As part of the Aquaduct agreement, water-link built a new water factory in Walem.  The Aquaduct agreement is a mutual arrangement for the supply of drinking water between 3 drinking water companies: Farys, De Watergroep and water-link.  Thanks to the Aquaduct project, major volumes of water that De Watergroep and Farys previously purchased from outside of the Flemish region are being replaced by cheaper water originating from the production centres attached to water-link. This involves around 20 million cubic metres of drinking water in total, based on surface water of 20 billion litres per year.

This factory has the capacity to purify no less than 150,000,000 litres of water per day. The structure is as follows: the untreated water is retrieved from the reservoir by means of a 400-metre concrete supply pipeline to the installation. This is where the flow is regulated and monitored. In a subsequent phase, the water arrives at 14 modules where it is very intensively mixed with air, driving the floating particulates to the surface where they can be scraped off by sludge scrapers. The water then flows via lateral shafts to the next stage in the purification process, where it undergoes the second treatment in 16 double-layer filters. This is where the water first flows through a layer of gravel and sand and then through filter canisters, after which it is transported via underground channels for further treatment by means of UV and active carbon. Around two thirds of the installation is located underground, so that the power of gravity always aids in the water flow, thereby using relatively little energy. The central area of the factory serves to process the sludge originating from the initial treatment and the rinse water from the double-layer filters. There is also a chemicals building where the additives are safely stored.

The areas that Mourik n.v. was responsible for in this project included

• Earthworks (32,000m³);
• Deep foundations (1,000 foundation piles and 160 metres of secant pile walling);
• Concrete works (36,000m² formwork, 1,700 tonnes of reinforcement and 11,500m³ of concrete);
• Pre-fab elements (720 items);
• Steel construction and plating (44 tonnes of steel and 2,300m² of plating);
• Elements in RVS, aluminium and glass fibre reinforced plastic;
• Roadworks (4,000m²).