Visiting a new water treatment plant in Asia
April 10, 2025
An insider’s view of a recently commissioned municipal water treatment plant.
If you were driving past this water treatment plant, you would probably have thought it was a shopping mall. Located amidst other buildings is a surface water treatment plant which has the capacity to treat 380 million litres of water daily. The efficiency of land use is remarkable.
The plant commenced operations about four months ago. It is not running at full capacity yet but will gradually step up the treatment volume to cater for any increase in water demand.
This water infrastructure holds much significance for a city which is extremely reliant on ground water. With the ability to treat such a large volume of surface water to drinking water daily, the facility supports the management of land subsidence and provides an alternative reliable water source.
The intake water (image on left) resembles teh tarik (milk tea), and after going through the Hydro-PAQTM (image on right), appears crystal clear. The water is then channelled to Hydro-FILTM for additional treatment. The turbidity inlet was designed for a maximum of 300 NTU and optimised for an average of 50 to 150 NTU, while ensuring a turbidity outlet of less than 1 NTU.
Judging by its compact size, you might quickly assume that the interior of the plant would look like a house with too much furniture, but surprisingly, a walkthrough revealed a spacious looking and cleverly arranged set-up – an impressive example of how good design is executed – everything has its place, and looks like it was meant to be there in the first place.
The plant’s compact design is supported by BW Water’s proprietary Hydro-PAQTM and Hydro-FILTM technologies, which treats water or wastewater on an optimised footprint – but experienced industry professionals all know that it takes a lot more to ensure an entire project turns out the way this one did, and only in about three years from project award to commissioning. Part of the scope included another similar plant at a much smaller capacity, which was built together and commissioned a few months before this one.
BW Water was required to design, supply, install and commission the electro-mechanical works for the two water treatment plants, which included the engineering works, water intake feed pumps, Hydro-PAQTM system, Hydro-FILTM system, chemical dosing system, sludge dewatering system, instrumentation and SCADA, electrical and control system, piping and valves, and distribution pumps.
Standing at the top of the plant, one can see the city and its landmarks from a distance, and I can only imagine how proud everyone who was involved in this project must feel. It must be such a privilege and joy to contribute towards a clean water supply and leave a legacy in this bustling city.
Commemorating our visit by generating an illustration of ourselves on ChatGPT.
This blog is written by Joey Chiang, who is a global marketing communications manager for BW Water. She recently had the opportunity to visit the plant and shares her perspective as a curious non-engineer.
Interested in finding out more about the project?
Contact BW Water for the case study.