In a global context where the climate crisis accelerates the loss of water resources and where more than 40% of the world’s cities already operate under severe water‑stress scenarios, the modernization of the Third Hulan Water Plant in Harbin emerges as a strategic and visionary response. The northeastern region of China faces extreme winters reaching –30°C, marked hydrological variability, and growing urban pressure that demands infrastructure capable of sustaining quality standards far superior to those of previous decades. In Heilongjiang Province, systems built in the 1970s today show significant structural deterioration that limits their ability to withstand more intense climatic events, while the natural presence of iron and manganese in the raw water compromises supply safety. In this scenario, China’s water‑treatment market is expanding rapidly: the country invests more than USD 90 billion annually in water infrastructure, and the urban sector grows at rates above 7%, driven by new regulations, stricter quality standards, and national demand for advanced solutions that ensure operational stability and service continuity.
The project is located in Hulan District, north of Harbin, at a key installation on Xinmin Street that supplies more than 300,000 inhabitants and constitutes one of the pillars of the regional drinking‑water distribution system. Its strategic objective is to transform an aging plant, originally built in 1971, into a modern, resilient, and efficient water asset capable of definitively resolving structural problems of quality, capacity, and sanitary security. The intervention aims to stabilize critical parameters such as iron, manganese, and turbidity; guarantee uninterrupted operation throughout the year, including periods of extreme freezing; and align the infrastructure with national and international standards through a fully renewed treatment train.
The rationale for the project is grounded in both technical and social urgency: without this modernization, the plant’s supply capacity would become insufficient in less than a decade, water quality would remain exposed to sanitary risks, and the current infrastructure would be unable to withstand climatic scenarios projected by national models. The work brings together a broad ecosystem of actors, including the local operator Harbin Water Supply Group, technology providers specialized in ozonation and biological activated carbon, provincial authorities responsible for water‑resource planning, and entities overseeing technical verification and reporting. The project also incorporates a governance and transparency approach that enables tracing the impact in terms of efficiency, safety, and hydric performance.
Its link with the Water Positive strategy is direct: the intervention generates additional, measurable, and traceable benefits that go well beyond the baseline and complies with the principles of additionality, intentionality, and traceability defined by VWBA 2.0. Improvements in treated‑water quality constitute a tangible contribution for the population and, in volumetric terms, enable the recovery of useful flow currently lost in obsolete processes. Altogether, this initiative represents not only a technical modernization but a qualitative leap toward an infrastructure model capable of leading the transition toward more resilient and safer cities, prepared for a future in which every cubic meter of water will require intelligent management, verifiable evidence, and next‑generation technology.
The project emerges from a critical technical opportunity associated with decades of deterioration in the treatment system, which has long operated with structural limitations that reduce hydraulic efficiency and increase sanitary vulnerability. The absence of advanced oxidation processes and the inability of the conventional system to stabilize fluctuating concentrations of iron, manganese, and suspended solids have generated operational losses and growing pressure on the quality of water delivered to the network. In response, the incorporation of two‑stage ozonation, high‑rate sedimentation, deep filtration, and biological activated carbon creates a treatment environment capable of regenerating up to 450,000 m³/day with more stable and controlled removal, increasing resilience to both contaminant‑load variability and extreme winter conditions.
The impact unfolds across time: in the short term, the plant reduces deviations in critical parameters and mitigates cost overruns associated with frequent cleaning and repetitive failures; in the medium term, hydraulic continuity stabilizes and the service life of key equipment extends thanks to more uniform operation; in the long term, the renewed infrastructure ensures sustainable urban supply, preventing operational collapse and reducing dependence on new abstractions during water‑stress periods. Simultaneously, the intervention reduces environmental burden by avoiding the accumulation of low‑quality sludge, decreasing solids carryover toward drainage systems, and limiting dispersion of uncontrolled oxidative by‑products.
