Johannesburg -- This week, from 15 to 21 March, marks South Africa's National Water Week and General Electric (GE) supports Government's efforts to promote adoption of water reuse practices. This will help address the threat of clean water scarcity in support of Government's call for finding solutions on how "Together we can Save More Water".
"National Water Week offers an excellent platform for raising awareness about the critical need to increase the quantity of supply of fresh water," said Nellie Swanepoel, executive head, GE Power & Water. "We call upon industry leaders, teachers and policy makers to work together to implement the policies, technology developments and fiscal measures needed to ensure an adequate supply of clean water for the future.
"The issue of how best to preserve water is of major concern to all South Africans including the business community. These include, water quality, availability and accessibility especially in rural South Africa.
"The water treatment and reuse technology exists today to address this global challenge. Unfortunately, the motivation to employ these technology solutions often doesn't," Swanepoel said. In South Africa, for example it is often less expensive to withdraw water from a river than to treat it and reuse it.
"The Minister of Water Affairs, Bulelwa Sonjica has emphasised that South Africa is one of 30 of the driest countries in the world and that there is an urgent need for all South Africans to save water, which is essential to the effective functioning of the South African economy and key sectors like Agriculture," Swanepoel explains.
She says GE's proven technologies and solutions for water treatment and reuse are the company's way of contributing towards a better South Africa for all.
"We continue to invest heavily in new product development that enhances current products and develop new and even more advanced technologies. The company offers a diverse selection of technologies for the global water treatment industry ranging from desalination to cooling water solutions, mobile water to petrochemical solutions, and water recovery to boiler water solutions." Swanepoel said.
Adding that GE continues to enhance its capabilities to help customers meet the world's water challenges.
Two recent examples: GE is creating a Centre of Excellence (COE) in Minnetonka, in the USA for manufacturing reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes; and a COE in Oroszlány, Hungary for manufacturing ZeeWeed ultra-filtration membranes. ZeeWeed technology is the cornerstone of GE's filtration product line, and has been installed in more than 500 drinking water and wastewater facilities worldwide. A GE Centre of Excellence brings together the company's most advanced capabilities and expertise to focus on a key technology sector.
GE has further expanded its global presence and capabilities by establishing a world-scale Global R&D Centre in Singapore, and recently opened the GE Saudi Water & Process Technologies Centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
GE has many examples of providing technology for successful water treatment and reuse projects around the globe, ranging from small commercial building installations to the largest reuse plant in the world, in Kuwait. Some recent examples include:
- OMNOVA Solutions' Performance Chemicals and GE have implemented a sustainable water solution in a greater Green Bay (Village of Howard), Wis., facility to save 13.6-million litres of water per year, lessening the stress on fresh water sources and reducing environmental impact.
- Cogentrix Energy, LLC's 120-megawatt power plant in Battleboro, N.C. has implemented a GE technology solution to conserve an estimated three million gallons of water annually, or the equivalent to approximately 22 percent of its current water usage. This greatly reduced its dependence on municipal freshwater sources impacted by a historic drought that ended earlier this year.
- GE technology has helped SVA-FujiFilm Opto-Electronics Materials Co. Ltd. of China reduce tap water consumption, wastewater discharge and operational costs. A customised water treatment system at the company's Shanghai site has been operating since September 2008 and has achieved both high water quality and raw water saving---up to 15%-25% less water consumption compared to conventional solutions.
- Using GE technology, the city of Tempe, Arizona has expanded its water reclamation programme, resulting in the reuse of an additional 9.5 billion litres of water a year for commercial and industrial applications. Tempe's Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) was recently upgraded with GE's ZeeWeed Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology to improve water reuse.
- Multiple GE technologies are featured at the Sulaibiya wastewater treatment plant in Kuwait. The world's largest membrane-based wastewater filtration plant, Sulaibiya purifies more than one million gallons of wastewater per day for agricultural and industrial uses.
About GE
GE is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide.
GE serves the energy sector by developing and deploying technology that helps make efficient use of natural resources. With 60,000 global employees and 2009 revenues of $37 billion, GE Energy www.ge.com/energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies. The businesses that comprise GE Energy - GE Power & Water, GE Energy Services and GE Oil & Gas - work together to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels.
For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com. GE is imagination at work.
Thuli Phiri
GE Global Growth Organization
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+2711-784-2598
+2771-422-2606