Somos FCC - Nº5

The Panamanian Ministry of Health seeks to improve sanitation in Panama Bay and the living conditions of more than 130,000 residents. water Aqualia’s proposal was chosen as the most advantageous of those pre- sented since it passed the technical assessment and was the most con- venient from the economic point of view. Initially, the request for tenders had the participation of 14 compa- nies. Six of these continued to the following phases – Aguas de Maru- beni (Japan); ACEA (Rome, Italy) in a consortium, Empresa Pública Me- tropolitana de Agua y Saneamiento (Quito, Ecuador), Empresas Públicas de Medellín (Colombia) and Socie- dad General Aguas de Barcelona (Suez Group, France). Finally, only three of these (ACEA, Aqualia and Aguas de Barcelona) took part in the final technical assessment phase, with Aqualia and Aguas de Barce- lona exceeding the minimum requi- red points and thus passing to the economic assessment phase where Aqualia was the chosen company. Aqualia’s assessment of this new contract is “very positive” since it secures its presence in the Central American country and will also be a reference in a large Latin American city, a fact that will facilitate access to possible future contracts in other large urban areas. Aqualia also un- derlined the fact that “a contract such as this one, the purpose of which is to advise the Panamanian public au- thority, recognises the leadership, experience and know-how not only of Aqualia but also of private compa- nies specialising in water manage- ment.” During its five years’ duration, the contract will contribute $62.6 million (USD) to Aqualia’s portfolio for va- rious items including different activi- ties called “High Impact” by the con- tracting organisation. The Panamanian Mi- nistry of Health seeks to improve sanitation in Panama Bay and the li- ving conditions of more than 130,000 residents Aqualia’s other projects in Latin America The momentum in the development of this type of projects in Latin Ame- rica is growing. In this sense, Aqua- lia, which operates more than 700 wastewater treatment plants throu- ghout the world, is currently carrying out the design, construction, expan- sion equipment and implementation of secondary treatment at the El Salitre plant, in Bogotá, Colombia, which includes the construction of a 31-hectare water park as a protec- tion and recreational conservation area in the area. Recently, the company was also selected to carry out the design, outfitting, construction, start-up, operation and maintenance of the Guaymas desalination plant in the Mexican state of Sonora, for a total period of 20 years. The new facili- ty will serve nearly 100,000 inha- bitants. B U S I N E S S 19 B U S I N E S S