Emergency Water Treatment Equipment: Solutions for Disaster Relief Scenarios

Introduction

 In emergency relief scenarios such as natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, floods), public health incidents or industrial accidents, the supply of safe drinking water is a core requirement for sustaining life and maintaining order. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 2 million people die each year from diseases caused by drinking contaminated water, and the lack of clean water in the 72-hour “golden rescue period” after a disaster can directly exacerbate the rate of injury and death. Water treatment equipment by virtue of its rapid deployment, efficient purification, the ability to adapt to complex environments, become an indispensable “lifeline” in the emergency rescue system. In this paper, from the perspective of water quality characteristics, equipment types, combat cases and selection recommendations, systematic elaboration of the key role of water treatment equipment in emergency rescue.

Ⅰ. Emergency rescue scenarios under the water quality characteristics and demand analysis

1.1 Typical pollution characteristics of emergency water sources

• Physical pollution: flooding led to a surge in sediment, suspended solids content (turbidity can reach thousands of NTU), pipeline rupture after the earthquake mixed with debris.

 • Biological contamination: Exposure of water sources can easily harbor pathogens such as E. coli and Vibrio cholerae, and the risk of post-disaster epidemics is significantly higher.

 • Chemical contamination: Industrial spills may introduce heavy metals (e.g., lead, mercury), pesticides, or petroleum-based contaminants that are hazardous to health when consumed over a long period of time.

 • Extreme conditions: Water sources in remote areas may contain high salinity (e.g., seawater back-up) or radioactive substances (nuclear accident scenarios).

1.2 Core Requirements for Emergency Water Treatment Facilities

• Rapid Response: Facilities need to be deployed within hours to support the immediate use of water by large groups of people.

 • Efficient purification: Remove sediment, bacteria, viruses and heavy metals at the same time, and the effluent meets the Hygienic Standard for Drinking Water (GB5749-2022).

 • Portability and Flexibility: Adapt to rugged terrain, power shortage and other environments, and support vehicle or manpower transportation.

 • Low operation and maintenance cost: simple operation, easy access to consumables, suitable for non-professionals to get started quickly.

II. Types of water treatment equipment and core technologies applicable to emergency rescue

2.1 Mobile water treatment vehicle: a “mobile factory” for large-scale water supply

 • Working principle: integrated pretreatment (sedimentation/filtration), ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis membrane separation, disinfection (ultraviolet light/ozone) module, which can deal with the turbidity of raw water ≤ 5000NTU.

 • Processing capacity : A single unit can produce 50-200 tons of water per day, meeting the needs of a 10,000 person community.

 • Advantage: High degree of automation, support diesel power generation or solar power supply, suitable for urban flooding, refugee camps and other scenarios.

 • Case: During the Henan flood in 2021, a brand of water treatment truck provided a daily average of 120 tons of safe water for Zhengzhou resettlement sites.

2.2 Portable water purifiers: “life packs” for individuals and small teams

 • Working principle: ceramic filter element (pore size 0.1-0.5μm) intercepts bacteria, combined with activated carbon to adsorb odors and residual chlorine.

 • Capacity: A single unit produces 5-20 liters of water per hour, suitable for 10-50 people.

 • Advantage: light weight (<5kg), no electricity required, water can be taken directly from rivers and wells.

 • Case: After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, UNICEF distributed 100,000 portable water purifiers, benefiting 500,000 victims.

2.3 Emergency Reverse Osmosis Equipment: The “Ultimate Solution” for High Salinity/Polluted Water

• Working Principle: Remove more than 99% of salts, heavy metals and organics through high-pressure reverse osmosis membrane (pore size 0.0001μm).

 • Processing capacity: modular design can be flexibly expanded, single module daily water production capacity of 1-10 tons.

 • Advantage: Adaptable to seawater, brackish water and chemical polluted water treatment, it is the key equipment after nuclear accident or tsunami.

 • Case: After the nuclear leakage in Fukushima, Japan in 2011, reverse osmosis equipment was used to purify water containing radioactive substances.

Ⅲ. Water treatment equipment in global emergency rescue

3.1 Turkey earthquake in 2023: “72-hour lifeline” of mobile water treatment truck

• Scenario: after the earthquake, water and electricity were cut off, and more than 200,000 people were in urgent need of drinking water in the temporary relocation sites.

 • Equipment application: China Blue Sky Rescue Team deployed 3 mobile water treatment trucks, utilized fire trucks to fetch water, and established water supply stations within 48 hours.

 • Effect: 150 tons of water was produced on average per day, turbidity was reduced from 3000NTU to <1NTU, and E. coli removal rate was 100%.

3.2 2020 Australian Mountain Fire: Portable Water Purifier for “Wilderness Survival”

 • Scenario: The fire paralyzed the water system, and rescuers had to work continuously in the wilderness.

 • Application: The Australian Department of Defense has distributed 2,000 portable water purifiers to support firefighters in drawing water directly from rivers.

 • Effectiveness: Equipment failure rate <2%, effectively preventing gastrointestinal diseases caused by drinking raw water.

Lessons learned

 • Pre-positioned stockpiles: pre-deployment of equipment in high-risk areas before a disaster can shorten response time.

 • Localized adaptation: The equipment needs to take into account the characteristics of local water quality (e.g., high-fluoride areas need to add fluoride removal modules).

 • Multi-sectoral collaboration: water treatment needs to be linked with logistics and medical teams to avoid the dilemma of “no one to deliver water”.

Ⅳ. Emergency rescue water treatment equipment selection and Maintenance management

4.1 Key Principles for Equipment Selection

4.2 Maintenance management strategy

 • Daily inspection: establish equipment files and record data such as filter cartridge replacement time and fault codes.

 • Remote support: real-time monitoring of equipment status through the IOT module, and online technical support from the manufacturer.