Desalination Plant of the Year at Global Water Awards 2025

Hong Kong’s first large-scale, seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant

The Tseung Kwan O (TKO) Desalination Plant, Hong Kong’s first large-scale, seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, has been named ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’ at the Global Water Awards 2025. Fully commissioned in July 2024, the plant can produce up to 135,000m3/day of drinking water enough for over 370,000 people, which is equivalent to 5% of Hong Kong’s total daily fresh water demand.

As the city’s only operational seawater desalination plant, and first to use membrane technology, the TKO Desalination Plant represents a major milestone in diversifying Hong Kong’s water resources. The plant ensures a weather-resilient and stable supply of potable fresh water, a requirement made all the more critical to cope with the challenges of extreme weather conditions due to climate change.

The TKO Desalination Plant has incorporated ‘ActiDAFF’ for pre-treatment, combining the flotation and filtration processes in an integrated structure, which considerably reduces the footprint of the plant. This is particularly vital for land-scare Hong Kong. The plant has also installed energy recovery devices where the pressure energy transferred from the brine during the reverse osmosis process can be recovered up to 96%, resulting with significant energy savings of up to 50% in the pumping cycle.

While the desalination plant is set to enhance Hong Kong’s water supply resilience, the facility itself is designed and built to further contribute to a sustainable built environment.

The plant has been designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape, featuring over 30% greenery and maximising the use of renewable energy in the treatment facilities. Implementation of grey water reuse and rainwater harvesting have considerably reduced fresh water consumption by over 50%. Solar panels have been installed for generating electricity to power the plant’s operation to minimize the carbon footprint of the facility.

Construction occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, with significant challenges from manpower shortages and quarantine restrictions. By adopting off-site construction methods such as Modular Integrated Construction (MiC), Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), and multi-trade integrated mechanical electrical and plumbing (MiMEP), the project team was able to ensure efficient and timely delivery while reducing wastage of construction materials and potential environmental impact.