members for their support and 

participation in our events — webinars, conferences, trade 

fairs, missions and sharing sessions. We look forward to your 

continuous support and to meeting you again in the upcoming 

events in 2023! 

INTERESTED TO JOIN SWA? 

SWA welcomes all organisations who are actively involved 

and interested in the water and wastewater industry to join 

Singapore Water Association as either an Ordinary, Associate or 

Institutional member. 

Sign up at https://www.swa.org.sg/membership/sign-up-online 

Download the SWA 2023 Events Calendar at 

http://www.swa.org.sg/programmes/events-calendar/ 

For further queries, please contact SWA at 65150812 or 

enquiry@swa.org.sg. To stay connected on the latest updates 

on SWA, visit www.swa.org.sg, and follow us on LinkedIn, 

Facebook, Telegram and Instagram.

ON OUR RADAR 

DIGITALISATION: 

The key to smarter 

facilities monitoring 

environmental regulations while improving 

efficiency. Artificial intelligence (AI) and 

machine learning (ML) make it far easier for 

reliability engineers and technicians to evaluate 

water and air filtration systems across sensitive 

environments like biotech labs and hospitals, 

maintaining quality control with fewer errors. 

From processing facilities like cleanrooms to 

air quality at the manufacturing unit, air purity 

levels need to be kept pristine to avoid the 

threat of airborne contamination. 

To help customers optimise their filtration 

systems and the assets they protect, we 

ventured into providing new digital solutions 

platforms, STREAMETRIC and qlair, to 

complement our products. As a company that 

has been in business for 80 years, constant 

innovation and support is something our 

customers can rely on us to provide. 

STREAMETRIC is an AI-enabled water monitoring system that 

forecasts membrane permeability and trans-membrane pressure 

By consequence, the economic surge of 

pharmaceuticals sector in India has accelerated 

pharmaceutical pollution across the country, 

Varieties of pharmaceuticals have been detected in 

the surface, ground, and even in drinking water, with 

sources of pollutants traced back to pharmaceutical 

manufacturing plants, hospitals, and wastewater 

treatment plants. Furthermore, to ensure the high 

standards, safety, and efficacy of pharmaceutical 

products, stringent regulations must be observed. 

By Charles Vaillant, CTO/CDO of MANN+HUMMEL 

In the global pharmaceuticals sector, India 

has grown from a rising player to a significant 

contributor. Low cost of production and 

R&D place India competitively as the world’s 

largest provider of generic medicines, with 

20% share of total pharmaceutical exports, 

and the largest vaccine supplier in the 

world. About 3,000 drug companies and 

10,500 manufacturing units are advancing 

the country’s reputation for producing high- 

quality, low-cost generic drugs. 

As a solutions provider observing this shift 

across numerous industries, MANN+HUMMEL 

have found that digitalisation offers 

tremendous opportunities to comply to 

PREDICTIVE MONITORING FOR WATER 

SYSTEMS 

The effects of the accumulation of 

pharmaceutical residues in the environment 

are many folds, affecting species living in the 

water to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. 

However, facilities can improve the reliability 

of their filtration systems, reduce engineering 

hours, and even enjoy enhanced reporting if 

they implement digital water quality monitoring 

through a platform like STREAMETRIC. 

Through a streamlined framework, engineers 

can build cleaning schedules and prediction 

parameters, use Al-based predictive 

technology to set limits and detect anomalies, 

including forecasting membrane permeability 

and transmembrane pressure. More 

importantly, STREAMETRIC is compatible 

with all membrane types and most major 

programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and 

protocols and can be installed on systems 

ranging from small pilot plants to full-scale 

manufacturing facilities. 

To facilitate reporting for engineers and 

technicians, managers can also design 

personalised dashboards for team members, 

operators, and service providers. All data 


ON OUR RADAR 

is gathered and stored in the secure and 

scalable STREAMETRIC cloud, while a digital 

logbook allows teams to capture and store all 

historical data without the need for manual 

referencing or data entry. When it comes to 

sustainability and environmental reporting, 

data and insights can be readily obtained to 

ensure a facility remains in compliance with 

company or government regulations. 

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR CLEAN 

AIR MANAGEMENT 

Air purification is vital to pharmaceutical 

companies, and it is easy to understand why. 

