8 | City of Winkler
the water is being distributed also to the com-
munity during high demand. Botha says the
facility is designed to treat 31 liters of water
per second (the equivalent of 700,000 gal-
lons of water per day). The plant is fully au-
tomated and monitored by system alarms as
well as staff and a diesel-powered generator
capable of powering two of the wells and the
entire plant is there to mitigate any potential
impacts resulting from power outage. Botha
says the system is presently only running at
67 percent of its total capacity and therefore
can respond to growth in Winkler over the
course of its lifespan. Botha says studies are
now underway to devise solutions for reduc-
ing the reject water flow produced by the wa-
ter treatment plant, which amounts 30% of
the raw water being treated.
In terms of other major infrastructure
initiatives, Botha’s department is also taking
on a lot of the design, planning aspects and
project engineering leading to a new waste
water plant. While this initiative has thus far
involved in raw sewage characterisation en-
gaging the services of Professor Jan A. Olesz-
kiewicz in the Department of Civil Engi-
neering at University of Manitoba, complete
process design and formulations in draw-
