The Polynesian Company of Waters (SPEA) and Degrémont, partner to deliver a quality drinking water

French Polynesia, a land big as Europe

Located in the Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia is a French territory
made up of 118 volcanic and coral islands and atolls.  

With its area stretches to 5.03 sq km, that is equivalent of Europe
area, French Polynesia consists of five archipelagos: the Society, the Tuamotu,
the Gambier, the Marquesas and the Tubuai. The population of the five
archipelagos combined all together reaches almost 260000 people.

 

In French Polynesia, only six districts out of 48 provide high quality
drinking water : Papeete, Arue, Bora Bora, Faa’ has, Mahina and Papara.

The lack of appropriate treatment, old water networks, overconsumption,
the staggering of the territory, the diversity of waters to treat… Explain the
poor quality of  distributed water.

 

 

Drinking water in French Polynesia: a legal must-to-do

If the access to drinking water is a necessity and a major priority for
the archipelagos of French Polynesia, it goes without saying this is an
obligation as well.

Actually, in accordance with French Polynesian laws, all municipalities
must supply drinking water before 2015 and treat their waste water by 2020.

 

 

A pilot to demonstrate the performances of Degrémont
Compact Unit UCD®

Waters of surface are by nature difficult to deal with. They are more or
less contaminated by suspended organic particles, dissolved organic matters,
pathogenic organism. And this is entirely true across all the  French Polynesia, where we record both strong
rainfall episodes and a significant diversity of soil.

 

All the value of the Degrémont Compact Unit UCD ® for the French
Polynesia consists of its capacity to auto-regulate according to the quality of
the water to be treated.

« Degrémont UCD ® is a complete
self contained drinking water treatment plant that perfectly meets our local
constraints. Short delivery time, simple site installation and use of course. »
explains, Brice Cabibel, SPEA Managing Director. « But above all auto-regulation combined with several options
available result in a solution taking into account our local water treatment
requirements. We have so a standard unit answering as well in our worries
concerning the diversity of waters to be treated as quick variations of their
quality, true obstacles to the potabilisation of our territory. Besides, the
broad range of throughputs allows to feed with drinking water of zones
insulated and not much populated with reasonable expenses of installation
according to the number of served inhabitants » he continues.

 

The UCD® (Degrémont Compact Unit) is a compact plant using inclined
plate clarification

and sand filtration to produce drinking water from muddy fresh water.

The UCD range is made up of 14 units covering flow rates from 5 to 720
m3/hr. These factory prefabricated units are delivered in the form of one or
more skids, allowing for fast positioning on site.

 

The first stage of this agreement has been the development of a fully
containerized pilot unit with a capacity of 5 m3/hr. Inaugurated on November 9,
2010 near Papeete, this unit will be rolled out at different locations in
Polynesia to demonstrate the performance of U.C.D.® units in varying local
situations.

 

Convinced of the suitability of the response provided by the U.C.D.®,
the SPEA is currently mobilizing large-scale communication resources to promote
this technology in Polynesia, which should result in the construction of a
number of plants of this type in the region over the next few years.

First destination: the site of Meau in the village of Taiohae located on
the island of Nuku Hiva to the Marchionesses, where unit is nowadays tested. It
is then envisaged in Ua Pou, Moorea and several other villages potabilization
units.

 

“We are very proud of this project
because it illustrates perfectly all value of our compact units: the alliance
of the technological know-how of Degrémont and the expertise of our partner
SPEA. Every plan is led in partnership with a network of local contractors to
answer perfectly the particular pressures of the concerned zones. This step
guarantees a drinking water respecting standards in drinking water about the
served zone is. » concludes Isabelle Maunoury, sales director of Degrémont
Rehabilitation and Standard Projects Department.