Water & Wastewater Asia May/June 2019

12 | GRUNDFOS SPECIAL
By Leong Chee Khuan,
Area Managing Director for South Asia and
General Manager for Grundfos Pumps Sdn Bhd
With countries around the globe
suffering from the impacts of
water scarcity, it is at the top of
every national agenda.
Closer to home, nearly two billion people in
the Asia Pacific region have poor or limited
accessibility to water, and the number is
expected to reach five billion by 2050. The
crisis is exacerbated by the deteriorating
quality of the water, with 90 per cent of the
total wastewater generated in the region
being mixed with the freshwater system
without adequate treatment 1 .
Amid the rapid industrialisation and
urbanisation seen across the region, the
existing water infrastructure is playing catchup
in treating the increasing wastewater that
comes with economic development.
Preserving water quality and ensuring the
water resources available are clean and
safe to use is indispensable in our efforts
to ensure water security. The lack of proper
wastewater management intensifies the
crisis and results in massive health costs.
Proper drainage and disposal of wastewater
is also crucial to protect the environment
and combat extreme weather events such
as floods through removal of rainwater.
Therefore, wastewater management is also
central to building a sustainable future.
The impact of wastewater treatment on
the ecosystem and human health makes
wastewater infrastructure a crucial
component of economic development and
sustainability goals.
Even as countries are developing projects in
the wastewater sector, there is scope to do
more to ramp up the region’s drive towards
sustainability. Deploying innovative and
adaptable solutions that enhance efficiency
in wastewater management and optimise
the treatment processes will be crucial in
attaining these goals.
TAPPING INTO THE PRIVATE
SECTOR’S EXPERTISE
Effective management of wastewater calls
for aligned efforts from both the public and
private sectors. While governments shoulder
the responsibility to ensure water quality for
citizens, industry players are also responsible
for introducing innovative solutions
given their expertise in the water sector.
A case in point is Malaysia. With Malaysians
currently producing an estimated
5.1 million cubic metres of sewage daily
– the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic-sized
swimming pools 2 – sustainable wastewater
management is one of Malaysia’s key focus
areas for effective water governance. The
government is planning to build 77 sewage
treatment plants nationwide by 2040 under
the National Sewerage Catchment Strategy.
A key part of the wastewater management
process is pumping stations that collect and
transport wastewater. However, traditional
pumping stations are made of concrete
casted on-site, which not only means greater
time spent on construction and detailed
planning, but also susceptibility to chemical
corrosion and subsequent leakage over time.
They also occupy a lot of space, which is
an issue for the rapidly urbanising country.
Grundfos recently launched its prefabricated pumping station (PPS), which optimises pumping station
design and operation - a vast improvement to traditional pumping stations
Industry players such as Grundfos are
complementing the government’s efforts by
introducing new technologies to address the
country’s unique challenges in wastewater
treatment. Given that pumping stations are
central to modern environmentally-friendly
processes in wastewater treatment, the
company recently launched its prefabricated
pumping station, which has been developed
Water & Wastewater Asia • May / June 2019