dws-ifat2018-colsen-joop-770px
‘What can you do when you run an entertainment business just outside Cape Town when the city is running dry? One can hope for enough rain to refill the reservoirs and the water crisis to vanish? Or you can take the initiative to install your own water supply plant? The latter was the choice of our South African client’, says director Joop Colsen of water technology supply group of companies Colsen.

Earlier this year Colsen’s South African office, Aquest Colsen, commissioned a water treatment plant on the premises of the entertainment company, including 5 groundwater wells and a treatment plant with iron removal, sand filtration, reverse osmosis and stripping, for the delivery of 400 m3 per day.

dws-ifat2018-colsen-plant-cape-town-350px  Earlier this month Aquest Colsen started up a groundwater filtration plant for a commercial client near Cape Town, South Africa.

Start up treatment
Aquest Colsen closely follows the water crisis in the South African West Cape region.

According to director Joop Colsen (on top photo) many companies consider take matters into their own hands. Therefore Colsen was not surprised when the entertainment company asked them to build a water supply plant.

‘In September last year we started with the first preliminary studies and already by May we were able to start up the treatment’, adds Colsen.

Aquest Colsen designed a plant with a aerated sand filter to de-ironize the groundwater and managed to upgrade the RO-process to deliver 70 percent of the incoming groundwater as drinking water.

As final step the water is stripped to reach the right pH.

dws-ifat2018-colsen-ro-plant2RO-modules deliver 70 percent of the incoming groundwater as drinking water.

Water supply for townships
On the occasion of the presentation of the new plant at the IFAT trade fair, Colsen reflects on the water crisis. ‘It is not only about climate change. The crisis is also a result of the increasing water demand’, he comments.

‘The South African authorities are upgrading all townships and thousands of new homes are being built, all with their own drinking water taps.'

'The water demand in Cape Town is rapidly increasing and the fresh water supply from the upstream water basins is no longer sufficient’, according to Colsen.

He foresees that it is inevitable Cape Town turns to desalination of sea water. In fact the South African office of Colsen has already been asked for preliminary studies for a desalination plant in the harbour of Cape Town.

Read also on this website
IFAT 2018: How Nijhuis links tasteful mint to waste water, 18 May 2018
• IFAT 2018: Call on EU to develop standards for micropollutants in waste water, 15 May 2018
• IFAT 2016: Three giant H2O molecules hanging over Dutch pavilion symbolize circular water use, 31 May 2016
• IFAT2014: Vibrant water tech business at Holland pavilion in pictures, 11 May 2014
• Meet the Dutch water in the Netherlands water pavilion at IFAT2018 (Hall B2 - booth 104/205)
Colsen installs energy saving Anammox technology at new wwtp for VION, the Netherlands, 16 January 2014

More information
IFAT 2018
www.ifat.de

Colsen
Hulst, the Netherlands
+31 114 311 548
www.colsen.nl
and
Aquest Colsen
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
+27 41 363 0511
www.aquest.co.za