Aqua Services & Engineering is utilising its many years of experience in Namibia to create customised water treatment technologies, excelling in its field and expanding within its local market.
EXPERIENCED, EXPERT ENGINEERING
Aqua Services & Engineering (ASE) – the Namibian arm of Veolia Water Technologies – is the country’s most expansive water treatment company; thriving as a key supplier of turnkey water and wastewater treatment solutions.
The Company provides the aforementioned solutions to municipalities, industries and water utility companies in Namibia on both a large and small-scale.
“We have successfully utilised our experience and expertise within the region to enable the customisation of the latest water treatment technologies,” begins Luther Rukira, Managing Director at ASE. “Our solutions easily meet the needs of the country’s water challenges and we are committed to the continuation of optimising and maintaining Namibia’s water infrastructure, having played a central role in several of the region’s keynote water treatment installations.”
As part of its service, the Company offers on-site water analysis, planning, design and consultation work, turnkey engineering, project management and construction, commissioning, water lifecycle analysis and the operation and maintenance of plants to its clients.
Established in 1993 by Mr Christian Stock as Aqua Services & Engineering (Pty) LTD (ASE), the Company has been catering for the municipal water treatment needs of Namibia for nearly a quarter of a century.
Rukira explains: “Our business quickly grew to become a household name in Namibia, quickly developing systems that enable us to provide solutions ranging from the supply of chemicals, design and execution of water and wastewater treatment projects.”
WATER TREATMENT CHEMICALS
Since 2008 ASE has been wholly owned by Veolia Water Technologies France and comprises three main departments dedicated to water solutions; these include engineered solutions, chemicals and operations & maintenance.
“Within our range of products we cover the entire spectrum of water treatment chemicals,” states Rukira. “Our range includes disinfectants, coagulants and flocculants for both the municipal and industrial customers, all of which have led us to the position as the preferred agent and distributor for NCP, BASF, HACH, DOW and many others.”
The Company’s services have expanded dramatically over the years, especially from its initial municipal focus to more of an industrial and mining-based solution offering. In the present day the Company designs and builds portable water and wastewater treatment plants, provides treatment plant operation and maintenance service while also selling instrumentation, dosing pumps and prepaid water meters.
CORE TECHNICAL STAFF
Skills development at ASE has always been a core focus for the Company, ensuring that its core technical staff always maintains the most up-to-date knowledge within the industry.
Alongside this knowledge base, ASE also creates the best cost-conscious designs within the industry that require very little maintenance and allow the Company to focus its efforts in other areas such as training.
“We have found a great need in the industry to create technological solutions at an affordable price, enabling us to keep lifecycle costs low,” comments Rukira. “All of our work in this area is ISO 9000 certified and puts a great emphasis on our ability to maintain quality through the entirety of our activities.
“We have successfully constructed hundreds of water and wastewater treatment plants across Namibia, aided by our skilled team and honed processes within the Company.”
In every town and city in Namibia there are signs of ASE’s presence, both in terms of the chemicals supplied to the area and the water and wastewater treatment plants located there. Alongside its original chain of operations, the Company’s reach is spreading to all the major mines as well as companies within the food and beverage industry.
IMPROVING MUNICIPAL SERVICES
The vast majority of ASE’s projects are won either through the route of formal tenders, or alternatively by invitation from a client where the Company will develop a suitable solution for the requirements.
Rukira comments: “We will always ensure we maintain close contact with our key clients within the industry and municipalities, enabling us to keep abreast of developments and be in a position to offer them solutions as and when they need them.”
Recently the Company has witnessed an influx in significant projects for governmental clients, as well as its municipal and industrial customers.
“Some of the more notable projects recently have included sewage treatment works for the municipalities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay,” continues Rukira. “We also worked on sewage treatment works for town and village councils located in Ogongo, Oniipa, Okongo and moving into 2018 will be working on upgrades to the sewage treatment works and reclamation plant of the city of Windhoek.”
With such prominent projects for the Company coming in on a regular basis, it has worked tirelessly to improve its municipal water services. Offering end-to-end for the provision of potable water, utilising a variety of treatment techniques and technologies to achieve the best possible solution.
Rukira states: “We have gained huge amounts of experience in potable water over the years through the generation of water from boreholes and freshwater sources and even by reusing wastewater, as seen in our work for the New Goreangab Water Reclamation Plant in Windhoek.”
SERVICES AT A COMPETITIVE PRICE
When it comes to creating a value for money offering for its clients, Aqua Services & Engineering has found that the supply chain is a vital aspect in achieving this.
“We currently represent a large number of manufacturers in South Africa, Europe and the US for our chemical business,” explains Rukira. “Many of these have been attained through leveraging global framework agreements between Veolia and international suppliers of equipment, two factors which have enabled us to continue to deliver services at a competitive price.”
This links in well to the international drive within Veolia to increase efficiencies through streamlining its processes, internally this will be achieved through a move into cloud-based systems in order to optimise performance. This will be carried out both on a company and employee level and ASE is already making progress in this area on a regular basis.
“We have developed knowledge of the Namibian water treatment business that is second to none in the industry and continue to establish and develop ourselves with the help of our skilled employees,” concludes Rukira. “I hope to be able to report in the future that ASE has further consolidated its market share in all areas of the business, while also operating some of the larger potable water and wastewater treatment plants in the country.
“This is something that is looking ever increasingly possible day-by-day and we are incredibly excited for what is to come.”
