Gruppo Zilio to construct water purification facility in Serbia

Italian water treatment specialist Gruppo Zilio has won a deal from the Municipality of Zrenjanin in Serbia to construct, operate and maintain a water purification plant in the city.

The city is located in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in northern Serbia and has the largest number of watercourses in the country.

Potable running water in the province is polluted with concentrations of arsenic and boron so the use of bottled mineral water is needed for daily consumption.

Municipality of Zrenjanin is the administrative centre of the district which houses nearly 132,000 people, 80,000 of whom reside in the city.

The plant is expected to supply up to 9 million m³ of drinking water annually and will have a capacity to supply 286 l/s.

It will be equipped with advanced technologies to eliminate sodium and boron from water along with other contaminants including colour, organic matter, ammonia, arsenic, iron.

The facility will have membranes of silicon carbide, polymer membranes for reverse osmosis and the ion exchange resins installed for advanced purification, Gruppo Zilio informed.

The firm will include specific control tools for the constant monitoring of the filtered water at the automated facility. Monitoring for the system will be done both from the site and remotely.

The facility will also have a system installation which will block contaminated water supply during anomalies, and offer 24/7 assistance service.

Gruppo Zilio chairman and CEO Jean-Marc Janailhac said: "EUR 6.5 million will be invested in this new project, which will generate revenues of EUR 40 million for 20 years.

"Gruppo Zilio will build and manage the plant for at least the following 15 years, guaranteeing the inhabitants of Zrenjanin a continuous supply of drinkable water, according to the standards set by the Serbian law."

The project is a first one to be built in Serbia by the company, which is a part of the Denmark based Greentech Energy Systems.