China: The ADB selected the US consultancy CDM of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to lead project preparation and technical assistance studies for the ADB-funded Fuzhou environmental improvement project. The project will help achieve sustainable wastewater management and protect water resources by increasing wastewater collection capacity and treatment capability in Fuzhou and provide better stormwater and flood control mechanisms to minimise the tidal effect to stagnant sewerage within inland rivers. This project will eventually enhance the ongoing ADB-funded Fuzhou wastewater treatment project Phase I to meet national guidelines for overall urban wastewater treatment capability.
Malaysia: The subsidiary of Kumpulan Emas Bhd, Salcon Engineering Bhd, was awarded a US$ 9.2 million project from the state water department, Jabatan Air Sabah, to implement non-revenue water reduction works in Sandakan, Sabah. The project will reduce non-revenue water losses; set up a district metered zones network and pressure management system; repair leaks, replace and upgrade pipelines; and provide technical and management advice. The 30-month contract began in April 2003.
Philippines: The International Finance Corp. (IFC) extended a US$ 30 million loan to the Manila Water Co. Inc., and assisted the water company in securing US$ 115 million in various loan packages from other international and local financial institutions, such as the German Investment and Development Co (US$ 20 m) and a consortium of local banks (US$ 65m). The IFC decision was based on Manila Water's success in improving customer service in the east service concession area of Metro Manila.
Records show that the Ayala-led utility company increased water supply from 70% when it took over to 89% as of December 2002. It made new connections servicing more than one million households of which half are classified as low-income and informal settler communities.
Thailand: Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department awarded the US company Flowserve Pump Division with an order for six vertical mixed flow pumps valued at US$ 792,000 for the Pasak River Dam project. The vertical circulating pumps are single-stage models with semi-radial flow bowls.
Three pumps (Grade A) will meet an initial nominal duty point of 42 m total differential head at 6,325 m3/h and are driven by 900 kW motors at 600 rpm. Three pumps (Group B) will operate at 6,225 m3/h at 47 m of head at 1,000 kW.Group A pumps will take water from the reservoir and transport it along a 6.2-km-long steel pipeline to provide irrigation to 11,720 acres of higher ground. Similarly, Group B pumps will take water from the reservoir and transport it along a 7.9-km-long steel pipeline to provide irrigation to 11,400 acres of land.
This order is part of an on-going US$ 440 million program that started in 1989 to minimise drought and flood problems in the 3.65-million acre Pasak River basin, north of Bangkok. The Pasak Chonprasit Dam opened in 1999, and is an earth-fill dam with a 960 million m3 reservoir.
