Islanders of St Helena rely on Hyprolyser® for fresh, clean water

This remote British Overseas territory in the South Atlantic is 1,100km from Ascension Island and some 2,000km from the coast of Angola, the nearest mainland. We checked, it is also just over 7,750km from our manufacturing base in Accrington!

With strict shipping regulations in place, it is difficult to get commercial chemicals to the island, so dosing water with chlorine or other chemicals has been a major challenge.

So how do the residents of Jamestown ensure they have a constant supply of clean drinking water? The answer is Gaffey Hyprolyser® electrochlorination technology.

Using just harmless salt and electricity to generate hypochlorite in-situ, Hyprolyser® precisely doses drinking water to keep it safe from legionella, biofilms and other waterborne bacteria.

Using five Hyprolyser® 280 units with external 500L tanks, the systems deliver assured, clean drinking water to the 700+ Jamestown residents 24/7, at a combined capacity of over 26 million litres a day.

Impressed with Hyprolyser® credentials, the client also commissioned a Hyprolyser® Compact 480. This unit maintains consistent, safe, clean water for all the bathers to enjoy in the outdoor public swimming pool in Jamestown. Located by the historic castle wall, dating from 1659 and replacing a mostly disused tennis court, the pool was built with public funding by the Royal Engineers. Opened with a gala in November 1979, this is Jamestown’s only public pool.

Disinfecting outdoor facilities presents its own challenges. There’s shallow water, fluctuating temperatures and pollution from bathers and many other environmental sources to deal with, plus elevated amounts of debris to filter out. The Hyprolyser® Compact 480 electrochlorination system is the ideal solution, processing high water volumes, ensuring the desired pH and chlorine levels are maintained at all times, keeping bathing water clean for all to enjoy.

And, as a sealed unit, the Hyprolyser® 480 electrochlorination system is safe and easy to maintain and, looked after correctly on a regular basis, requires a low level of servicing. Ideal for an island with only 6,000 inhabitants.

Richard Thomas from Connect commented: “I am pleased with how easy our Hyprolyser® 280 is to use. Over time and with Gaffey’s support I have become confident in maintaining the Hyprolysers® and in troubleshooting. It is helpful to know that Gaffey is a phone call away if a more serious problem should ever arise.

As an islander, I also have a vested interested in the Island’s only public swimming pool. We have had many successful swimmers attend international competitions such as Commonwealth and Natwest Island games, so the Hyprolysers® play a big part in disinfecting our pool, thus ensuring promotion of the Island and giving our youth an outlet into the world of sport. “

Richard Thomas from Connect Saint Helena Ltd was keen to give us the client’s perspective

Richard Thomas from Connect Saint Helena Ltd (Connect) is a Technician for the sole utilities provider on St Helena.  He explained that the Hyprolyser® 280 is a critical part of the Island’s water treatment process and is required to be reliable and efficient.

Connect currently operates 5 Hyprolyser® 280 machines, 4 being operational 24/7 at each of Water Treatment Plants plus a backup unit at the largest plant at Red Hill. The backup unit was acquired in 2020 to ensure that there is no disruption to production in the worst case scenario that one of the other units encounters a fault. The remoteness of the Island, with a weekly flight and a call once per month from a supply ship means that it is imperative that there is no interruption to such critical services.

Being in the middle of nowhere and isolated from Gaffey headquarters poses the risk that engineering support could be non-existent. Thankfully this is not the case. From Connect’s perspective, Gaffey is one of the companies that continues to see that their product is still functioning as designed by keeping us supplied with parts and remote support.

Gaffey are always keen to help and pass on knowledge to enable us to get up and running again.

Due to our geographic location and limited access, replacement parts need to be sourced well in advance, otherwise lengthy downtimes could be experienced. A minimum of 3 months via ship is the norm. We purchase all our spares from Gaffey. Although we could probably find alternatives, we prefer to secure our replacement parts from Gaffey to ensure perfect fit first time and function as designed, plus of course the remote customer support.

The manual is well documented and gives helpful pointers with fault alarms as well as useful items to keep on the shelf. Our operators are able to keep abreast of normal day to day running without issues. Most alarms when activated on the LCD display indicate the area of issue with the machine.

Included with each Hyprolyser® unit is a test kit that is used for testing the state of the unit, the quality of the product or the strength of the brine solution.

The Hyprolyser® 280 has the electrolytic cell enclosed behind a protective glass, the dosing and timing is PLC controlled and the model includes additional sensors such as Hydrogen sensor and product temperature alarms.

A final word from St Helena Government

“The Hyprolyser® Compact 480 is used in the Island’s public swimming pool, ensuring the correct water condition is maintained.  This single unit is heavily relied upon, as it is the only one in operation. Overall the unit performs well and typically runs 24/7. The interface on the control panel is a useful tool when fault finding and monitoring parameters.

As St Helena is so isolated, it is super important to keep on top of periodic maintenance and to ensure spares are readily available. Our isolation could mean it will be difficult and expensive for a Gaffey engineer to service our unit if there is a fault, that we are unfamiliar with, but the professional technical support we have had in the past via telecommunication with Gaffey was of an excellent standard.”

To find out how much you could benefit with a Hyprolyser^® system, contact the Gaffey team today.