GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, B.W.I., Feb. 17, 2005 (PRNewswire-FirstCall) -- Consolidated Water Co. Ltd., which develops and operates seawater conversion plants and water distribution systems in areas where natural supplies of drinking (i.e., potable) water are scarce, today announced that the Hon. Bradley Roberts, minister of works of the government of the Bahamas, announced at a press conference in the Bahamas that the government has accepted the company's bid to build a new seawater desalination plant, the Blue Hills plant, and to expand its existing Windsor seawater desalination plant on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas.
When completed, the Blue Hills plant will be capable of producing 7.2 million U.S. gallons of potable water per day (gpd) and will be the Company's largest seawater conversion facility. Consolidated Water will also expand the capacity of its existing Windsor plant by almost 40%, to about 3.6 million gpd, under the terms of its contract with the government-owned Water and Sewerage Corporation in Nassau.
At the present time, the island of New Providence, where Nassau -- the Bahamian capital -- is located, suffers from critical water shortages and must import potable water via barges from neighboring Andros Island. Consolidated's contract with the Water and Sewerage Corp. is designed to dramatically increase Nassau's self-sufficiency by converting seawater into potable (i.e., drinking) water utilizing reverse osmosis technology. The Blue Hills contract is for 20 years, or until 35 billion U.S. gallons of water have been supplied to the Water and Sewerage Corp.
"We are very pleased to have received a letter of acceptance of the Blue Hills bid, following an extended bid evaluation process, and look forward to our role in easing the water crisis in Nassau," stated Jeffrey Parker, chairman of Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. "The Blue Hills plant will be our largest water production facility, and when combined with the expanded output of our existing Windsor plant, should transform Nassau into the company's largest single market, in terms of water volume, within the next several years. The combined capacity of the two plants will exceed 10.8 million U.S. gallons per day, compared with the Company's total combined water production capacity of about 11.9 million US gallons per day in all of its markets throughout the Caribbean region at the present time."
"The Blue Hills plant will incorporate the highly efficient DWEER energy recovery system and should be fully operational within 15 months of contract signing," commented Rick McTaggart, president and CEO of Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. "Meanwhile, we intend to expand our water production on a short-term basis by installing temporary, modular seawater desalination facilities on the island of New Providence. Our contract also calls for Consolidated to provide engineering services and equipment in order to reduce the amount of water that is 'lost' (due to leakage, theft, etc.) throughout the Water and Sewerage Corporation's pipeline distribution system on New Providence."
Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (www.cwco.com) is engaged in the development and operation of seawater conversion plants and water distribution systems in areas of the world where naturally occurring supplies of potable water are scarce or nonexistent. The Company currently operates reverse osmosis seawater conversion facilities in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Belize and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
###
