3 CHILE
One of Chile’s largest water utilities, Essbio, will start using intelligent water meters from Danish company Kamstrup to help improve network efficiency. At present, a considerable amount of the drinking water running through Essbio’s network is going undetected because the utility’s current meters cannot measure water used at low flow rates. The smart water meters have been approved by Chile’s metering and telecommunication standards organisations.
4 ISRAEL
Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL) has agreed a sale for its 50 percent stake in desalination company IDE Technologies to a consortium of investors for $178 million. A sale accord has been agreed to a limited partnership, including Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE Technologies and institutional bodies from Clal Insurance Company. It was in 2015 when IDE’s two joint owners, ICL and the Delek Group partnered with investment bank UBS to help with the sale of the company in a bid to sell off non-core activities.
5 YEMEN
A runaway cholera epidemic is now killing one person nearly every hour in Yemen with thousands of lives at risk in coming months, according to international agency Oxfam. The cholera crisis comes on top of two years of brutal war which has decimated the health, water and sanitation systems, severely restricted the essential imports the country is dependent upon. Public water systems have been destroyed and starved of key items, such as chlorine and fuel, Oxfam said.
6 SINGAPORE
Singapore’s fourth desalination plant, located at Marina East, will feature a sleek design and 20,000 square meter green roof to be used for community recreation. Announced at the groundbreaking ceremony, the 137,000 m3/day facility is being developed by Keppel Infrastructure for water agency PUB. The first of its kind in Singapore, the dual-mode desalination project will be able to treat both seawater and freshwater, depending on wet or dry conditions.
7 MALAYSIA
Taiwanese oil company Formosa Petrochemical Corporation has commissioned IDE Technologies to deliver a 105,000 m³/day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant. FPCC has an urgent need to produce its own water supply after the government reduced water its rights from natural sources to support agriculture. The desalination plant will use IDE’s boron removal system to reach the extremely low concentration level requirement of less than 0.01 ppm.