After nearly 70 years, a new waterworks: Fort Lauderdale's $666 million clean-water centre takes over

Fort Lauderdale has opened the Prospect Lake Clean Water Center, the plant that takes over drinking-water treatment from the Fiveash facility after nearly seventy years of service. The project, with related infrastructure, comes to about $666 million. The new centre treats up to 50 million gallons a day using nanofiltration — pushing water through membranes fine enough to strip out impurities — together with ion exchange, which swaps out the minerals that affect taste and clarity. It is also built for the climate it lives in: the structure is designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds. Water from Prospect Lake began entering the city's system in September, and the handover is being phased in gradually, with Fiveash shifting to a storage and distribution role. The city keeps ownership of the plant, operated under a 30-year arrangement with the project company working alongside city staff — a generational upgrade, switched on without turning off the taps.

SDG 6 · Clean water and sanitation — Mechanism: infrastructure build