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- Empresa de Servicios Sanitarios del Bío Bío S.A.
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Sewage Treatment | Industrial Waste Water Treatment | Water Resources | Industrial water use | Consulting/Research | Remediation | Irrigation/Flood Control | Solid Waste - Residential | Sewerage | Potable Water
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MeneameChilean water utility Essbio is entering a new phase in its development which involves a shift in focus to the provision of environmental services, the search for an integrated solution to organic solid waste, as well as international expansion, the firm's general manager Eduardo Abuauad told BNamericas.
This month, the company will inaugurate a wastewater treatment plant in Constitución and another plant in Pichilemu is scheduled to start operations in January 2010. This will complete most of the utility's sewage wastewater treatment program, with only smaller projects pending completion, according to Abuauad.
"In the last few years we have invested over US$1bn in this area and we have been able to clean up emblematic river basins such as the Maule, Bío Bío and Mataquito," Abuauad said.
In 2010, the firm is planning to invest around US$60mn in the modernization of potable water and sewage distribution networks (US$17.5mn); in the construction of new potable water tanks in the three regions in which it has operations (US$6.5mn); and in the construction of new corporate buildings in Concepción (US$6mn) and Rancagua (US$1.5mn).
ORGANIC SOLID WASTE
As part of a regional organic solid waste management plan, Essbio submitted an EIA for a US$6.3mn project in region VII to national environment authority Conama in May of this year.
The project consists of implementing a sustainable management and disposal system for sludge produced by the utility's wastewater treatment plants in the region.
Sludge from treatment plants will reach an estimated 25,000-30,000t/y by 2010 and Essbio is proposing to use the material to recuperate depleted land. Rich in nutrients, sludge has been successfully used as an organic fertilizer in other parts of the world.
The initiative is still under evaluation by Conama.
"As a company, we are looking for an integrated solution to manage organic solid waste. This could mean developing similar projects to the one in region VII but this is just one of the alternatives we are looking at. We are also analyzing other options," Abuauad said.
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
In the Chilean market, the firm is planning to focus more on environmental services for the treatment of industrial wastewater, laboratory services, consultancy services for the construction and operation of wastewater treatment plants, among others, according to Abuauad.
"We will carry out these services through our subsidiary Biodiversa," Abuauad said, referring to the subsidiary created in December 2008.
Biodiversa is based in region VIII capital Concepción and also provides chemical and biological analyses, and services for the design and construction of potable water and sewage networks and rainwater drainage systems, among others.
Essbio is also currently participating in a tender in Peru, according to Abuauad.
"We are looking at other markets in the Latin American region but this is at a preliminary stage. We are just starting to evaluate possible options, getting to know the legal framework and the way the sanitation sector operates in other countries," he said.
Essbio serves Chile's central-southern regions VI and VIII. The firm is controlled by Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which also controls Nuevosur, serving region VII. Together, Essbio and Nuevosur comprise Chile's second largest water utility, serving 3.6mn people in 122 localities.
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