BV and Thames Water launch utility financing scheme in UAE

Black & Veatch and Thames Water Aqua International, part of Europe's largest multi-utility RWE, structured the first integrated wastewater scheme in the Gulf Emirate of Ajman to be implemented on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

This marks the first private finance deal to take responsibility for retail risk - the collection of the tariff from property owners and occupiers - in delivering wastewater services and the first utility project in the Middle East to charge a full cost recovery-based tariff for delivery of wastewater management services. Total revenues of the BOT contract over its 27.5-year concession term are estimated to exceed US$ 450 million.

US$ 140 million worth of new physical infrastructure will be built in Ajman, UAE, within the first four years of the contract. The country's first state-of-the-art sewerage system will be built for 350,000 people, connecting more than 45,000 properties to modern sanitation facilities for the first time.

Another ground-breaking development for the Middle East is that the private sector venture is responsible for delivering wastewater services to a city based on a users tariff structured to fully cover total costs of wastewater management services provided.