Copasa green lights Minas Gerais waterworks tenders

Brazil's Minas Gerais water utility Copasahas approved 83mn reais (US$32mn) in tenders to improve four municipal water supply systems.

The largest is for a nine-month project budgeted at 25mn reais, according to minutes from a board meeting.

It involves infrastructure to transfer water from the Paraopeba river to the company's Serra Azul water treatment plant in the metropolitan region of state capital Belo Horizonte.

The other three projects are a 23.5mn-real tender to expand the water supply system in the city of Ibirité, an 18.2mn-real tender to expand Belo Horizonte's water supply system, and a 16.4mn-real tender to expand the system in Lagoa Santa city, according to the minutes.

Ibirité is located 25km southwest of Belo Horizonte and Lagoa Santa is 35km north of the city.

Overall, Copasa is planning 1.18bn reais in waterworks projects this year. A total of 983mn reais has been earmarked for Copasa, while subsidiaries Copanor and Copasa Águas Minerais de Minas have been assigned 200mn reais and 400,000 reais, respectively.