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Safe, secure and sustainable water supply to the Pacific Islands: an eco-friendly water purification method for Samoa in partnership with Okinawa in Japan
Achievements

Safe, secure and sustainable
water supply to the Pacific
Islands: an eco-friendly
water purification method for Samoa in partnership with Okinawa in Japan

# Public Sector # Water Supply # Overseas # Urban Environment # Oceania

From untreated to treated water supply

Waterworks in Samoa, which is located in the South Pacific, is managed and operated by the Samoa Water Authority (SWA), and about 160,000 people or 85% of the population receive such service. However in Apia, the capital of Samoa, untreated water from the water source was being supplied to 6 out of 10 service areas. Furthermore, they had the problems such as deterioration of water quality due to muddy water in the rainy season, high risk of water-borne diseases, high water leakage ratio, and vulnerability to disasters including cyclone. Therefore, we provided consulting services including basic design, detailed design, construction supervision and technical transfer for the construction of water supply facilities (water treatment plants, intakes, raw water pipelines, water pumping station, water reservoirs, water transmission pipelines, water distribution networks, and water meters) in three areas which were identified as high priority. As a result, we contributed to safe, secure and sustainable water supply to about 11,500 people and the improvement of SWA through the reduction of a non-revenue water (NRW).

  • Safe, secure and sustainable water supply

  • Bird-eye View of Vailima Water treatment Ptant

Application of ”OLD" Japanese water purification method for Samoa's new water supply system

Water service in Samoa has a long history of technical cooperation with JICA and Okinawa Prefecture, wherein water purification technologies of Okinawa have been transferred due to the similar climate. Therefore, we aimed to develop Samoa’s water supply facilities based on the experience and knowledge of Okinawa. We adopted the Ecological Purification System (EPS) for Samoa’s water treatment plants in partnership with Okinawa. EPS, although the method is “old style”, has recently attracted attention because it is an eco-friendly water purification method taking advantage of the natural purification process without utilizing chemicals such as coagulants, and such can lower operation and maintenance (O&M) costs.

Moreover, we realized power-saving benefits by allowing gravity flow, i.e., taking advantage of topographic features of the water treatment plant (high altitude) to the customers (low altitude).

  • Vailima water treatment plant

  • Tapatapao Water treatment Ptant

  • Alaoa Pumping Station

Project Details

    Project : The Project for Improvement of Urban Untreated Water Supply Schemes
    Client :Samoa Water Authority (SWA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)