Wastewater

Wastewater Treatment Service

The core of a wastewater treatment system is to collect all domestic effluents and remove them from the center of towns and cities. The wastewater is then treated in order to release it back into the natural environment where it completes the purification process.

With the degradation of agriculture, industrial advances, the diminishment of natural resources, and tightening standards, the importance of this service sector has grown.

It is crucial that we protect water resources and combat the pollution of rivers, lakes and aquifers upstream. Treating wastewater is therefore a deciding factor by which the quality of the environment is maintained as well as numerous water related activities (tourism, fish farming, agriculture and industry).

Veolia Water uses its expertise to monitor and improve the reliability as well as secure the collection and treatment of wastewater until its release, once treated, back into the ecosystem.

Main issues

• Efficiency of wastewater treatment
• Quality control
• Discharge to surface waters
• Disinfection
• Deodorization
• Water reuse
• Sludge Management (Higher quality, smaller quantities, safer)

Tools

• Redox probe
• Biofilters
• Compact plants
• Discharge monitoring systems
• Water quality monitoring tools (analysis program ...)

Organization

• Plant optimization program
• Maintenance policy
• Renewal policy

EXAMPLE: The Hague, Netherlands

The largest wastewater treatment plant in Europe

In 2003, Veolia Water was awarded a contract for wastewater services for the Delft region. The contract was the first public-private partnership for wastewater services in the Netherlands and complied with the latest environmental standards (DBFO). The plant is capable of collecting 116 million m3 per year in 1.7 million equivalent populations.

Objectives:

• Construction of a new wastewater treatment plant in Harnaschpolder (capacity: 1.3 million equivalent population)
• Management and upgrade of the existing Houtrust plant (40,000 equivalent population)
• High envronmental performance
• 50% energy independence achieved by using the biogas produced by sludge digesters
• Significant improvement to North Sea beach water
• Operation for 30 years of the existing plant and 27 year of the new one, the 97 kilometer mains system and the 17 pumping stations

Veolia Water's solutions:

• Set-up of a Franco-Dutch consortium for a design, build, finance and operate contract
• Infrastructure built with a minimum impact on the municipality's budget by using private financing
• Strict management of all risks at lowest costs