Water. Desalination + reuse
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REGIONS | 32 | Desalination & Water Reuse | May-June 2016 Cyprus mobile desalination dismantled A €30 million (US$ 33 million) mobile desalination unit constructed to supply the city of Paphos on Cyprus's southwest coast is being disassembled after years of near idleness, according to local press. The 2008 decision to install a mobile desalination unit by the Xeros River in Kouklia was taken amid extended drought on the island requiring water to be tankered in from Greece. According to newspaper, Politis, the unit has almost never been used since its installation in 2010 as Paphos' water needs were met from the Asprokremmos dam. According to Politis, the unit operated only for a short period of time when maintenance work was carried out at the Asprokremmos dam and has since remained mostly inactive. Acting head of the water development department, Andreas Manoli, told another newspaper, Cyprus Mail, "At that time, when the decision was taken to bring the desalination unit, we were in a state of panic. We were on the verge of being left without any water. Limassol only got water every ten days. We had already spent around €50 million (US$ 55 million) to bring water from Greece." He said there were proposals for a permanent desalination plant at Paphos, with a decision to be taken in April. "The decision will depend on the water levels. At the moment Paphos' reservoirs have reached 60% of capacity, whereas the southern pipeline reservoirs are only 25% full," Manoli said. EUROPE India and Israel look to collaborate in desalination India and Israel are looking to cooperate in water conservation, recycling and desalination. According to a report in newspaper, Livemint, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had suggested to India's president, Pranab Mukherjee, that water conservation and related areas should be a new area of cooperation between the two countries. Oman signs deal for temporary desalination Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has signed an agreement with Muscat Water to establish temporary desalination plants in Quriyat, Muscat and Aseela in South A'Sharqiyah. Public Authority for Electricity and Water chairman, Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Mahrouqi has said the agreements to set up temporary water facilities were among alternatives adopted by PAEW to find measures to address shortages in water in Quriyat and the Governorates of South and North A'Sharqiyah. "There will be expansion in the Sur desalination plant and is expected to be completed in 2016, so we decided that there is a need to have another station to support the existing station to feed the governorates of South and North A'Sharqiyah," said the PAEW chairman. The desalination plant in the 8,000 m³/d Wilayat of Quriyat will run until the end of June of this year while the 10,000 m³/d Aseela station in the governorate of South A'Sharqiyah will operate until the end of July of this year. The scope of the project includes the design, construction, ownership, operation and maintenance of a reverse osmosis desalination plant. Under the agreement, OPWP will purchase the potable water produced by the project under a water purchase agreement. South African desalination project comes under press fire Hitachi Zosen develops waste-fired desalination Water supplier for South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, Umgeni Water, is considering a proposal to build a seawater desalination plant on the Illovo River within the next five years to cope with growing demand in its Upper South Coast region. Were it to go ahead, the project could be the largest seawater desalination plant in South Africa. National press is arguing that the plant will be damaging to the environment. "In terms of the proposed desalination plant, ocean water and billions of planktonic life forms will be sucked into the plant inlet and die 24/7," and "highly concentrated salt brine is toxic to life and this will be pumped back into the ocean via a discharge point 600 metres offshore, and this will add to the ecosystem destruction," according to the national online news service News 24. Hitachi Zosen has targeted the Middle East markets with its development of a desalination system that uses heat from waste incineration to produce potable water. The system uses either distillation or reverse osmosis (RO) according to Nikkei Asian News. For distillation, it deploys heat from incinerated rubbish to drive turbines that generate steam from saltwater. In the RO process the turbines drive a generator to power the process. One tonne of garbage can produce about 600 kWh of electricity or up to 100 tonnes of water, Nikkei reported. Hitachi Zosen is reported to intend to market versions that use either one or both processes to government agencies and state-run enterprises. Construction will cost as much as building a waste incinerator and a regular desalination unit combined, but operating expenses will be kept down. Hitachi Zosen aims to up its annual desalination facility sales to 50 billion yen (US$ 414 million) by 2020 - a fivefold increase. Hitachi Zosen anticipates that its system will benefit from growth in the use of incinerators arising from a need to deal with the mounting waste that comes with economic development. Waste incineration is currently not widespread in the Middle East, where landfill is favoured. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA