Emergency Water Distribution Unit (EWDU)

Are You Prepared to Distribute Water During a Major Emergency?

With today’s more powerful and more frequent storms, natural disasters, and infrastructure crippling emergencies, the question is not “if” water distribution system failures will occur — but when.

Water utility service providers responsible for creating and implementing regional and municipal emergency plans now have a rapid-response tool that enables distributing drinking water anywhere in their service area to thousands of people in need — the Emergency Water Distribution Unit™ (EWDU) from SCG Process.

Purpose-built as a mobile water distribution station, the EWDU enables rapidly filling and dispensing thousands of 5-liter water bags to large crowds, while also accommodating manually filling of any size water container.

Envisioned, scoped, and constructed in close collaboration with expert municipal emergency response teams, the flexible, modular, and comprehensively equipped SCG Process Emergency Water Distribution Units are “ultra-designed” down to the finest details to ensure rapid mobile deployment, operational simplicity, rugged reliability, and ergonomic usability for maintaining efficient crew operation during high-stress emergency response efforts.

EWDUs share much of the same standardized equipment and industry operational approaches found within water treatment plants and water distribution field infrastructure, enabling quicker operational familiarity and easier training for both experienced and novice EWDU operators.

The EWDU is capable of being towed to urban and remote locations using pickup trucks, emergency or military vehicles, enabling rapid relocation on short notice to impacted areas.
The EWDU is fully equipped with all crew gear, crowd-management equipment, hoses, fittings, and tools emergency-response teams will need to operate, and maintain the EWDU on location.

The EWDU can be connected to a variety of water sources during an emergency, including water hydrants, water towers, water tankers, or portable water bladder tanks.

Natural Disaster Water Distribution
Emergency Water Unit SCG Process

Next-Generation Capabilities

  • Operationally simple, rugged, and reliable design and construction with emphasis on ergonomic usability to ensure efficient operation during deployments.
  • Designed, refined, and tested in collaboration with water utility emergency response teams, enabling rapid operational familiarity and easier training.
  • Multiple push-button water filling stations feature auto-shutoff fill taps to help keep public lines moving efficiently.
  • Auto-dispensing fill taps measure precisely 5 liters of water to rapidly fill each of 10,000 reusable 5L water bags stored inside the unit.
  • Automated chlorine residual dosing system maintains system cleanliness and prolonged safety of dispensed bagged water removed, stored, and consumed by the public.
  • Backflow shut off valves prevent contamination and external tampering of water distribution system.
  • Pressure-reducing valve ensures flexible connections with multiple water sources, including hydrants, water tanks, tanker trucks, and water storage bladders.
  • All equipment required for deployment, operation, and maintenance during an emergency is included within the unit — bags, hoses, fittings, pumps, tools, and crowd management and public safety gear including high-vis safety vests, area lighting, directional signage, and traffic control cones.

Utility Success Story

Serving approximately 430,000 people across 13 municipalities in southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands with water services, the CRD’s emergency preparedness plan identifies the regional district’s Greater Victoria area as having the highest “seismic susceptibility” risk. A major challenge in the aftermath of a natural disaster, where the local water infrastructure has been crippled or destroyed, involves somehow providing vital drinking water to thousands of people in need. “Our emergency preparedness plan will already be swinging into action immediately following a seismic event. It includes a series of shutdown and isolation procedures involving our large-diameter steel water transmission mains, and deploying critical spare parts and specialized repair couplings that we keep warehoused specifically for our critical watermains,” says Shayne Irg. “Our emergency response now includes new custom-built emergency water-distribution units capable of distributing drinking water to large numbers of people located anywhere across our region, and delivering that life-sustaining water within hours,” adds Irg.

Large Capacity Units

A stationary Emergency Water Distribution Unit version based on a highly modified intermodal shipping container is available to be built to customer specifications. The stationary EWDU model features the same water-dispensing equipment and public side-access design as the mobile EWDU model, but offers greater interior space and more filling stations.

Considered semi-permanent but transportable when loaded aboard a flat-deck truck trailer, the stationary EWDU enables pre-positioning the larger units to serve areas of high anticipated water demand following an emergency event.

Emergency Water Filtration System (EWFS)

Designed to operate in tandem with a deployed EWDU, the Emergency Water Filtration System (EWFS) provides emergency water filtration of nearby lakes and rivers in situations or locations where the local water distribution infrastructure is damaged or unavailable.

The self-contained EWFS includes an onboard generator, water-feed suction pumps, all hoses and consumables, and a bladder tank for external water storage prior to EWDU public water distribution. All filtration, chemical dosing system, automation equipment, and sensors are built-in, and the standard 3-micron cartridge filter system is upgradable to meet higher levels of filtration needs by adding additional filtration and disinfection technologies.

Public Outreach, Goodwill and Regional Training

Emergency Water Distribution Units are ideal for participating in regional collaboration and joint training events focused on sharing emergency preparedness advancements, knowledge, and skills with technical and operational staff from neighboring municipalities, agencies, and water utilities.

EWDUs also help enhance public awareness of regional emergency preparedness plans, demonstrate a proactive commitment to public safety and public health, and help create a visible and recognizable element of public outreach campaigns, community disaster-plan drills, and preparedness events.

Built and Supported by Water Experts

A half-century of SCG Process water industry experience engineering and building solutions ranging from large municipal treatment plants to small and remote systems is distilled in the design, construction, unit service, and parts & supplies support of the SCG Process EWDU — the industry standard for Emergency Water Distribution Units.

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