Unclean air can contaminate drugs which leads 

to devastating health impacts, for both workers 

at the lab as well as those who consume these 

products. Improved ventilation and filtration 

in pharma environments can be achieved with 

intelligent air quality monitoring, which is why 

we developed qlair: a platform that leverages 

machine learning for proactive clean air 

management in commercial buildings. 

qlair’s indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring 

platform uses highly accurate sensors that 

can help pharmaceutical facilities meet air 

filtration guidelines set forth by the American 

Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air- 

Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the 

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 

(CDC), and World Health Organization (WHO). 

In addition to getting real-time IAQ data across 

multiple spaces, technicians can integrate 

qlair analytics into existing systems for 

more effective air quality recommendations 

— all on-the-go through web and mobile 

applications. 

ENABLING USER SUCCESS 

With these data-driven insights, companies 

can generate up to 20% savings in heating, 

ventilation, and other energy costs. In the 

case of Atrium Health, a North Carolinabased 

healthcare group with 40 hospitals and 

more than 1,400 care locations, the facilities 

management team was changing out their air 

handling unit (AHU) filters every three months 

on a time-based schedule. However, by 

installing AI-enabled filter lifecycle monitoring 

systems, they found that their AHU filters only 

need changing every 10-12 months. This led 

to a cost savings of US$345 per AHU, and 

the ROI from implementing qlair was reached 

within nine months. 

TRANSLATING DATA FOR ACCURATE 

INTERPRETATION 

Besides manufacturing conditions, businesses 

also need to consider the impact of IAQ on 

occupant health, and the COVID-19 pandemic 

has made this patently important. Yet, 

how can facility managers without heating, 

ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) 

expertise be able to maintain optimal IAQ 

at all times? To solve this, qlair developed 

the COVID-19 Airborne Infection Risk Score 

(CAIRS). CAIRs automatically analyses all 

relevant IAQ factors that have a scientifically 

proven impact on indoor virus transmission, 

producing an easy-to-understand score 

so facility managers can promptly work on 

factors needing improvement, and occupants 

enjoy greater health and well-being. 

CONCLUSION 

In a climate of uncertainty and fluctuating 

costs, having reliable real-time data to 

manage research or manufacturing facility’s 

air and water quality can provide a muchneeded 

dose of confidence in remaining 

productive and profitable. Digitalisation is 

the way forward, and as a global provider of 

filtration solutions, we will continue to innovate 

and provide key technologies alongside the 

pharmaceutical industry to ensure a healthier 

planet. 

This article was first published in Pharma Bio World 

and republished with MANN+HUMMEL’s permission. 


ON OUR RADAR 

ANDRITZ EXPANDS ITS 

range of C-Press screw presses 

for efficient dewatering 

excellent performance in terms of 

cake dewatering and filtrate quality. 

Furthermore, it has a very low noise 

level and a low operating cost, as it 

operates at extremely low speeds. 

Due to these features, the C-Press 

has much lower energy consumption 

than other technologies and results 

in very low maintenance costs, 

leading to a very long life of the 

equipment.” 

International technology group 

ANDRITZ has expanded its C-press 

screw presses product range to 

meet the dewatering needs of the 

wastewater or industrial treatment 

plants. 

With its direct drive system and 

conical shaft with constant screw 

pitch, the C-Press screw press has 

now a feed capacity ranging from 

1-95m 3 /hr, with an outlet capacity 

from 20-1,300kg of dry solids per 

hour. In addition to a long lifecycle, 

the press is claimed to also offer 

easy operation, low maintenance, 

and — due to bi-sequential cleaning 

— 30% less water consumption than 

comparable equipment. Lastly, the 

C-press complies with all regulations 

on issues such as safety, hygiene, and 

environmental protection. 

The C-Press from ANDRITZ offers a 

compact design and ‘low operating 

costs’ in the sludge dewatering 

processes. Furthermore, it also offers 

simplified operation and processes free 

from contact with dewatered sludge, 

combined with low maintenance and 

energy consumption costs. 

Nicolas Perrier, product manager at 

ANDRITZ, said: “The screw dewatering 

technology is the best solution from 

low to high flow ranges, as it has an 

The C-Press maximises the basket’s 

open area, featuring high specific 

capacity and optimal capture rate, 

when compared to equivalent 

technologies. The screw speed is 

automatically adjusted according 

to the input oscillation, ensuring 

a continuous flow with optimised 

performance in terms of drying 

and capture rate, even during the 

washing phases. 

Perrier concluded: “The equipment 

offers low consumption of water for 

washing. We do not need to stop the 

sludge feed to carry out washings, so 

we operate continuously with greater 

productivity. In addition, the latest 

developed model, the C12060, with 

an average dry solids throughput 

from 420-1,300kg/h — one of the 

highest capacities on the market 

— the machine is an alternative to 

other large technologies for sludge 

dewatering, such as large belt 

presses, which are more energyintensive 

and more demanding in 

terms of maintenance.” 


