Five Commissioning Lessons from MENA Water Treatment Plants

Commissioning a water treatment plant is where design assumptions collide with physical reality. Over the past five years our team has commissioned 14 treatment plants in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, and Egypt. Here are the five lessons that keep coming up. ## 1. Sand filters fill with the wrong sand The specified effective size arrives as a data sheet. The delivered material often isn't. We have found effective sizes up to 30 % outside specification and uniformity coefficients far above the 1.4–1.6 optimum. Sieve analysis of delivered media before placement is not optional. ## 2. The chlorination system is designed for steady state, not for start-up At commissioning, the distribution system, if new, has zero chlorine demand. Dose control systems calibrated for normal operation will overdose. Elevated chlorine levels cause taste complaints the moment supply reaches customers — often on the first day. Commission at minimum dose and ramp up over 48 hours. ## 3. Energy recovery devices on SWRO are last-minute change-orders ERDs are correctly specified but are routinely value-engineered out by contractors citing "not on the critical path." They are on the operating-cost path. Specify ERDs as a performance-linked payment requirement. ## 4. Automation is not tested under failure conditions FAT and SAT protocols test normal operation. Nobody floods the instrument room, fails the primary power supply, or introduces air into the chemical dosing lines. Field commissioning must include structured failure-mode injection — a week of testing, not a day. ## 5. Operators are not trained before handover Operator training is a box to tick, not a milestone to plan. On plant handover day, the operators know how to press the start button. They do not know how to respond when the turbidity probe fails during high-flow operation. Training must be scenario-based and delivered at least three months before handover.