Dutch marine vessel HMS Pelikaan brings fresh water to Island Saba, Caribbean
The Dutch Navy vessel HMS Pelikaan provides the population of the island Saba in the Dutch Caribbean with fresh water .
Saba is struggling with a severe shortage of drinking water after a long period of drought and a defective water factory. Especially government entities, such as schools, hospitals and retirement homes are under threat of running out of water.
Rainwater shortage
The Caribbean island of Saba has a long tradition of rainwater harvesting. Houses on Saba are constructed to support the collection of rainwater. Due to a long period of drought many rainwater cisterns on the island ran dry.
The local drinking water systems have limited production capacities and mainly provide water to the local hospital.
A new drinking water plant to increase the island's fresh water capacity is under construction.
On board water maker
HMS Pelikaan also brought 60,000 litres of water to Saba in August 2009. In January 2010, the vessel was used to transport water to Haiti after the country was hit by an earthquake.
The water tanks on board the HMS Pelikaan have a capacity of 70,000 litres.
The marine vessel has a Demitec water maker on board with a capacity of 25 m3 per day. The Demitec installation desalinates seawater by reverse osmosis and is delivered by Hatenboer Water.
A Demitec desalination RO-unit
Full water services
Next to the water maker, disinfection equipment and sanitary fresh water system with ultra filtration, Hatenboer-Water provides periodically the water analysis on board the Pelikaan to ensure a safe water system.
About Hatenboer
Hatenboer-Water is active in the field of water treatment. It also supplied water treatment equipment to most vessels from the Royal Dutch Navy and several foreign navies.
The company's Demitec RO-units are equipped with a seawater intake pump, extensive pre-treatment, high-quality membranes, anti scalant dosing unit, membrane cleaning (CIP) unit and slow running high-pressure plunger pump.
This news item is based on press releases originally published on the websites of Hatenboer-Water and the Dutch ministry of defence (in Dutch only).
More information
Ministry of Defence
The Hague, the Netherlands
+31 70 318 81 88
www.defensie.nl/english
Hatenboer-Water
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
+31 10 409 12 00
www.hatenboer-water.com