Meeting Municipal Water Demands

Supply Challenges

Several factors were contributing to prolonged water shortages on St. Maarten including increased tourism and population growth, as well as operational deficiencies at an existing water facility. An immediate increase in supply was required in order to meet the present demand and mitigate the potential for future water shortages.

In the midst of this prolonged water shortage, Air Fin Holding St. Maarten N.V. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Seas Water) won a tender to provide a new 3,800 m3 per day (M3/D) (1,003,700 GPD) Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant (SWRO) and take over operations of the existing Cay Bay SWRO plant for the St. Maarten Government (GEBE).

The Cay Bay plant was initially contracted to produce 13,500 M3/D (3,564,000 GPD) but the outdated and inefficient plant was only producing an average of 10,600 M3/D and would require a thorough overhaul to restore its capacity and improve efficiency.

FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS

Seven Seas Water provided a solution that required no up-front capital investment from the government of St. Maarten. In under 5 months from the time the water contract was signed, a state of the art 3,800 M3/D SWRO desalination system was constructed at Cupecoy under a build-own-operate, and transfer (BOOT) arrangement where SSW designed, constructed, and currently maintains the new plant. In a true team approach the St. Maarten Water Authority (GEBE) and Seven Seas Water provide operators for the plant under Seven Seas management.

RESULTS THAT SAVE MONEY

Seven Seas rehabilitated the Cay Bay facility to produce 13,5000 M3/D and greatly improved the efficiency with a system redesign which cut power costs per M3 of water by more than 25%. The decreased power demand reduces carbon and other emissions, freeing up valuable resources and making the process significantly more environmentally friendly.

In the process of providing St. Maarten with a reliable supply of 17,300 M3/D (4,567,200 GPD) from the two plants and reducing the power consumption, Seven Seas Water was able to significantly reduce the cost of water to St. Maarten as well.