São Paulo – The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga), the World Bank’s political insurance arm, will back expansion works at a sewage treatment station in Jordan with US$ 13.1 million in guarantees. Water treated at the expanded plant will be used in irrigating plantations. The information was released in a statement this Tuesday (23rd).
The As-Samra plant, the country’s largest, located northeast of Amman, should see a 37% increase in water treatment capacity. The station’s sludge treatment capacity is expected to increase by 80%. The plant should generate most of the power required for its own functioning from the hydraulic potential of its water inlet and outlet, and from biogas produced by its sludge digester.
The project’s importance is a consequence of the severe water deficit that plagues the country. The plant’s expansion should also prevent past issues from reoccurring, such as pollution of rivers by untreated water, or its use in irrigation.
The Miga will guarantee the investment of the enterprises involved in the project: Suez Environnement, Infilco Degremont and Morganti Group Inc. The plant is operated by the Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant Company on an extended 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. According to the Miga statement, this is the first public-private partnership ever established in Jordan.
The expansion will include the addition of two more treatment lines to the existing four lines and is expected to be completed by the end of June 2015. “We are pleased to provide continued support to this wastewater treatment plant that will provide much-needed water for irrigation while improving Jordanians’ health and environment,” said Miga executive vice president Keiko Honda. “Moreover, Jordan’s water scarcity is widely seen as the most important restriction on the country’s sustainable economic growth, so we expect this project to have even farther-reaching benefits,” she said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
