Sanitation improvements in Indonesia targeted by $100 million ADB grant
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing Indonesia with a $100 million loan to finance community-driven projects that upgrade basic infrastructure in rural villages and improve sanitation services in poor urban neighborhoods. While Indonesia has made significant progress in fighting poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), about 31 million people, many of them in rural areas, remain trapped in poverty. Only about half of the national population has access to improved sanitation. Consequently, some 30% of Indonesians suffer from water-borne diseases, including diarrhea and typhoid fever, that are linked to the use of untreated water and poor sanitation. The ADB loan, from its ordinary capital resources, covers about 73% of the total project cost of $135.6 million, with the government financing around 19% and beneficiaries providing the balance in the form of counterpart contributions to community investments. The Ministry of Public Works is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion around March 2015. The loan will expand ADB's support for the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM Mandiri) for poverty reduction by providing direct assistance to poor communities.
Australian stormwater software enters UK
Australian firm eWater Innovation has secured financial backing to enter the UK market with its stormwater quality software management tool. Called music - model for urban stormwater improvement conceptualisation - the system simulates real-time water sensitive design to tackle urban stormwater flows and pollutions impacts. A grant from Commercialisation Australia helped the firm take the technology to the UK market. Developed in 2001, the software has been said to have helped reduce pollution in streams, rivers and receiving waters through Australia. eWater said a comparative study undertaken on a development application using music against current UK storm water design methods showed it could achieve around a 40% improvement in pollutant reduction.
Water meter contract awarded in Delhi
A total of 250,000 water meters will be rolled out across Delhi as part of an infrastructure upgrade and plan to accurately measure water usage in the metropolitan area. The tender was awarded to Itron from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and will see Indian construction company Larsen & Toubro install the meters over an 18-month period. DJB is responsible for 1.9 million water connections in the region and historically, consumers have been charged for water services on an estimated average basis, not on actual consumption. In addition, over 60% of these connections are either unmetered or have defective meters installed, resulting in tremendous water waste across the metropolitan area. Itron said the meters will be assembled at its recently inaugurated water meter factory in Dehradun.
MBR wastewater facility to help China increase water reuse
Singapore company United Envirotech has secured a contract worth RMB220 (US$34.5) to develop a 50,000 m3/day wastewater treatment plant for an industrial park in Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province, China. Scheduled for completion within nine months, phase 1 of the project involves the construction of a 10,000 m3/day membrane bioreactor plant (MBR). This project marks the second Build Operate Transfer (BOT) investment that the Group has made in Dafeng City. In early August the Group announced that it has entered into a purchase agreement with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. for a US$113.8 million convertible bond investment.
Fukushima water system meets targets
Nuclear waste management company Kurion has reported that, as of August 17, cesium leveis in the contaminated water within the facilities of the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant had dropped by more than 40% since startup of the water treatment two months ago. Kurion's Ion Specific Media System is a component of the site's reactor water cooling Water Treatment Facility. The 50 MT/hour (220gpm) rate system is designed to remove approximately 99.9% of the cesium, the principal source of radioactivity in the contaminated water.
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