President Lee Hak-soo. (Photo: K-water)

As of Dec. 31, 2017, K-water was engaged in 12 overseas projects in 10 countries.
Given the company’s diverse activities, K-water operates under several regulations including the K-water Act, the Water Supply and Waterworks Installation Act, the Act on Construction of Dams, the Special Act on the Utilization of Waterfronts and the supervision of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

K-water seeks to maintain integrated water management for the entire water cycle from water sources to sewage disposal, and is continuously trying to secure sustainable growth for the future. In 2017, in observance of its 50th anniversary, K-water presented its vision for the next 50 years. In addition, the Company laid out a strategy to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

K-water is carrying out two pilot projects to overcome water shortage problem: high-recovery seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) system and reuse of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent using RO system. The main objectives of the projects are to obtain design factors and optimized operation and management (O&M) techniques of full-scale reverse osmosis systems for seawater desalination and wastewater reuse.

Seawater desalination pilot plant is being operated in Sokcho, an eastern coastal city of South Korea and wastewater reuse pilot plant will be constructed in a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan which is a famous city for the huge industrial complex. Key point of the seawater desalination project is a high recovery ratio of 60% and the wastewater reuse project focuses on the low fouling system.

From 2016, K-water has participated a national R&D project funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). As a 4-year project with the budget of $2,700 in terms of government fund, the final goal is to develop the low-energy desalination technologies.

This project could promote more business opportunities in Middle East for the Korean companies. In addition, K-water is conducting the preliminary researches to relive the water stress of industrial complex in western area of Chungnam province.

There are two benefits of higher recovery ratio of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) system: decreases in pretreatment capacity and concentrate discharge rate. Recovery ratios for common SWRO systems and the high-recovery SWRO system are 40% and 60%, respectively.

Seawater of 500m3/d is taken from the intake point close to estuary. Ultrafiltration (UF) and dual media filtration (DMF) are used as two options for pretreatment processes. Higher pressure and water flux of RO systems are essential to obtain higher recovery ratio. Higher flux means the higher fouling potential of RO membrane, which is the reason why rigorous pretreatment method like UF is needed for high-recovery SWRO system.

K-water has been actively researching and developing advanced IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) and SWG (Smart Water Grid) as practical measures to respond to climate change.

In order to resolve issues such as flooding and droughts which are becoming worse, to secure the stability of water service despite of increased uncertainty in water management, and to settle water related conflicts between districts that arise as a result of climate change, K-water adopts IWRM though we set forth to consider not only the technical aspects but also the economy, society, and environmental issues in order to realize water management which maximizes both the national economy and welfare.

Also, we diversify the sources of water through use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in order to more securely and efficiently supply and manage water resources, and adopt SWG which can increase the efficiency of water supply while consuming less energy.