ACCIONA Agua wins Arequipa (Peru) WWTP contract

The contract is worth, between construction and operation, more than 17 million euros.

The plant will serve more than 240,000 users, 30% of the population.

ACCIONA Agua has been awarded a build-design- operate-maintain contract for the Escalerilla Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Arequipa, Peru. The tender was called by the Arequipa water services company Sedapar (Servicio de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado de Arequipa). The contract is worth, between construction and operation, around 17.4 million euros. The plant will benefit more than 150,000 people initially, a figure that is expected to rise to 240,000 (30% of the population) by the year 2036.

The new WWTP, which will require 130 staff, will help to solve the sanitation and environmental problems of the Northern part of the Arequipa metropolitan area-Peru's second most-populated city-and lead to the decontamination of the Chili River. Using a biological treatment for processing wastewater, it is expected to bring down the contamination load by up to 90%. This process will lead to water reuse in local farms.
ACCIONA Agua expects to have the necessary infrastructure built in the space of 22 months and will take care of O&M for a period of three years. The project includes auxiliary sanitation works for the WWTP, such as a collector with an 800-meter diameter intake, construction of a WWTP for an average flow of 34,800m3 a day, and protection components for the canal. The plant foresees an average flow of 403 liters per second, rising to a daily maximum of 500 liters/day by 2036.

The Arequipa WWTP comes as ACCIONA Agua's third contract in Peru: in 2002, the Company built a desalination plant that is currently operating in Talara, and at the end of last year ACCIONA Agua was awarded the La Chira WWTP. The La Chira Consortium, comprising ACCIONA Agua and the Peruvian company Graña Montero, was awarded a design-finance-operate-maintain contract by the Peruvian investment agency Agencia de Promoción de la Inversión Privada (Proinversión), for the La Chira WWTP and underwater emissary, in Southern Lima. Between construction and operation, the contract is worth around 280 million euros. The La Chira WWTP will help to ease Lima's sanitation and environmental problems and will aid the environmental recovery of the local beaches that have become polluted as a result of intense tourism and leisure activity. The plant will also drive promotion for tourism projects in the zone's area of influence.

In Peru, ACCIONA is also present in Luz en Casa (Light in the Home), a program undertaken by the ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation through Peru Microenergy. This project sets out to provide electricity by means of domestic PV solar units and using the social micro-company formula, a non-profit venture that ensures the sustainability and adequate coverage of the supply. Luz en Casa has set itself an initial target of 3,500 low-income families-around 15,000 people, in all-in the Cajamarca region, in northern Peru.

Presence in Latin America

The new contract comes as a boost to the Company's presence in Latin America where it has been carrying out important desalination and water treatment activities since 2008, in the shape of a number of high-profile projects, including: the construction of Venezuela's first Reverse Osmosis desalination plant; technical assistance and maintenance for the Arrudas WWTP, in Brazil; the construction of the Peravia drinking water plant and aqueduct, in the Dominican Republic; and, more recently, in 2010, the Company was awarded the world's largest WWTP in Atotonilco, Mexico.

ACCIONA Agua is also to be found in Chile with four WWTPs in Osorno, Temuco, La Ligua and Valdivia with a total flow of 123,049m3/day. The Company was also recently shortlisted for a design-build-bring into operation contract for Costa Rica's largest-ever WWTP.