ITT Corp. has completed two new rural water treatment
plants in China,
as part of a pilot project to tackle the country’s rural drinking water issues.
The two plants, which utilize leading water-treatment technology, will supply
more than 10,000 local residents with purified water that meets or surpasses
the national standards. Both plants were designed and donated by ITT under an
agreement with the Center for Rural Drinking Water Safety of China’s Ministry
of Water Resources. The project is to serve as base for future rural water
systems in developing countries.
“Finding sustainable solutions
for the problem of rural drinking water safety in China poses huge challenges for the local government, rural
residents and technology providers,” says Mike Kuchenbrod, president of ITT’s China and India operations. “To address the issue, ITT designed two
different solutions for Qing
County and Zhaojiaopu Village, each according to the distinctive features of the water
environment and the specific needs of local residents. We hope that these two
successful pilot models can be promoted to more rural areas of China, and offer useful experience for future rural drinking
water safety projects in many developing regions of the world.”
According to survey data, 300
million of China’s rural residents drink water that falls below
standards. Residents in Qing
County rely on wells that have been in use for more than 20
years. Because of the local land composition, seawater gradually has
infiltrated the wells, leading to higher fluoride content in its water.
The ITT project was conceived in
2005, with company and the China Ministry of Water Resources signing a
cooperation agreement in April 2008. Having analyzed raw water quality,
residents’ needs and existing equipment, ITT employed technologies such as
multiple agent filtration and ultraviolet sterilization to purify the well
water and produce water that surpasses National Drinking Water Standards in a
scalable form that also is energy- and resource-efficient.