The root causes of the initial problem stem from a combination of factors: structural limitations inherent to facilities built in the 1970s; equipment with declining performance due to mechanical fatigue; drainage systems that encourage infiltration and backflow; and increasingly strict national regulations requiring higher removal capacity and stability across all sanitary parameters. Added to this is the historical absence of automation and continuous monitoring, which forces manual interventions and reduces operational foresight. The coordinated work of the project developer, operator, specialized technology providers, and regulatory entities enables transforming the plant into a replicable model for other cities with mineralized aquifers and severe climates, positioning ESG‑driven companies as leaders in the transition toward more efficient, verifiable, and regulation‑aligned infrastructure.
The technical solution integrates advanced grey infrastructure and digital control to optimize potabilization in a context of extreme climate and hydrological variability. The treatment train, with pre‑ozonation, high‑rate sedimentation, deep filtration, post‑ozone, and biological activated carbon, allows stable operation up to 450,000 m³/day, ensuring reliable supply for more than 300,000 inhabitants. This configuration was selected for its robustness under severe cold, compatibility with existing structures, and superior CAPEX–OPEX performance compared to alternatives such as ultrafiltration or MBR.
The intervention addresses critical issues such as insufficient removal of iron and manganese, turbidity fluctuations, and solids accumulation, while reducing generation of unstable sludge and risks of contaminant infiltration. Benefits include systematic improvement in water quality, reduction of operational failures, and lower indirect emissions from inefficient pumping. Socially, it strengthens public health and perceived water security; economically, it reduces operating costs, optimizes energy consumption, and improves ESG performance.
Operational and environmental risks, including ozonator and pump failures, hydrological variability, source‑water contamination events, or pressure fluctuations, are mitigated through N+1 redundancies, dual electrical supply, continuous SCADA and IoT monitoring, contingency protocols, and shared governance with basin authorities. Climate resilience is ensured via modular design, predictive maintenance, and continual updating of risk models.
The model is highly replicable in other northern Chinese cities with mineralized waters and extreme climates, and its scalability depends on clear regulatory frameworks, recoverable civil infrastructure, local technical capacities, and public‑private alliances. Its competitiveness rests on efficiency, reduced OPEX, and its traceable contribution to Water Positive goals under the VWBA methodology.
Project implementation is organized into successive phases that allow ordered progress without service interruption, combining an integral intervention executed in staged segments. It begins with a diagnostic and baseline phase evaluating raw‑water quality, historical unit performance, and structural conditions, supported by seasonal sampling campaigns, laboratory analyses, and operational records. This establishes a quantitative reference model for measuring additional project benefits.
The technical design phase follows, defining a hybrid treatment train, pre‑ozonation, high‑rate sedimentation, granular filtration, post‑ozone, biological activated carbon, and disinfection, along with modernized sludge management. Technology selection is based on robustness in cold climates, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and balanced CAPEX–OPEX versus alternatives such as ultrafiltration or MBR. The design includes flow meters, multi‑parameter probes, and IoT sensors linked to a central SCADA system. Capacity is set at 450,000 m³/day.
The execution phase builds new units while existing ones remain operational, minimizing interruption risks. Electrical panels are modernized, internal drainage is rebuilt, and monitoring instruments are installed and integrated into SCADA with alarms and automated reporting. Environmental‑impact prevention measures and community communication accompany this phase.
Once infrastructure is operational, a commissioning and optimization phase adjusts dosages, retention times, and filtration strategies, supported by standardized operating protocols for extreme hydrological events. KPIs, treated‑water quality, energy efficiency, sludge production, and service continuity, are monitored and compared against the baseline to quantify benefits.
Risk management spans all phases and covers equipment failures, electrical interruptions, hydrological variability, and source‑water contamination. Mitigations include N+1 redundancies, dual power supply, by‑pass systems, contingency protocols, and coordination with health authorities. Modular design and IoT sensors support predictive maintenance and climate‑extreme adaptability.
