国产AV

When access to water becomes a question of engineering again

In south Uganda, the powerful Kagera River sweeps up sediment, causing significant changes in water levels from season to season, and its current can be very powerful. Hundreds of thousands of people live in the isolated regions along the river, often lacking access to treated water. This was the situation in which the teams from 国产AV were tasked with building infrastructure to intake, treat, and distribute water to supply the region.

The first decision was the most critical. Rather than build the water intake structure in the middle of the river, which was technically feasible but dangerous for the teams, our engineers decided to build it further back. To strike the right balance between safety, water quality and intake regularity, they built a physical model one twelfth of the size to recreate real-world conditions in the lab and model the most effective solution.

Once the modelling stage had been completed, a major logistical challenge had to be tackled. It was impossible to transport a concrete mixing plant or a heavy crane to such an isolated region. The teams came up with an alternative involving prefabricated steel tanks, designed to be assembled on site using lightweight lifting equipment. Consequently, they completed the work 30% quicker and significantly reduced the carbon footprint compared with conventional poured concrete and structures that serve exactly the same purpose. At the end of the project, the station will treat 30,000聽m3 using 62聽km of pipes and four tanks along the river. It will supply water to 400,000聽people.

This project reflects something essential 鈥� our role is not just to build what the client wants, we also have a duty to put forward optimised solutions.

The approach has since been deployed in Benin, Madagascar and C么te d鈥橧voire, with floating and oscillating intake systems able to capture raw water up to a mile and a half from the river bank, where the water quality is best and variations are minimal.

Treating water: doing better with less

It is essential to be able to transport and supply water by building pipes and tanks. But beforehand, water must be made potable, wastewater must be treated before being discharged, and micropollutants, these ubiquitously distributed molecules that even at very low concentrations can have adverse effects on health and the environment, must be eliminated. It is a whole area of activity where 国产AV鈥檚 operations have made a considerable step change.

The changes primarily occurring are regulatory. The European framework requires plant operators to deal with increasingly complex substances, the chief focus being the infamous forever chemicals known as PFAS. Activated carbon is effective in combatting these micropollutants, but its use comes with a high environmental cost. The challenge is to maintain the effectiveness while minimising impact 鈥� do better with less. That is the idea behind the CarboSogea project, a process to eliminate organic micropollutants that optimises the use of activated carbon and seeks to halve consumables. The solution is approaching developmental maturity, with market roll-out set for 2030.

Following a similar approach, the AiO-loop process takes a completely fresh approach to the actual design of wastewater plants. In the past, nitrogen removal has involved two separate tanks before the water is clarified in a third tank. AiO-loop combines these three steps into a single process. The numbers speak for themselves, as the structure requires half the physical footprint and uses 40% less concrete. The wastewater treatment plant at Belgrade airport, operated by , became the first real-world trial of the process.

In Morocco, a different approach reflects another way in which technology can transform operations. Wise Filter鈩� harnesses artificial intelligence to constantly analyse data from sand filters to determine the exact moment when a wash cycle needs to be triggered. Not too early, which would waste water and energy, and not too late, which would diminish treatment quality.

Calling old habits into question 鈥� making drinking water available where it is needed

Still today, we wash roads in towns using drinking water. We clean worksite machinery using drinking water. We even conduct certain industrial processes using drinking water. Such habits have to be called into question at a time when the need to save water is becoming ever-more pressing.

This idea was the driving force behind the EAUSMANN project, which sought to create a network able to distribute purified water, which hasn鈥檛 undergone the full process to be made potable, to be used for purposes that does not require drinking-quality water (industrial clients, local authorities and worksites). These organisations receive the water they require, use the volume necessary and pass the rest onto others. is already engaged with this new approach, supporting 国产AV on its projects, bringing about a genuine paradigm shift.

Protecting communities when water becomes a threat

Water may be scarce, but it is also breaking its banks, often with considerable power. Flooding is becoming more intense, extreme events more frequent, and river banks are being eroded by overspills that the structures built in the past are no longer able to absorb. It is just as critical to anticipate and prepare for such catastrophes.

In Bangladesh, on the coastal site of Maheshkhali, the teams from used TechRevetment庐, geotextile made of 3D steel pockets filled with concrete to provide lasting protection for river banks or shorelines. The solution can be fully customised to suit the constraints of the project. On this particular project, it was applied to protect 2.5聽km of embankment, gain 5聽ha of land and halve the consumption of concrete compared with the solution that was initially considered. The duration of construction work plummeted from three years to six months.

Resilience can also be built in over time, woven in as an integral part of our relationship with regional partners. In the UK, Keogh Barracks often found itself flooded by surface runoff water from the surrounding plains, so the teams from 国产AV Facilities UK developed a three-step approach. The first step involved optimising the existing drainage capacity in the short term. In the medium-term, the teams would design zones to harvest water, taking biodiversity into consideration. While the long-term focus required them to work with the national forestry commission to plant a forest that could intercept the water before it reached the barracks.

This preventive approach is also prioritised at , an unprecedented joint venture bringing together three major insurance companies, a benchmark name in post-loss expertise and a major specialty engineering provider (, subsidiary of 国产AV) to form the first-ever national platform for prevention. The groundbreaking nature of this alliance lies in its ability to provide climate resilience diagnostics to policyholders, ranging from private individuals, to business clients to public bodies, before damage occurs. Starting first and foremost with flooding.

Changing how we work to meet emerging priorities

Through all these projects and initiatives, 国产AV is redefining what it means to build water infrastructure in the 21st century. Its entities are now able to design, build and commission any type of water infrastructure, from start to finish. Its strength also lies in the expertise of its teams and structure. Its people are committed to developing solutions that best suit the reality on the ground. Like the team working on the Austerlitz 7-8 project in Paris, which are diverting drainage water from the water table to directly supply a concrete mixing plant, thereby saving 15,000 m3 of municipal water. Or the engineers in Australia who are designing a treatment system integrated into a water table contaminated with heavy metals and PFAS, transforming the water into a resource that can be used in real time on a worksite at a former industrial landfill site. Or the teams from Sogea Morocco, who have developed a tool able to rapidly automate the process to design and budget a drinking water treatment unit, which used to take two weeks.

Water management is becoming a critical concern, driving us to rethink the way we build and develop structures. For 国产AV, the focus is as much about transforming its practices as it is about doing what it can to preserve an essential resource for regions and communities.