Cascal NV - Qitaihe, China

History - Located in the eastern part of Northeast China’s Helilongjiang province, Qitaihe has a total population of approximately 800,000. Qitaihe has grown from its initial roots as a small coal mining settlement to an important City which today has over 500,000 inhabitants in the urban area.

Partnership - On commencing the twenty five year operational contract in 2001, the China Water Company took over the existing 20Mld water treatment plant. It has since been constructed and now operates a new 100Mld plant, water pumping station and connecting raw water pipelines.

Developments - The raw water source for the treatment plants comes from the Taoshan reservoir, which is just one kilometre from the city and has a capacity of 100,000,000m³. During the long winter when the temperature can regularly plunge to -30°C for many weeks, the reservoir is prone to freeze to a depth of one metre. To avoid supply problems the raw water abstraction point is at a depth of ten metres. In addition, the majority of the water treatment facilities are constructed inside buildings which are heated throughout the winter to avoid freezing the process elements.

The treatment facilities are conventional surface water plants consisting of :
Raw Water Pumphouse
Inlet Chamber
Chemical Dosing
Flocculation
Settlement/DAF Tanks
Rapid Gravity Filters
Treated Water Storage (2 x 75,000m³ capacity)
Treated Water Pumps