ON OUR RADAR 

ECHOLOGICS INTRODUCES 

a new valve-based leak 

monitoring sensor 

Echologics 

EchoShore-DXe 

acoustic leak 

monitoring sensor is 

capable of attaching 

itself to any access 

point in a water 

distribution network 

Echologics has announced the launch 

of the new EchoShore-DXe acoustic 

leak monitoring sensor, a new valvebased 

sensor that aims to extend the 

leak monitoring capabilities of the 

previously released EchoShore-DX 

system. The EchoShore-DXe sensor 

can attach itself to any access point 

in a water distribution network and 

work in tandem with the EchoShore- 

DX hydrant-based sensors, so utilities 

can get coverage where they need it. 

“In addition to reducing water 

loss, the EchoShore-DX system 

also helps utilities protect their 

local communities by addressing 

environmental concerns, while 

providing important information that 

assists utilities in reducing the risk 

of catastrophic breaks within their 

distribution networks,” said Kenji 

Takeuchi, senior vice-president of 

Water Management Solutions. “Now, 

utilities around the world can enhance 

their water loss programmes with 

our advanced technology, multidimensional 

analysis, and the Sentryx 

Water Intelligence platform – our userfriendly, 

secure software interface.” 

EchoShore-DXe sensors 

attach magnetically to various 

appurtenances, including valves, 

boundary boxes, and underground 

hydrants. They perform a scheduled, 

system-wide correlation to monitor, 

detect, and locate leaks — even small 

and growing leaks. 

“Backed by our advanced algorithms 

and dedicated analysis team, our 

solution can detect emerging leaks 

in monitored areas, which increases 

validated leak alerts,” added Takeuchi. 

“In addition to delivering reliable leak 

alerts, our technology also helps 

accurately locate leaks, so utilities can 

save time in their investigation and 

repair work.” 

Similar to the hydrant-based 

EchoShore-DX sensors, the valvebased 

EchoShore-DXe sensors have 

a battery life of up to 10 years and 

support communications via LTE 

Cat-M1 and narrowband Internet of 

Things (NB-IoT) networks. Both the 

hydrant-and valve-based sensors 

work together with the goal to provide 

enhanced sensitivity and reliability. 

Interested parties may visit the 

company’s official website for 

more information at Echologic’s 

website. 


ON OUR RADAR 

NIVUFLOW STICK: 

“Simple and accurate” 

flow measurement of 

surface water bodies in 

accordance with ISO 

The simultaneous measurement 

of up to 32 individual velocity 

“windows“ within each vertical 

section measurement provides the 

user with a full understanding of the 

velocity curve, as well as greater 

information and understanding 

of how the average velocity is 

calculated within the vertical section. 

The single measured velocities and 

flow velocity curve is shown directly 

on the unit display, and with each 

individual measurement, help to 

build up a full channel velocity profile 

for the location being measured. 

The water depth in each vertical can 

also be measured by an integrated 

hydrostatic level measurement, 

allowing for a river bed profile to 

be automatically determined and 

displayed during the gauging. 

When the measurement of all 

verticals has been completed, 

the NivuFlow Stick automatically 

computes the total discharge in 

accordance with both the meansection 

and mid-section methods. 

A complete PDF measurement 

report is then created by the device, 

including information about the 

cross-sectional area, discharge in 

each section, average velocity and 

water depth in the verticals, as well 

as the graphic representation of the 

flow profile. 

The new NivuFlow 

Stick is an easy 

to use AEVC that 

can measure full 

velocity profiles 

The new NivuFlow Stick acoustic 

echo correlation velocimeter (AECV) 

from Nivus, a developer, producer 

and supplier of measurement 

technology and data management 

for the water industry, claims to 

be not be only easy to use due 

to its simple and accurate flow 

measurement of surface water 

bodies, but also complies with the 

latest ISO 748 guidelines. 

The multipoint-measurement AECV 

is capable of measuring the full 

flow velocity profile, with velocities 

automatically measured from the 

bottom of the channel up to the water 

surface. This improves measurement 

accuracy, allowing discharge 

measurements to be completed in a 

shorter time, as the meter does not 

have to be positioned at the different 

sampling depths. 

As an added benefit, under the new 

2021 edition of ISO 748, the Nivus 

cross correlation technology is 

included within the accepted type of 

measurement devices under AEVCs. 

