Veolia Water was picked in December to run the Operations & Maintenance part of the RO desalination plant of the F2 Independent Water & Power Project (F2 IWPP) in Qidfa, Fujairah, in the UAE. The plant will produce 136,500 M3/day of desalinated water. The €78 million contract was awarded by Fujairah F2 O&M Company Ltd, which has been set up by International Power Plc and Marubeni Corp. In August 2007, Veolia was chosen by the F2 IWPP Project Company to build two new desalination plants – via RO and Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) technology – for a value of €596 million as part of the F2 IWPP effort, which will include a 2000MW power plant. The MED plant will be operated by Fujairah F2 O&M Company.
In November, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development is investing up to €105 million for a 10% stake in Veolia Voda, with the aim of boosting the role of the private sector in provision of water and wastewater services, especially in Russia and Ukraine. A holding company for Veolia’s central and eastern European activities, Veolia Voda has already made successful entries into Hungary and the Czech and Slovak republics.
Additionally, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, in a 50/50 joint venture of Veolia Water and Costain Ltd., was awarded a contract by United Utilities valued at £45 million for Veolia Water, for the Mersey Valley Processing Centre, a major wastewater sludge incineration scheme at Shell Green, in Widnes, Cheshire, UK. MVPC is United Utilities’ dewatering and incineration centre in North West England, which dewaters digested sludge and operates two incineration operations.
Progress, accolades cited in Iraqi water, wastewater projects
Iraqi efforts to improve water and wastewater services were acknowledged with a key award from the Association for Project Management (APM), as another project was handed off to locals and nearly $1 million worth of rural systems were en route to the war–ravaged nation.
The APM Overseas Project of the Year award was presented to water and environmental engineering company MWH for a reconstruction project looking at water and waste planning solutions for Iraq. This complex project was headed by MWH Design and Overall Project Lead Technical Manager Nigel Read and Project Manager Andy Bent–Marshall, working with colleagues from MWH’s UK headquarters in Warrington, MWH Belfast, and MWH in the United States. Award sponsor The Project Group Plc’s Adrian Dooley presented the trophy to Bent–Marshall and Read.
In other news, Iraqi authorities in Dhi Qar province assumed control of the $277 million Nasiriyah water treatment plant Dec. 10. On Sept. 11, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Fluor–Amec signed completion documents certifying all work was inspected and accepted in accordance with contractual requirements. Under the agreement, the contractor will remain at the plant to ensure Iraqi plant maintenance personnel can operate the main facility, booster pump stations and elevated storage tanks.
Also, WorldWater & Solar Technologies Corp. will ship 12 of its Mobile MaxPure solar water and power–supply units for use by farmers and families in the Euphrates Valley of Iraq. The systems were purchased for $900,000 and are being donated by the Morrell Foundation, an international charitable foundation that provides clean water to people in need. The portable systems can each supply 30,000 gpd of clean drinking water or irrigation, plus electric power.
Parkson, Flowserve win bids on Qatar GTL project
Parkson Corp. won a contract to provide cooling tower side stream filtration for the Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) Project in Ras Laffan Industrial City on the north east coast of Qatar. The Parkson water recovery system will contain 24 DynaSand filter modules in concrete basins.
Sponsored by Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell plc, Pearl GTL isn’t only the world’s largest integrated GTL project, but also the largest energy project ever launched within the borders of Qatar. Pearl GTL is comprised of upstream gas production facilities as well as an onshore GTL plant that will produce 140,000 barrels per day of high–quality GTL fuels and products along with 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane.
Fluid control specialist Flowserve Corp., meanwhile, won major pump orders for the fully integrated Pearl GTL facility, which will utilize nearly 500 Flowserve API/ANSI process pumps.
In other news, Flowserve was honored by the Carroll County Department of Economic Development with its Business Expansion Award for Flowserve’s Motor Center of Excellence (MCOE) expansion project in Taneytown, Maryland, USA. The new MCOE combines manufacturing, sales support, testing, assembly and service for customers in the Americas. Flowserve Taneytown Plant Manager Bjorn Haldorsen and Water Industry and Product Management Director Chuck Powers accepted the award for the company at a recent ceremony.
Field Notes
UK: The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) fined Southern Water a record £20.3 million – £19.8 million for deliberately misreporting company information prior to October 2005 and £470,000 for providing sub–standard services to customers by failing to meet Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSS). Customers also missed out on payments entitled to them because of these service failures.
TURKEY: MWH, which is buying Dutch environmental services company Syncera, is part of a consortium awarded a major EU contract for technical assistance to prepare drinking water supply projects for eight Turkish cities. The €2.6 million project involves preparation and design work for several major infrastructure and water distribution network projects.
ROMANIA: Through Insituform Balcani s.r.l. – formed in mid–2007, Insituform Technologies Ltd. of the UK is renovating drainage infrastructure beneath the capital via a €3 million deal it won as subcontractor for sewage upgrades included in a project known as the “Refurbishment of Roads and Utilities within the Pilot Area ‘A’ of the Historic Zone Bucharest.” The current overall project phase, to be complete by April 2008, is valued at €20.7 million.
HUNGARY: AquaFence A/S will supply custom AquaFence flood protection elements to Adony, south of Budapest in Hungary, to protect Europe’s largest intervention maize storage facility, which is at risk of severe flooding due to its location on the banks of the Duna river. The elements, totaling 54m in length, will be used to seal four gates to the facility when flood warnings are given.
GAZA STRIP: CertainTeed Certa–Lok Yelomine restrained joint PVC pipe helped hundreds of residents in Um An–Nasir, a Bedouin village in the Gaza Strip, after a sewage reservoir collapsed in March 2007 and flooded the village, destroying over 200 homes and killing five people. Local distributor, Ortec Yelopipe Ltd., of Kibutz Urim, Israel, and Mekorot, the Israel Water Agency used 5,000 feet of Certa–Lok Yelomine 8” 125 psi high–impact PVC pipe to pump water out of the flooded village.
UK: A report from the Chartered Institution of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM) calls for reform of the existing UK regulatory framework in the water industry toward a catchment–based approach, saying today’s “conservative,” “old fashioned” approach limits ability to take advantage of potential benefits from water reuse, including more sustainable water management practices, a more drought–resistant water supply and potential financial savings.
SAUDI ARABIA: Toray Industries will supply RO membranes for a 150,000 m3/d seawater desalination plant under construction in Shuaiba, south of Jeddah on the Red Sea. The Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP), which now has an oil–fired power plant and desalination plant using an evaporative process, chose the RO method for a second desalination plant and South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd. won the contract to build the plant.
