PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The city of Montería, Colombia, has just renewed its trust in French resource management firm Veolia Environnement (VE) by signing a contract with its subsidiary Proactiva Aguas de Monteria for the management of all the city's water services. This contract, renewed for ten years from 2019, concerns a population of 540,000 and represents cumulative revenue of 226 million euros.
Under this contract, the company will be responsible for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant to cover the needs of 100,000 residents. Veolia will also extend the wastewater network in order to connect 100% of the population within two years, compared with the current 82%.
Improving access to drinking water in the municipality of Montería will also necessitate the deployment of water pressure regulator stations and the operation of water distribution systems in rural areas.
In a separate press release, Veolia and EPM said that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of energy efficiency services in Latin America.
The purpose of this Veolia-EPM alliance is to create a company of the ESCO (energy service company) type that will be in a position to provide solutions to develop, install, finance, operate and maintain projects designed to improve energy efficiency.
The alliance will provide solutions that reduce the consumption and improve the efficiency of its customers' processes and services. The first step will involve the performance of energy audits at customers' premises to identify the principal sources of energy consumption and the least energy efficient operations, with a view to recommending and implementing improvement solutions.
Under the agreement signed today, it is planned that the Veolia-EPM alliance will work on developing low-energy solutions for various types of customers: industry (oil & gas, mines, and food & beverage), public (public lighting solutions), hospitals, hotels, educational facilities, etc.
The agreement will initially concern public entities in Colombia and Mexico, followed by Brazil and Chile, and then Peru and the Central American countries.
For Veolia and EPM, this agreement will speed up growth in the Latin American market's energy efficiency segment. Under the alliance, the two companies will contribute their respective knowledge and experience of public services and of the regions where they already operate.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX