Donetsk, Mar 5 - DAN. State-of-the-art Russian water decontamination equipment Akvakhlor has been test-launched in Donetsk’s Kuibyshevskiy district; the first water samples show that water quality has improved.

“In Balakovo (a town in the Russian Federation - eds Donetsk News Agency), this equipment has performed well for a few years; the quality of water is several times better than here in Donbass,” Donetsk People’s Republic Construction and Housing and Public Utilities Minister Sergey Naumets said. “This unit is now running in the test mode, I think it will show its effectiveness and become standard in all towns and districts of the Republic.”

The city’s Kuibyshevskiy district was chosen as the test site because of its war-damaged water supply network and numerous complaints about water quality from local residents. At present, the water supply system partially services Donetsk’s Kievsky and Leninsky districts.

Voda Donbassa water supply company director general Maxim Leschenko said that the old hypochlorite equipment had been in service for over 12 years. At present, two Akvakhlor units were integrated into the Kyibyshevsky district water supply system.

“This unit provides high quality water treatment outperforming other chlorine or hypochlorite-based technology. Water differs from region to region, and it will take about three months of research to see how good Akvakhlor is. The first samples showed a positive result,” Leschenko said.

Russian engineers helped install and adjust the equipment. One of them told DAN that water was decontaminated with chlorine dioxide. It fully neutralises harmful substances, precipitates them into indissoluble residue and filters them off.

“At the end of the process, we get purest water that meets all norms, has no bad smell and does not turn green,” the engineer said. “Chemicals will require about a month to kill all fungi and microorganisms in water pipes and make tap water safe for drinking.”

Akvakhlor, which uses salt as reactive chemical is intended for decontamination at water treatment plants.*jk