For example, China revenue returned a healthy growth of 17%.
Western Europe, overall, was back to relative stability at 2% growth.
The U.S. saw only slight recovery, still dealing with pandemic response and coming in at down 11%, although improving sequentially.
In addition to big wins with England and in Winston-Salem which we mentioned last quarter, the team recently won another marquee project in Columbus, Ohio, worth $94 million.
The Columbus, Winston-Salem and England deals have together added about $250 million to Xylem's backlog.
Digital transformation has gone from being attractive to becoming an imperative, and that's reflected in strong quoting activity in our digital solutions business which has also increased by 50% its number of revenue-generating clients.
Revenue declined 7% which was better-than-anticipated as we entered the third quarter.
Despite the China business returning to pre-pandemic growth rates, emerging markets overall declined 7%.
Western Europe grew 2% in the quarter as countries reopened and activity resumed, with revenue growing in each of our end markets with the exception of industrial.
We also saw operating margins expand quarter sequentially to 13% which drove earnings per share of $0.62, both better than expected.
Water Infrastructure orders declined 5%.
Treatment orders were up 20%.
Wastewater transport orders down 9% for the quarter would have been up mid-single digits but for lapping the large deal we won last year in India.
Long-term backlog continues to build as we're up over 30% for backlog shippable in 2021 and beyond.
Segment revenues declined 2% in the quarter compared to the prior year.
Our wastewater transport business grew 4% in the quarter.
And we saw continued strength in our treatment business which grew 3% in the quarter.
Revenues declined 14%, most of which was in the North American construction and industrial markets which have seen -- which have been significantly impacted by site closures and access restrictions.
Operating margin in the quarter was 18.5%, down modestly year over year from higher inflation, lower volumes and unfavorable mix.
However, the margin performance exceeded our expectations as the team's strong execution on cost reductions and productivity initiatives delivered 630 basis points in margin expansion.
Orders in the applied water segment declined 1% in the quarter, and revenues declined 4% as softness in the industrial and commercial markets continued, particularly in the United States and the Middle East.
The commercial end market declined 5% in the quarter.
Industrial was affected by similar regional dynamics including site access restrictions and declined 7%.
A bright spot in the quarter was residential which grew 4%.
Overall, emerging markets declined 8% in the quarter.
China had a very strong performance, growing 23% as the team executed well, delivering on pent-up demand.
Revenue in the United States declined 6% but improved quarter sequentially, with some softness across end markets driven by continued virus impacts.
Operating margin in the segment was 15.9%.
Volume declines and inflation impacts reduced margins in the quarter but were largely offset by 530 basis points of cost reduction and productivity benefits.
Measurement and control solutions orders declined 19% in the quarter and revenue declined 15%.
As a reminder, our opex exposure accounts for about 70% of our revenues.
We've seen much more variability in the 30% of our metrology business that's tied to large project deployments or capex, particularly in our gas segment, where project revenues were down 60% in the quarter.
This is a $60 million contract to provide water metrology products under our network as a service offering, leveraging our Flexnet communications network.
This is reflected in our fourth quarter guidance which Sandy will cover later, as shippable backlog for the fourth quarter is down roughly 25%.
As a result, MCS shippable backlog in 2021 and beyond is up over 30% which is a pretty good indication of the power we're seeing with our digital platform.
EBITDA margin in the segment was 14.8%.
This impact was partially offset by 630 basis points of cost reduction in the quarter.
We ended the quarter with approximately $1.6 billion of cash and short-term investments and $2.4 billion of liquidity driven by our very successful green bond issuance last quarter, combined with our strong cash flow performance throughout the year.
At quarter end, working capital was 20.3% of sales, representing an improvement of 30 basis points versus this time last year.
The team's focus on working capital, disciplined capex spending and cost control through the quarter have continued to pay off, enabling us to generate free cash flow of $234 million, a conversion rate of over 200% in the quarter which did see some benefit from favorable timing on payments primarily related to taxes and interest.
On the top line, we expect organic revenues in the range of down 6% to down 8%.
Operating margin in the quarter is expected to be in the range of 13 to 13 and a half percent.
We expect to end 2020 with free cash flow conversion of greater than 100% for the full year.
Restructuring and realignment costs are now expected to be between $75 million and $85 million, slightly lower than our previous guidance, while structural annual cost savings remain unchanged at approximately $70 million.
We are lowering our estimated tax rate this year to 18 and a half percent to reflect our updated mix of earnings.

Summary:
We also saw operating margins expand quarter sequentially to 13% which drove earnings per share of $0.62, both better than expected.