January 1 marked the beginning of the SUEZ water management concession for the municipality of Sanya, China, for a duration of 30 years.
The contract came out of a 50/50 joint venture partnership between Sino-French Water Development [1], and Hainan Tianya Water Industry Holding Company (the Hainan water company). The contract provides for the production, plant operation and maintenance, distribution of water throughout the city of Sanya, as well as customer services for the municipality. The city's three water plants have a production capacity of 230,000 cubic meters per day.
SUEZ thus strengthens its leadership in the People's Republic of China. It makes the group the largest private provider of delegated water management services in China.
"The Chinese market represents a great development potential for SUEZ. We also wish to pursue our relationship with municipalities and bring them our expertise and innovative solutions and services. We hope to continue strengthening our long term relationships with our Chinese partners in the environment and energy sector." commented Gerard Mestrallet, President and CEO of SUEZ.
Sanya is the southern most city of China, situated on the island province of Hainan and has a population of 300,000. Sanya is mainland China's number one tourist destination, and in December 2003 held the Miss World competition.
Sanya is one of 15 Chinese cities (including Shanghai, Chongqing and Qingdao) where, through Sino-French Water Development, SUEZ is active providing drinking water for 12 million people. More than 20 percent of the country's urban population is served by the 132 water treatment plants designed and built throughout the country by Degremont since the start of the 1970s. SUEZ also provides industrial process water and wastewater management in the biggest industrial parks in Shanghai (Spark and SCIP).
Source: SUEZ
