ACCIONA continues to grow in Colombia: new water purification plant in Bucaramanga

ACCIONA has been selected by the AMB (Acueducto Metropolitano de Bucaramanga) to build the Los Angelinos Drinking Water Treatment Plant (DWTP). The new plant will serve the needs of the municipalities of Bucaramanga, Floridablanca and Girón. These are classified by the Colombia Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) as drinking water shortage high risk areas in dry years and during long summers.

ACCIONA Agua (75%) is partnering with the Colombian firm Construvicol (25%) to carry out the construction and commissioning of the DWTP. It will also undertake operation and maintenance functions for a month. In its initial phase, the plant will have a treatment capacity of 51.8 million litres per day and supply drinking water to 350,000 people. The project has a budget of 14.1 million dollars, about 13 million euros.

The first stage of the building work is to start in October, along with complementary works. These include a control building, contact tanks, storage tanks, a disinfection plant, a power station, access roads and exterior works, and a sludge treatment plant to be shared with the Bosconia DWTP.

The project site is in the vicinity of the city of Bucaramanga, Santander Department, Colombia. It will be funded entirely by Acueducto Metropolitano de Bucaramanga (AMB). This is yet another major project among those already awarded to ACCIONA Agua in Colombia. It will serve a population of more than 4.5 million people.

ICONIC WORKS

In November 2012, ACCIONA started building the 5 m3/s Bello Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Medellín, which will initially benefit an equivalent population of 3.9 million people. The goal is for the river to exceed the dissolved oxygen levels which are globally accepted as indicators of unpolluted rivers. This will allow for the recovery of spaces along the banks which can be used in recreational and landscape developments.

In 2013, the Government of La Guajira Department  awarded ACCIONA water optimisation works, an aqueduct and a new survey of consumers in the Municipality of Riohacha, capital of the Department, in the Colombian Caribbean. A  23.4 million dollar project (over 17 million euros). The project includes the renovation of approximately 10 kilometres of piping and will benefit close to 250,000 people.

In addition to Colombia, ACCIONA Agua has over twenty projects in Latin America and the Caribbean including drinking water plants, wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants in Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Chile, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, ACCIONA Infrastructures is a benchmark in Colombia's hydroelectric sector, having built the massive Guavio, Santa Rita and Rio Grande II dams. It built and commissioned the Medellín Metro, the country's first mass transit system, which opened in 1995 and is considered one of the emblematic works in the industry. 

Learn more about ACCIONA's activity in Colombia