Sustainable Water Extraction Technology at WU: Ensuring Sustainable Development and Water Resource Management
Walailak University has always kept improving and adopting new sustainable technologies for water harvesting or extraction. WU has water storage areas for consumption on campus. The tap water consumption at WU is standardized. Every step of tap water production at WU is based on sustainable standards that will not affect or harm the environment, biodiversity, or the livelihood of local people living around the campus. Walailak University has not taken water through desalinated processes and extracted from revers, lacks, and aquifers.
In 2022, Walailak University had three reservoirs that were utilized for consumption, agriculture, and water supply when the university and the local communities faced drought disasters. In addition, another option for sustainable water extraction from WU is to store water from rainfall undergoing reversing osmosis and distillation. The total area of the reservoirs is 1,668,217 square meters with a capacity of 14,631,521 cubic meters.
Reservoir 1 (Pruk Sa Chon Reservoir)
The reservoir covers a total area of 256,000 square meters with 2,024,475 m³ of total water volume. It was constructed in 1992 with the purpose of irrigation and water level control to prevent flooding. Later in 1997, it was renovated to be a raw water resource for drinking water production for the Walailak community and local communities. Its production capacity is 4,800 m³ per day, which is sufficient to meet the needs of WU students and staff
Reservoir 2 (Mon Tara Reservoir)
The reservoir covers a total area of 185,000 square meters with 1,300,000 m³ of total water volume. It was constructed in 1996 with the purpose of irrigation and water supply storage to tackle drought disasters.
Reservoir 3 (Chala Nusorn Reservoir)
The reservoir covers a total area of 332,800 square meters with 2,400,000 m³ of total water volume. It was constructed in 2022 with the purpose of irrigation and water supply storage for general consumption. The reservoir also will be equipped with new sustainable water extraction technologies in 2022.
Other water storage areas
The other water storage areas at WU are swamps, ponds, and ditches. The total area of all water storage areas is 894,417 square meters and the total capacity is 6,890,766 cubic meters.
Walailak University has its own tap water production plant that has been conducted with sustainable standards. All reservoirs were constructed with consideration of environmental impacts. Walailak University only uses the water from the Pruk Sa Chon Reservoir to produce tap water consumed on campus. More importantly, the reservoir can harvest rainwater in the amount of 4,800 cubic meters per day. WU ensures that Walailak University does need not to extract water from natural sources, including, aquifers, lakes, rivers, canals, or other freshwater sources. Only the reservoir can nourish the whole campus.
Speaking of sustainable water extraction technology, Walailak University uses a pump system in which raw water is pumped through 400-mm pipes, translating to the static mixer. The static mixer will release chemicals into the raw water to purify it before sedimentation and other steps of water supply production. WU guarantees that the system does not harm any environment or ecosystem on or outside the campus.
In order to show that Walailak University is a good steward of sustainable water extraction, here are the requirements and principles of all sustainable water extraction methods:
- All technologies for water extraction must not affect or harm biodiversity, all types of environments, or the animal habitats of local species on and outside the campus.
- The livelihood of local communities surrounding the university must not be affected by university actions on water extraction, especially flooding that damages aquaculture and agriculture fields.
- The livelihood of staff and students at WU must not be affected by the implementation of water extraction.
- All relevant staff must use the BOT CDT Application to strictly monitor the situations at all reservoirs in order to ensure the safety of students and staff at WU and the local communities.
In addition, WU has standardized procedures on wastewater treatment to ensure that the university places importance on preventing polluted water into the environment around the university. The treatment procedures include:
- Using garbage traps powered by electric motors. The waste in wastewater from all sources will be removed and then released to the pumping station equipped with submersible pumps.
- The wastewater released from the garbage traps will be released to the pumping station to be pumped to aerated lagoons. The pumping station is equipped with wastewater pumps with a capacity of 340 cubic meters. The pumps will automatically take turns in each round with four float switches.
- The wastewater pumped from the pumping station will be released into the aerated lagoons, which are 68 meters wide, 73 meters long, and 3.2 meters deep, with a capacity of 18,903 cubic meters. The aerated lagoons are equipped with 15kW low-speed floating and fixed-type surface aerators that decompose organic matter using aerobic bacteria. The aerated lagoons can reduce the biological oxygen demand values by 70%.
- The Facultative Pond 1, with a capacity of 18,217 cubic meters, can store water for 4 days using the microorganisms in oxygen conditions, reducing the biological oxygen demand values by 60%.
- The Facultative Pond 2, with a capacity of 37,752 cubic meters, can store water for 7 days using the microorganisms in oxygen conditions, reducing the biological oxygen demand values by 50%.
- The treated wastewater from the Facultative Pond 2 will be contaminated with some bacteria. Thus, the wastewater must be sterilized by the UV Disinfection System, which can reduce the number of coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria to less than 1,000 MPN/100 ML and 200 MPN/100 ML, respectively.
- The wetland pond, with a capacity of 4,900 cubic meters, can store the wastewater for one and a half days. The pond is used for collecting the wastewater before releasing it to the next pond.
- The treated wastewater will undergo a quality assessment by farming Nile tilapia before being released to natural sources.
One of the predominant facilities of WU for preventing polluted water from entering the water system is the mobile application titled “Bot CDT”. The application serves as a tool for water management in various aspects, including reporting water levels, monitoring situations, reporting current data, warning flooding, early warning accidents, and others, which can reduce damage caused by flooding and accidents. Currently, the areas that are monitored by the application are the tap water production plant and water level monitoring stations at WU Park and the Center for Smart Farm.
