Dutch Royal Navy goes for safety in water

The Dutch Royal Navy views the health and safety of its personnel, both aboard and ashore, as being of paramount importance. This is one reason that the Ministry of Defence is continually occupied in finding ways of improving its drinking water systems.

The Hr Ms Rotterdam is one of two of the Dutch Royal Navy’s amphibious transport ships, also known as Landing Platform Docks (LPDs). Characteristic of this type of ship is its large internal dock, and the fact that the aft of the ship can be lowered by approximately 4 metres, allowing the dock floor to become submerged. Vehicles, personnel and equipment can be loaded onto landing craft from the vehicle deck. Landing craft can exit the dock at the ship’s stern. The LPD does not have to remain stationery for this operation, and landing craft can even enter the ship’s dock when it is travelling at low forward speeds.

The ship houses a fully equipped hospital with operating theatre, intensive care unit and 100-bed emergency ward. Its versatility and special equipment also make this ship ideal for deployment in humanitarian missions.

In order to be able to guarantee the quality and quantity of drinking water aboard the Rotterdam, the ship’s water supply has been expanded by the addition of a 100 m³/day Demitec RO watermaker with a state of the art drinking water after-treatment unit.

The drinking water treatment unit consists of a hydrophore system, Demitec UV, Ultrafiltration unit and a Hadex drinking water disinfection system.

The Ultrafiltration system has a capacity of 2 x 15 m³/hr, also during backflushing. This design ensures the constant availability of a sufficient supply of safe drinking water.