Employees living at the housing project site located near the Unki Mine in Zimbabwe will soon have access to a reliable and good quality drinking water supply following the awarding of a contract to WEC Projects (Pty) Ltd which focuses on wastewater treatment, amongst other specialist areas.

The Johannesburg-based firm has started executing the project to deliver the 125 kl/h water treatment plant. The plant will take raw water from the nearby Impali Dam and treat it to potable drinking water that meets the standards laid down by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The engineering firm’s turnkey water treatment plants are proving extremely popular on a continent where people routinely drink untreated water straight from rivers. According to Graham Hartlett, the organisation’s sales and marketing manager, as a specialist contractor in the water and wastewater treatment industry, WEC is an expert supplier of these packaged treatment plants.

“We pride ourselves on the quality of experience that we deliver,” he says, adding that the Zimbabwean project will be very similar in terms of the incorporated technology and the process design as other projects the company has implemented elsewhere in Southern Africa.

“The technologies we are using on this plant – including raw water extraction, chemical pre-treatment, flocculation, clarification, filtration and disinfection – will be used for turning raw water into something that meets global health standards. We are well aware of just how important a project of this nature can be to the people it will ultimately service.”

Hartlett explains that the packaged water treatment plants supplied by WEC are ideal for use in Africa, since they are containerised which means reduced build time on site. The units are manufactured, assembled and tested prior to being sent to the site. Moreover, since the treatment facilities are modular, they can easily be adjusted, should conditions in the area change. In other words, WEC can bring in additional modules as and when these may be required.

“WEC does all the development for these facilities in-house. This includes the design, fabrication and manufacture, as well as the installation and commissioning. We also place a critical focus on effectively understanding the environment in which the plant will be operating. This is done in order to implement a solution that suits that particular area.”

“At the same time, the basic design remains robust and heavy duty, and because it is modular, it is quick and easy to fabricate. This offers timeous access to the kind of water treatment facilities that are so vital in Africa. This is, after all, for a mine in a remote area of the country, where potable can be scarce. Fortunately, we are able to deliver a solution that will quickly provide access to drinking water for those employees working at Unki,” he concludes.