Water and environmental agencies 

carry out discharge measurements 

in accordance with ISO guidelines 

and ISO 748 outlines methods for 

determining the velocity and the 

cross-section area in open channels, 

as well as procedures for calculating 

the discharge. 


ON OUR RADAR 

A SMART WATER 

LEVEL SENSOR 

for long-term accuracy 

and reliability 

that measurements are being taken 

correctly, with the ability to raise 

alarms if necessary.” 

In addition to pressure (water 

level), the device also measures 

temperature to facilitate the 

automatic compensation of level 

measurements based on variation 

in water density. 

OTT Hydromet has launched a 

new water level sensor, the OTT 

PLS 500, which combines robust 

reliability and accuracy with the 

advantages of smart sensor 

technology. Building on decades 

of experience, the redesigned PLS 

500 retains key elements of the 

original OTT PLS, while enhancing 

the sensor to be intuitive and userfriendly. 

The OTT PLS 500 is a vented water 

level and temperature sensor with 

a stainless-steel body and a robust 

ceramic pressure cell for improved 

accuracy and reliability. As a smart 

sensor it includes built-in quality 

assurance (QA) / quality control 

(QC) and metadata to verify sensor 

performance and validate data. 

This means that the sensor is ideal 

for extended deployment in remote 

locations. 

The OTT PLS 500 combines the 

original features of the OTT PLS 

and smart sensors to deliver an 

accurate and reliable performance 

“This new technology is all about 

long-term accuracy and reliability,” 

explained Greg Koch, global product 

manager of OTT HydroMet. “The 

PLS 500 is fitted with a humidity 

sensor and an inclinometer 

to provide insight to mitigate 

condensation in the vented line and 

sensor movement or misalignment. 

The result is a smart sensor that 

continually checks itself to ensure 

A key feature of the PLS 500 will 

be a new capability to conduct 

data processing to improve 

the efficiency of data reporting 

and eliminate manual data 

post-processing/analysis. For 

example, the probe will be able to 

automatically undertake internal 

calculations such as averages, 

minima and maxima, as well as 

discharge calculations from either a 

user-defined rating table or an ISO 

1100-2 exponential formula set-up 

via SDI-12 commands. 

Communication with the PLS 500 

has also been enhanced, with the 

standard/simple communication 

protocols of SDI-12 or Modbus RTU 

(via RS-485). 

Neatly summarising the main 

advantages of the PLS 500, a 

device beta tester with the State of 

Colorado Natural Resource Agency 

said: “The metadata and sensor 

flags are a game-changer to ensure 

quality data remotely.” 


SHOW REVIEW 

GREEN CHLORINE: 

DECENTRALISED 

MODEL FOR 

sustainable future use 

and supply of chlorine 

quality of sodium hypochlorite being 

compromised, further resulting in 

lower quality water being produced 

at their facilities. Production was thus 

difficult, especially during the arid 

summer, where demand for water 

would be higher than usual. MICC 

considered switching to UV and 

ozone treatments as an alternative 

filtration method, as well as gaseous 

chlorine, but ultimately settled for De 

Nora’s on-site generation of sodium 

hypochlorite, due to the technology’s 

comparative safety and convenience. 

Utilising De Nora’s CECHLO systems 

to generate sodium hypochlorite 

on-site at Mount Isa’s Wastewater 

Treatment Facility, MICC became the 

primary chlor-alkali production hub 

in north Queensland, Australia. They 

served partners in the surrounding 

municipalities by selling their locallymade 

chlorine compounds to these 

partners for use in wastewater 

treatment. Aquadex helped to 

manage business development, 

sales and distribution, on behalf of 

MICC. These partnerships would 

help to generate income for MICC 

from chemical sales and create local 

employment, as well as sustainable 

growth. 

Jason Brooks, chief 

growth officer of 

Aquadex, explaining 

the ‘hub-and-spoke’ 

model adopted by 

Mount Isa 

Electrochemical and sustainable 

solutions provider De Nora Water 

Technologies held a webinar on 10 

Nov 2022 to discuss the benefits of 

green chlorine production, through 

a decentralised model of production 

for water treatment. The webinar, 

moderated by Daniel Chua from 

Water & Wastewater Asia, was 

helmed by three guests who have 

experience with this model: Stephen 

Jewell, director of Water, Mount Isa 

City Council (MICC); Jason Brooks, 

chief growth officer of Aquadex; and 

Marwan Nesicolaci, general manager 

of De Nora Water Technologies, Asia- 

Pacific hub. 

