UCD®: Decentralised solutions for water production and treatment

With increasing urbanisation, the need for drinking water and sanitation in cities and territories is growing exponentially. Isolated areas, such as villages in disadvantaged countries or rural areas, may sometimes suffer from limited or non-existent infrastructure. Manufacturers may also have specific and urgent needs to secure their water supply or treat their wastewater.

• UCD® drinking water plants can treat groundwater as well as surface water (lakes, rivers, dams).
• The assembly of a UCD® plant is much faster than a conventional one, ranging from a few days to a few weeks depending on the equipment implemented.
• Their insertion in dense areas is simple, with a reduced footprint (2.5 times less space than a conventional plant) and limited civil engineering.
• Risk control: full testing of the unit before delivery, reduced CAPEX and OPEX.
• UCD® plants can be automated,semi-automated or fitted with solar roofs.
• Integration of our units in a global water access program, from feasibility studies to financing, including final delivery (Multi UCD®).
  
• The SUEZ teams train technicians on site to ensure local management.
• SUEZ's UCDs® contribute to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Objectives:

SUEZ Smart Village is a solution aiming to provide all essential services to promote the socio-economic development of rural communities or peri-urban areas.

In 2019, the Ivory Coast government, through ONEP, trusted SUEZ with its UCD® solution to support the "Water for All" program.

40 compact units have been deployed to accelerate access to water in 32 secondary towns in the country. As a result, more than one million Ivorians will have benefited from continuous access to drinking water meeting quality standards in just 24 months.

In addition, the reliability of the UCD® project has enabled ONEP to receive financing from the BPI (Banque Publique d'Investissement) - France with very favorable loan conditions and thanks to an EXPORT PASS set up in 2019. This is an example of a multi-UCD® offer.

This is a good example of the complementarity of the two systems: in order to ensure the quick availability of drinking water for the population, a fast and compact solution was set up at a specific time.

This was later supplemented by a traditional plant. The simultaneous presence of both infrastructures guarantees permanent access to continuous water, even in case of operational hazards.

All these elements, and consequences of insularity, constrain more than elsewhere the capacity to deliver essential services by established operators; barely 20 % of the population has access to a public water service, one of the lowest in the world.

In Fiji, in 2013 the national water and sanitation operator, Water Authority of Fiji (WAF), allocated funds for the reinforcement of existing sites and the construction of new drinking water plants with the technical choice of decentralized compact UCD® plants.

The adoption of UCD® solutions has enabled the plant's growth to be well adapted to the population's need for water. These solutions are now applied in densely populated areas such as Manila in the Philippines and Pulau Bahagia in the state of Terengganu in Malaysia.

• Algeria - Tichy Haf (Africa) : Installation of 1 plant and its extension, thanks to an active cooperation of more than 20 years with the local partner of SUEZ.
  ✓ 50,000 m³ per day of treated water.
• Saint Lucia - Dennery (LATAM) : Successful installation of a decentralized production unit, achievement validated by a 2^nd station in extension.
  ✓ 25 years of presence in the Caribbean
  ✓ On 7 sites and 4 countries (Guyana, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and St Lucia).
• Malaysia - Losong et Pulau Bahagia (ASIA) : Securing the water supply of the Terengganu region with the implementation of 2 new plants.
  ✓ 64,000 m³ per day of treated water.