• Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies with its German subsidiary Berkefeld developed mobile water treatment for emergency water supply; first deployment of Berkefeld TWA 15 UF system
HELLENTAL, Germany, Nov. 2, 2009 -- The new mobile water treatment plant TWA 15 UF, recently developed by Berkefeld, a subsidiary of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, together with the federal German technical disaster relief organization THW (Technisches Hilfswerk), has successfully passed its first major deployment under real-life conditions. The modular system, whose equipment includes ceramic ultrafiltration, was requested for the town of Hellental, in Lower Saxony (Germany). The reason: considerable impurities were noticed in the local drinking water. The THW, which had acquired two plants of this type, quickly went into action and put the system in operation in only a few hours.
Initially, a clouding of the water in Hellental was noticed. Then over the following days, the water quality fluctuated strongly, but its cause could not be explained. In order to eliminate chemical and biological impurities the operator added chlorine, and furthermore people affected were asked to boil the water before using it. When the existing treatment plant could no longer filter out the pollution, the responsible utility in Stadtoldendorf asked the THW for help. The THW, with specially trained drinking water experts for national and international relief operations, set up the mobile plant and provided water for cleaning and disinfection of the two water reservoirs. In addition, the task force filled each of the reservoirs with 100,000 liters and are providing the local inhabitants with an extra 30,000 liters of drinking water a day. The system was used for two weeks until the problem was solved by the local utility.
