With the assumption of the operational management of the large-scale Coloane wastewater plant in Macao, WABAG has gained both a new subsidiary, in the form of WABAG Water Services (Macao), as well as another order.
On 1 December 2008 a local celebration was held in Macao to mark WABAG’s receipt of an order for the operational management of the Coloane wastewater treatment plant. The whole plant handles 130,000m³/d of wastewater using modern mechanical/biological treatment technologies and the new phase II extension went online in September 2008. WAGAG was selected for the operational management from a number of national and international suppliers, a choice that was certainly due in part to the company’s comprehensive regional experience. Moreover, since 1996 WABAG has been successfully managing Macao’s main treatment plant and in 2004 also took over the wastewater treatment plant at the city’s international airport.
During the past few years, the Coloane wastewater treatment plant has been enlarged and updated on the basis of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) technology. The biological cleaning stage follows a reuse phase for a partial flow of the cleaned wastewater. As a consequence, up to 10,000m³/d of treated wastewater is available for export and use within the plant as service water. The resultant sewage sludge is thickened mechanically and then dewatered in centrifuges.
For WABAG, this is already the third O&M project in Macao, but in contrast to the other two plants, which were planned, completed and subsequently operated within the framework of a DBO model, the Coloane contract constitutes a classic outsourcing model.
An increasing number of industrial companies and municipal authorities, such as the infrastructure authority of the Macao Special Administration Region, are delegating the operational management of their plants to specialists such as WABAG, who possess the appropriate know-how and experience.
At present, the international WABAG Group is responsible for the operational management of more than 20 municipal and industrial plants. This means that some two million cubic metres of drinking and wastewater, which represents the water volumes relating to over ten million people, are being professionally managed.
For WABAG, the Coloane contract is of major significance, as it confirms the group’s strategy, which envisages an increased involvement in operational management. Moreover, the company has been active in China for over 20 years and therefore the Macao order represents another chapter in its story of successes in this market.