Drinking Water Supply

WSP works closely with clients to deliver optimal clean drinking water solutions designed to build water supply service security, ensure compliance with strict regulatory standards, and provide cost-effective, equitable, and sustainable access to clean water.

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Drawing from groundwater, surface water, and saline sources, we offer comprehensive services to guide policymaking for water resource regulation and protection. Our expertise shapes the planning and design of robust clean water systems, including reservoirs, pumping and pressure-boosting stations and water-main networks, ensuring optimized, cost-effective, and safe water distribution services.

Drinking water supply services

The world’s freshwater supplies draw from multiple sources including groundwater, surface water, brackish and saline water:

Groundwater management

Groundwater provides almost half of clean drinking water worldwide and is a source of water for both rural and urban communities, manufacturing and industry sectors, and the environment in general. Groundwater development involves identification of suitable aquifers, as well as locating, designing, constructing, monitoring and operating well fields to secure needed water supply in a sustainable manner.

Our teams are experts in developing water resource management systems to minimize impacts to other legal users, groundwater resources and the environment, as required by fundamental regulatory requirements.

Surface water management

Our expert hydrologists and engineers provide comprehensive surface water management services in response to the challenges posed by extreme weather and climate change. We offer services ranging from technical assessments and design solutions to policy advisory and legislative guidance. Our capabilities include monitoring water quality and flow, managing stormwater, ensuring reliable surface water supply, implementing erosion control measures, and restoring streams and lakes. Additionally, we handle dredging operations and manage both point and non-point source discharges.

Brackish and saline water

WSP’s team excels in environmental management for desalination, offering design, review, and construction oversight for advanced systems like multistage flash, distillation, and reverse osmosis. Experienced in brackish water solutions and seawater intake, our engineers are skilled in pre-treatment and membrane technologies across diverse project scales. We guide clients through funding options in public and private sectors, assessing the technical and economic feasibility of desalination projects.

Learn more about our desalination services

"Water, or 'Baan' in the Woi-wurrung Aboriginal language, is the lifeblood of existence for all living things. Access to safe, sufficient, and affordable drinking water is a UN recognized basic human right: Goal 6*: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all."

Mohammad Helmy
Technical Executive, Water, WSP in Australia

*United Nation Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all

water for people initiative

WSP Gives Back to Communities by Supporting Water for People

Optimizing the use and reuse of water, while protecting water resources is WSP’s commitment to support a sustainable, water-secure future.

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Get in touch with our multidisciplinary drinking water supply experts

Explore our drinking water supply solutions

Hong Kong

Tseung Kwan O Desalination Plant

WSP is behind the first-of-its-kind facility in Hong Kong using reverse osmosis technology to provide the city with an alternative strategic water resource.

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

City of Cape Town desalination plant

WSP played a crucial role in the fast-tracked development of the City of Cape Town V&A desalination plant, feeding 2.0 megalitres of fresh water into the city’s network per day.

United States

Planning clean sustainable solutions for PFAS impacted drinking water

An $850 million settlement was reached in the first-ever Natural Resource Damage Claim for PFAS in the United States.

Sydney, Australia

Partnering for Success (P4S) Program

WSP is part of a joint venture, responsible of delivering design, construction, maintenance and facility management across Sydney Water’s assets for the next 10 years.

Ireland

Nationwide Asset Register Data Capture Programme

Through detailed surveys, assessments and data-recording for above-ground assets at facilities across the Republic of Ireland, we are providing Irish Water with in-depth information needed to prioritise investment and undertake proactive maintenance of water and wastewater assets.

Logan Water and Infrastructure Alliance Delivers Vital Services

Logan City, Logan district, Queensland, Australia

Logan Water and Infrastructure Partnership

The partnership looks after one of the largest water infrastructure programs in Australia and delivers new and improved water, wastewater and recycled water infrastructure.

Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Safeguarding the Water Supply in the City of Iqaluit

When a foreign chemical appears in a municipal water supply, making it unsafe for human consumption, immediate action to locate and resolve the issue must take place. That’s exactly what happened, twice, in the City of Iqaluit, Nunavut, thanks to WSPs water team.