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Turn-Key Seawater Desalination Plant in Cape Verde (2 x 5.000 m³/day)
Praia with approximate 140.000 inhabitants is Cape Verde's capital, largest city and a commercial centre.
The development of the urban infrastructure of Praia has made a big progress in the last years. It concerns the extension of the street network, construction of the new residential buildings, renovation of the old ones as well as construction of the new airport and extension of the university.
However, this progress is hindered by the scarcity of the high-quality water, which is a big problem in Cape Verde. The city features an arid climate with a short and a lengthy, very pronounced dry season.
In fact, outside of the months of August, September and October, little precipitation falls on Praia. The city has about 260 mm of rain per year. The further development of the city depends on the constant and sufficient water supply. Only in this way it is possible to create new chances for the young population of Praia and to reduce the emigration quote.
The plant
In order to improve the supply of the safe water to the urban community of Praia in the long term, the government decided to order a new water treatment plant from UNIHA.
This project is conceptually designed to consist of a seawater desalination system capable of delivering 10.000 m³/day water to Praia.
The intake is to be constructed from four wells on the sea shore from where raw water is pumped to the reverse osmosis plant. The plant has been designed according to the special needs and requirements of the customer, including two treated water reservoirs with 1.500 m³/day.
For energy recovery the ERI system is used. Considering the present water shortage at Praia and the limited water supply to the population, it can be expected that the water consumption will increase once the water treatment is operational.
All components were delivered within 12 months after the start of the project including approval procedure.
The plant works flawlessly to the full satisfaction of the customer.
The UNIHA plant includes:
- well pump stations
- chemical solution preparation and dosing stations
- pressurized sand filters with automatic backwash system
- high pressure system with PX energy recovery system
- reverse osmosis system for salt rejection
- membrane cleaning system
- potable water storage tanks
- MCC and MCP for fully automatic operation
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