New water treatment plant construction by year-end

The city’s sole water distributor – Macao Water Supply Co. Ltd. – says it wants to start construction on a new water treatment plant in Seac Pai Van by the end of this year, so that it is operational by 2017 when the first phase of the project is completed, according to company chairman Steve Clark speaking to media in Beijing on Friday. While Macao Water plans to have the Main Storage Reservoir Water Treatment Plant III expansion project on the Macau Peninsula operational by the middle of this year, the water distributor is also planning to start the construction of a new water treatment plant in Seac Pai Van to cope with rising water consumption driven by ongoing casino-resorts expansion in Cotai. It would also serve as enhanced security for water supply in the city. “Macau is growing very quickly. In terms of last year, the water demand grew by 6.5 per cent,” said Mr. Clark, chairman of Macao Water and Suez Environnement Asia’s CEO. “Now to me, that growing demand [means] there will be a need for a new water treatment facility, and particularly inside Seac Pai Van because that is the area in Cotai where more and more casinos are setting up – and these are huge hotels and leisure complexes.” The water consumption of Macau last year totalled about 83.5 million cubic metres, according to Macao Water. “The first phase of that [Seac Pai Van water treatment plant] will be 100 million litres a day, and it will take at least one and a half years or two years to construct,” Mr. Clark explained. “So it will be 2017 by the time it’s producing water. The second phase will be another 100 million litres a day.” A preliminary budget for the Seac Pai Van water treatment plant project was put at MOP800 million (US$100 million), as mentioned by Macao Water’s executive director Felix Fan in December last year. Mr. Fan also noted at the time that the government would shoulder part of the project cost. Business Daily approached Marine and Water Bureau regarding how much the government will spend on the new water treatment plant project, to which the Bureau only replied that the subject is “still being discussed”. Speaking on Friday, Mr. Clark noted that the company was still calculating the cost of the new project. The production of Main Storage Reservoir Water Treatment Plant III, when completed this year, can reach 60,000 cubic metres of water a day. With four other water treatment plants on the Macau Peninsula and Coloane, the completion of the expanded Main Storage Reservoir Water Treatment Plant means that the company can produce 390,000 cubic metres of water a day. The joint venture Sino-French Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. holds an 85 per cent stake in Macao Water. Sino-French is 50 per cent owned by French utility Suez Environnement, with another 50 per cent owned by Hong Kong-listed NWS Holdings Ltd. New structure, new goal The world’s second-largest water and waste group, Suez Environnement, which provides technical support for the water treatment for Macao Water, announced in Beijing on Friday that it is scrapping the brand names of its various divisions and moving to a single brand. Suez, which has a presence in 70 countries, operates some 40 different brands, including SITA, Degremont, Lyonnaise des Eaux, Agbar and Ondeo, as a result of international expansion and the integration of new activities. The simplifying of the Suez brand architecture is for ‘improved performance and commercial efficiency’, the company said in a statement. The restructuring, complete with new ‘Resource Revolution’ tagline, follows a similar reorganisation at market leader and top Suez competitor Veolia in 2013. Like Veolia, Suez is looking for more growth from its international waste and water business as its French water concessions operations lose traction. The two firms are increasingly focusing on recycling raw materials and recuperating energy from waste, while offering waste and water treatment for clients in the mining, oil and gas exploration and agrifood industries. The restructuring of Suez means that the city’s solid waste collector CSR – Macau Waste Systems Co. Ltd., a joint venture between a subsidiary of the French utility SITA Waste Services and Macau’s HN Group – would drop the brand SITA, to be replaced by Suez, Mr. Clark confirmed on Friday. SITA owns a majority stake in CSR. As Suez reorganises around a single brand and along regional lines, the company’s Asia chief spoke of big ambitions to grow in China amid rising competition amongst fellow Chinese and foreign waste and water firms. “China represents only about 5 per cent [of Suez’s group-wide revenue] at the moment. One reason for that is because we operate through joint ventures and partnerships,” Mr. Clark commented. The China segment also includes Hong Kong and Macau. The Suez Asia CEO added that the company’s managed turnover in China in 2013 was 1.3 billion euros (MOP10.9 billion), a figure also covering the operations of its joint ventures and partnerships in the country. “If I look at that, I intend to grow that [revenue] significantly . . . to double by 2020,” Mr. Clark said of the growth prospects for Suez’s China operations. Suez is also targeting a 50/50 percentage in terms of revenue from water and waste management in China by 2020. Currently, 80 per cent of Suez’ s revenue in China is from water management, while the remaining 20 per cent is from waste, Mr. Clark said. with Reuters