In 2002, under a 25 year build, own, operate and transfer contract (known as the Aqua project) Veolia Water constructed three water treatment plants and supporting infrastructure in the regional towns of Bendigo, Castlemaine and Kyneton.
Today, these plants supply high quality potable water to a population of 130,000 in Victoria's Bendigo area.
The main plant in Bendigo has a capacity of 126 million litres per day and features submerged microfiltration technology while the Kyneton plant (8 million litres per day) and Castlemaine plant (18 million litres per day) use conventional microfiltration.
When it was first constructed, the Bendigo plant was the largest in the world to use submerged microfiltration technology.
Microfiltration guarantees removal of cryptosporidium and giardia contamination from unprotected rural water catchments.
All plants use ozone and biologically activated carbon filtration to remove taste and odour compounds as well as blue-green algae toxins.