Control and traceability rely on hydraulic sectorization, flow meters at strategic points, and a digital platform integrating operational and environmental data. The system issues alarms upon deviations and generates auditable reports for external verifiers. Continuous comparison of with‑project vs. without‑project scenarios ensures rigorous VWBA/WQBA evaluation.
Governance is led by the technical operator, with oversight from provincial authorities and technological partners. Roles for operation, maintenance, monitoring, and validation are clearly defined, alongside agreements on treated‑water use and data management. Maintenance integrates preventive, corrective, and predictive actions.
Finally, implementation incorporates continuous improvement based on data feedback, risk‑model updates, and potential technological upgrades as operational or regulatory conditions evolve. This ensures long‑term benefit permanence and supports replicability across the region.
Technically, the project centers on the full renovation of the Third Hulan Water Plant as critical urban drinking‑water infrastructure, replacing an obsolete conventional system with an advanced treatment train designed for stable operation in extremely cold climates and with mineralized raw water. The main intervention uses a hybrid scheme of pre‑ozonation, optimized coagulation–flocculation, high‑rate sedimentation, deep granular filtration, post‑ozone, biological activated carbon, and final disinfection, complemented by modernized sludge management and reconstructed internal drainage. The system processes up to 450,000 m³/day from the Hulan–Songhua system and serves over 300,000 urban users, integrating high‑efficiency equipment, SCADA automation, and IoT sensors for continuous quality and flow control. Design and operation align with Chinese national drinking‑water standards and WHO recommendations on critical quality parameters, as well as environmental‑management and operational‑safety standards for essential infrastructure.
The relevance of this solution lies in the structural challenge faced by the basin and community: an aging plant with unstable processes and limited removal capacity operating at the limit of demand and regulatory compliance. Compared to the baseline, the new configuration stabilizes treated‑water quality, reduces turbidity and color episodes, eliminates bottlenecks in sedimentation and filtration, and decreases vulnerability to hydrological and climatic extremes. In northeast China’s hydrological context, severe winters, seasonal flow variability, and increasing resource pressure, the solution is appropriate because it combines technological robustness, infrastructure compatibility, and adaptability to future demand increases.
Expected results include more than 160 million m³ per year of potable water meeting specification, representing effective recovery of useful volume previously lost due to process failures, unplanned shutdowns, and non‑compliance rejections. Quality improvements include significant reductions in iron, manganese, turbidity, and microbiological load, with direct impact on public health and the distribution network’s service life. Additional benefits include reduced emissions linked to lower energy and chemical consumption and improved sludge and drainage management reducing diffuse contamination risks.
Strategically and commercially, the project strengthens the promoter’s Water Positive roadmap by generating additional, measurable, and traceable hydric benefits under VWBA/WQBA, convertible into water‑benefit metrics and credits aligned with SBTi for Water, NPWI, SDGs, and ESRS E3 reporting standards. It offers tangible ESG gains: enhanced social license to operate through improved service quality and reliability; reduced regulatory risk by exceeding environmental and sanitary requirements; and competitive differentiation in advanced water‑management for extreme climates.
The model is replicable and scalable in other basins and geographies facing similar conditions, northern Chinese cities, urban systems in cold regions with metal‑rich groundwater, or infrastructures built in the 1970s, provided basic technical capacities, stable regulations, and modernization investment exist. Replication is supported by alliances with regional operators, water‑resource authorities, technology providers, digital‑platform developers, and verification entities enabling Water Positive project portfolios at basin or national scale.
The final expected impact includes positive contribution to the functional water balance of the sub‑basin, better use of captured water, reduced losses, minimized contamination risks, and strengthened urban climate resilience ensuring stable supply during droughts, snowmelt, or extreme events. Socially, the project generates skilled employment, improves public‑health conditions through reduced water‑related risks, and strengthens community trust in the service. For investors, clients, and society, the initiative sends a clear message about the role of water infrastructure in the transition toward a regenerative economy: aging assets can be transformed into platforms delivering water security, environmental performance, regulatory reliability, and long‑term sustainable reputation.
