For A
Better Life

Access to clean water is a human right and essential for life. This is why KSB supports such projects worldwide as an industrial partner, for example in Vietnam.

For around two billion people, getting clean drinking water by simply turning on the tap remains impossible. This affects many people in poorer regions, particularly if they live in rural areas.

Challenging project

KSB has supported numerous projects aiming to provide clean drinking water. One example is a joint project funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which KSB has joined as an industrial partner. In the Dong Van Karst Plateau in the north of Vietnam, it is difficult to ensure a reliable water supply since water seeps into the porous rock and flows into an underground cavern system and ravines far below the human settlements on the surface. The region also suffers from a pronounced water shortage in the dry season.

Innovative ideas needed

Project partners from industry and universities developed innovative and robust technologies for efficiently pumping and distributing water. The result was the first milestone in the KaWaTech Solutions project: a hydropower plant commissioned in 2019 that pumps water in the Dong Van Seo Ho pumping station without the use of electrical energy. KSB supported the project by supplying two Multitec pump modules capable of pumping water into a tank situated at an elevation 550 metres higher. The pump sets are driven by pumps running in reverse as turbines. From the elevated tank, the water enters a storage tank from where the precious liquid flows into homes via a distribution system.

The station pumps 1,700 cubic metres of water per day – enough for around 10,000 people. When designing the pump station, the engineers incorporated innovative digital technology. The KSB Guard and PumpMeter monitoring units record the pumps’ vibrations and temperatures as well as the discharge pressure and flow rate, allowing their operation to be monitored via computer and smartphone.

The children of the Vietnamese village of Lung Lu are happy that they no longer have to walk for kilometres to fetch water.

A stand-alone solution

After the COVID-19 pandemic, it was only in 2022 that it was possible to travel to Vietnam again to tackle the second milestone: a decentralised water supply system for the nearby village of Lung Lu that is located almost two kilometres away from the elevated tank, which is part of the water supply infrastructure.

The village of Lung Lu comprises 25 households. The water is pumped by the current prototype of the AquaSol solar pump into a water tank situated at a higher level, from where it flows to the village. The unit pumps at least ten cubic metres of water per day to a head of 70 metres. KSB developed the AquaSol pump as part of a start-up project.

The people who live in the region are delighted with the improved quality of life they now enjoy thanks to the availability of drinking water nearby. “The successful project is to serve as a model for the use of this technology in other emerging and developing countries. The pump developed by KSB provides a stand-alone solution for these situations,” emphasises KSB project manager Michael Fath.

KSB’s nine sustainability goals

Sustainability is one of the pillars in KSB’s corporate strategy. In addition to the responsible use of resources and the environment as well as the duty of care to employees, this also includes social commitment. In 2019, KSB set itself nine binding sustainability goals. These are aimed to be achieved by 2025 at the latest.

Production sites reduce their 6 CO₂ emissions by 30 percent.