The City of Malambo is part of a larger metropolitan area located in the northern Atlantic region of Colombia, just south of Barranquilla. Malambo’s municipal area is roughly 38 square miles and home to over 125,000 residents. The region enjoys a rich agricultural history due to the fertile Magdalena River Delta. The cultivation of cash-rich crops like cotton, rice and yucca have helped to propel Malambo into a center of industrial development.

Empresas Públicas de Medellin (EPM), the largest residential utility company in Colombia, provides water and sanitation, electricity and gas to 123 municipalities throughout the country, including the City of Malambo. EPM was founded in 1955, is organized as a state-owned industrial and commercial enterprise based in Medellin.

As part of the region’s economic development plan, EPM and the regional officials began seeking ways to improve water distribution by expanding the daily treatment capacity of the water plant, Planta de Agua Potable El Tesoro. They aimed to increase production from 150 l/s to 420 l/s - roughly the equivalent of going from 3.4 MGD to 9.5 MGD of treated water. The overall goals of the expansion project were to ensure continuity of water service, improve quality of life to local citizens and to promote the economic development of the municipality. In addition, EPM sought to improve safety for their operations staff and local residents by replacing the use of one-ton pressurized cylinders of chlorine gas in the disinfection process.