Local water, air and sewage treatment specialist, Ozone Service Industries, has installed one of its compact and affordable Biozone NoKak Sewage Treatment Plants at the offices of Flowserve at Toamasina on the east coast of Madagascar. Toamasina is Madagascar’s most important port.

The Biozone unit is designed to recycle sewage effluent into water that can be reused in toilet flushing systems, irrigation systems and even as drinking water for livestock. It is specifically designed for small-scale use, particularly in remote or sensitive ecosystems. The system is proudly South African, and uses a completely natural process that requires no chemicals or regular emptying.

Flowserve is a leader in supplying pumps, valves, seals and related services to the power, oil and gas, chemical and other industries. The company also provides seals and pumps for mines around the world, and Madagascar has a growing mining industry. In particular, the Ambatovy nickel mine, said to be one of the world’s largest new nickel mining projects, will be processing and refining product close to the city before shipping it out.

According to Raymond van den Berg of Ozone Service Industries, “Despite developments such as these, infrastructure in Toamasina has severely deteriorated. Flowserve wanted a solution that was both reliable and environmentally friendly. As far as we are aware, Flowserve is the first company on the entire island to install such a treatment plant. Even though they do not own the building itself, they took the initiative to act responsibly.”

The unit took only three days to install at Flowserve’s offices, despite there being a local piping shortage. The plant was functional on 28 October 2011.

Anton Stoop of Flowserve says, “As a company that services the mining industry globally, we are used to operating in remote areas and in places where infrastructure is lacking. That’s certainly the case at present in Toamasina, which has lacked investment for quite some time, due to political instability, among other factors. It was clear that we needed some sewage treatment solution, but just didn’t know where to look—until we located Biozone NoKak on the Internet. It’s really great to have a solution that was so easy to install and operate.”
Flowserve’s plant will be using the purified sewage for flushing with the excess being used for irrigating the office gardens.

“Flowserve must be congratulated for taking the initiative – this kind of responsible self-sufficiency will be increasingly important in solving the world’s pollution problems,” says van den Berg. “Biozone NoKak provides an elegant, environment-friendly solution to a universal problem.”