The webinar officially began with a 

sharing session from Brooks on the 

decentralised model adopted by 

MICC, dubbed the “hub-and-spoke 

model”. MICC adopted the model 

because they were dissatisfied with 

Australia’s centralised duopoly model 

for chlorinated water treatment, 

especially with logistical issues 

that occurred as a result of the 

geographical distance between 

Mount Isa, located in the rural 

Australian outback, and the chlorine 

producers, who were in city centres 

like Sydney. The 40-hour drive 

distance between the producers 

and end-users resulted in the 

Brooks then went into further detail 

on the benefits of the collocated 

Mount Isa model. He highlighted 

that the shorter distance between 

producers and customers meant 

that the latter could have access 

to fresh sodium hypochlorite that 

would not decay into gas over the 

long transportation process, saving 

on chlorine supplies. Access to 

fresh chlorine also allowed for higher 

quality portable water that better 

complied with the Australian drinking 

water guidelines, as producers would 

not be required to disinfect the water 

as much, thus reducing disinfection 


SHOW REVIEW 

by-products such as chlorates. The shorter 

distances also reduced the carbon footprint 

created from transporting the chlorine 

products to treatment plants, in addition to 

allowing rural communities easier access to 

fresh chlorine products for water treatment. 

The collocated model also allowed for 

a fully-partnered approach, end-to-end 

service between Aquadex and their 

customers, providing a range of “turnkey” 

solutions beyond immediate production. 

On the right-hand side of the screen, from top to bottom: Jason Brooks, chief growth officer, Aquadex; 

Stephen Jewell, director of water, MICC; and Marwan Nesicolaci, general manager, De Nora Water 

Technologies, Asia-Pacific hub 

A Q&A session followed Brooks’ sharing, 

where the three panellists shared more 

information about green chlorine and 

other relevant information on the subject. 

Highlights included the following: 

First, Nesicolaci and Brooks expanded 

on the benefits a decentralised model of 

production could bring to producers and 

end-users, such as local operational issues 

being more easily troubleshot through 

remote monitoring of equipment, as well as 

greater safety through mitigating the need 

for long-distance transportation of chlorine 

products. 

Second, Brooks explained that Aquadex’s 

decision to partner with De Nora was due 

to the quality of their after-sale services 

and technical expertise, as they “did not 

want someone else to help them after 50 

years”. Brooks even highlighted that De 

Nora’s specialists were willing to fly down to 

Australia and oversee the implementation 

process. 

Third, Nesicolaci shared the potential 

limitations of on-site chlorine production 

model, such as the lack of equipment 

with multiple production functions like 

machines that could produce both sodium 

hypochlorite and caustic soda, as well as 

safety issues that stemmed from a lack of 

technical expertise on the part of handlers. 

He also shared how De Nora mitigated 

those issues, such as customising 

machines to fit the specific needs to 

customers. 

An infographic showcasing the range of solutions Aquadex could provide with the decentralised model of 

green chlorine at MICC 

Nesicolaci also shared applications of the 

green chlorine model in other countries, 

such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain 

and Singapore, and how De Nora adapted 

their model to fit the specific needs of these 

different countries. Nesicolaci mentioned 

that South Korea had switched from a 

fluorine gas model of purification to green 

chlorine a few years ago, due to safety 

concerns over transporting chemicals 

used for purification over long distances, 

similar to Mount Isa. Singapore had also 

adopted the model several years ago, but 

“decentralised it even further” by producing 

sodium hypochlorite over several different 

decentralised plants across the country. 

Nesicolaci explained that a large central 

plant was not required, as the country’s 

small geographic size meant that longdistance 

transportation was a non-issue. 

Lastly, Brooks closed the Q&A session with 

his thoughts on how the current green chlorine 

model could be improved, suggesting that the 

model be further decentralised to allow the 

freshest chlorine possible to be produced onsite 

“at the point of use”. 

The webinar ended with each speaker giving 

their one key thought. Nesicolaci reiterated 

the importance of partnerships between 

manufacturer and end-users in providing 

sustainable technologies, while Jewell 

expressed a hope that the decentralised 

model of green chlorine would eventually 

disrupt the “increasingly centralised” model 

present in Australia. Brooks capped off the 

webinar by echoing the previous speakers’ 

thoughts on the simplicity of the decentralised 

model and Aquadex’s role in “connecting the 

dots” between the two partners. 


