The project, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, was carried out by Kolektor Sisteh together with the leading partner Iskra Sistemi - M DOOEL Skopje. The six million Euro project was completed in 14 months. The main purpose of the project was to provide infrastructure for the uninterrupted supply of drinking water of adequate quality to the residents of the municipality of Štip.

Increased water consumption required technological modernization of the existing waterworks

The municipality of Štip has around 50.000 residents, of which 95% are connected to the public water supply area, which is managed by the public utility company ISAR Štip. Recently, additional surrounding villages have been connected to the water supply system, as a result of which increased consumption has caused problems with the supply of drinking water especially in the summer months. The public utility company has two water sources at its disposal. The first is a deep water source from which water with manganese content is captured, which is oxidized by ozone and removed on sand filters. Another source is the surface water from the Zletovica dam, which is chemically of excellent quality, but poor in terms of turbidity (especially in the rain) and very poor in terms of the content of harmful microorganisms. Existing treatment, which includes processes of clarification with lime, coagulation, flocculation and settling in lamellar clarifiers, does not give adequate water quality even at slightly increased turbidity. Membrane ultrafiltration (UF) as a good method for the removal of undissolved particles and microorganisms was therefore chosen as an upgrade to surface water treatment.

The largest UF device set up in the country and the surrounding region 

As the ultrafiltration device could not be installed in the existing waterworks facility, a new building was built on the east side of the old waterworks, in which an ultrafiltration device with all additional equipment was installed. The existing treatment is used as a pre-treatment for UF. It will operate with a capacity of up to 300 l/s and it consists of 6 units of 50 membrane modules, making it one of the largest devices of its kind in the country and the surrounding region. One of the advantages of membrane ultrafiltration compared to other processes is the constant adequate quality of water prepared from surface waters.

In addition to building the new waterworks, which now boasts the latest drinking water treatment technology, we have also updated the control and monitoring software, which played a key role in optimizing treatment technology. The existing pre-treatment control system and the chlorine gas disinfection control system are also integrated into the control and monitoring system of the new ultrafiltration device. The integration required quite a bit of coordination, but in terms of reliability of operation and management, this was the only real solution. The new integrated central monitoring system allows operators management and control from one place and the use additional ultrafiltration functionalities on other related processes. In addition to better monitoring and optimization of performance, it also includes the requirements of the new European Directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption.

Construction challenges

The Štip waterworks was a great challenge for us, as most of the work took place during the Covid-19 pandemic when international transport was particularly difficult. Despite the difficult epidemiological situation during the entire implementation of the project, we managed to complete the second largest for us and at the same time the largest ultrafiltration of drinking water in Macedonia. We sent 17 trucks, a total of more than 80 tons of equipment, on the 1000-kilometer route from Slovenia to Northern Macedonia. After having quickly and successfully completed the construction work, the installation of technological equipment followed. The entire mechanical and electrical installation was carried out in just 61 days. We are currently waiting for analyzes of filtered water, which are a condition for releasing water into the network.

One of the largest infrastructure projects in the field of drinking water supply

With the connection of the municipality of Štip to HS Zletovica", the first phase of a wider water supply project has been completed. The project is part of the work program of the Government of the Republic of Northern Macedonia 2017-2020 for the implementation of projects related to providing clean water and improving the quality of life of residents in the municipalities of Probištip, Štip, Sveti Nikole, Karbinci and Lozovo.

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