SHOW REVIEW 

THE 12TH EDITION 

OF ASIAWATER 2022 

ends with a bang 

as well as the ability to connect with 

exhibitors online with just a scan. 

Moreover, trade visitors could also 

download the digital version of the 

event floor map as well as the show 

directory booklet in a digital format, 

providing all they needed at their 

fingertips. 

The opening ceremony was 

graced with the presence of newly 

appointed minister of the Ministry of 

Natural resources, Climate Change 

and Environment, YB Tuan Nik 

Nazmi bin Nik Ahmad; the former 

secretary-general of Ministry of 

Environment and Water, YBhg Dato 

Seri Ir Dr Zaini bin Ujang; and the 

president of the Malaysian Water 

Association, Dr Ir Ts Hj Mohmad 

Asari Daud. The minister addressed 

the water industry as a gateway for 

the country’s economy to prosper. 

The region’s leading water and 

wastewater event for developing 

Asia has officially ended its 12th 

tenure at Kuala Lumpur Convention 

Centre (KLCC) at Kuala Lumpur, 

Malaysia. ASIAWATER 2022 was a 

comprehensive event, heightening the 

prospects of the water and wastewater 

industry, its members, potential 

business visitors, and consumers 

by providing the platform for these 

stakeholders to engage and in-depth 

information range on the progress of 

the water and wastewater industry. 

ASIAWATER 2022 opened its gates 

to exhibitors and trade visitors from 

65 countries, forming connections 

and converging business relations 

for 17,000 trade attendees locally 

and internationally, along with more 

than 700 exhibiting brands and 

companies from all segments of the 

water and wastewater industry. 

Embracing the smart and 

sustainable way of management, 

this year’s ASIAWATER Expo and 

Forum has adapted a sustainable 

approach in the event by 

establishing their digital directory, 

WATERFEEDS. Trade visitors could 

easily access the event’s agenda, 

exhibitor’s booth and their location, 

Over the three-day exhibition, paid 

and free-to-attend conferences 

commenced in partnership with 

water and innovation associations 

in the region. Global and local 

industry professionals as well 

as educators were part of the 

speaker line-up for each of these 

events respectively. ASIAWATER’s 

free-to-attend conferences 

weighed on topics such as 

technology and innovation and 

sustainable environment. Apart 

from that, ASIAWATER featured 

the third instalment of Regional 

Water Talks connecting six 

speakers from the region’s water 

association discussing on water 

resource management, policy and 

governance, and financial and 

technical sustainability. 

ASIAWATER Expo and Forum will 

return bigger and better in its 13th 

edition on the 23-25 Apr 2024 at 

KLCC, Malaysia. 


WHAT’S NEXT 

EVENTS CALENDAR 

2023 

FEBRUARY 

1 – 3 Feb 

Interaqua 2023 

Tokyo, Japan 

20 – 23 Feb 

WWETT 

Indiana, USA 

21 – 23 Feb 

World Water-Tech Innovation 

Summit 

London, United Kingdom 

MARCH 

21 – 23 March 

Water Korea 2023 

South Korea 

22 – 24 March 

Water Philippines 

Manila, Philippines 

APRIL 

18 – 20 April 

WQA Convention & 

Exposition 

Las Vegas, USA 

19 – 21 April 

IE Expo 

Shanghai, China 

MAY 

8 – 10 May 

Global Water Summit 

Berlin, Germany 

10 – 12 May 

OzWater 

Sydney, Australia 

JUNE 

4 – 6 June 

Singapore International Water 

Week Spotlight 

Singapore 

5 – 7 June 

Aquatech China 

Shanghai, China 

28 – 30 June 

IE Expo Chengdu 

Chengdu, China 

JULY 

5 – 7 July 

IndoWater Expo & Forum 

Jakarta, Indonesia 

AUGUST 

30 Aug – 1 Sep 

ThaiWater 

Bangkok, Thailand 

30 Aug – 1 Sep 

Pumps & Valves Asia 

Bangkok, Thailand 

SEPTEMBER 

14 – 16 Sep 

Water & Wastewater Expo 

Binh Duong, Vietnam 

OCTOBER 

11 – 13 October 

VietWater 

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 

NOVEMBER 

14 – 16 November 

Enlit Asia 

Jakarta, Indonesia 


ADVERTISERS’ INDEX 

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS 

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HARBIN FIRSTLINE ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD 55 

LACROIX SOFREL 7 

PULSAR MEASUREMENT 9 

WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA’S HOUSE AD 

IFC, 5, IBC 

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Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2023

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