Lyonnaise des Eaux wins Medan's water plant contract

JAKARTA (JP): A consortium led by French firm Lyonnaise des Eaux has signed a 25-year contract to build and operate a new drinking water treatment plant in Medan, North Sumatra.

The company said that under the contract signed yesterday, Lyonnaise would lead the team to manage the new plant.

The consortium would invest about US$85 million to build the water treatment plant, which is due to be completed in the year 2000, the company said.

The water plant will be able to treat 170,000 cubic meters of water a day.

"By 2003, it will be able to hold 260,000 cubic meter a day," the company said.

The new plant would be able to meet the city's need for drinking water which is expected to be over eight million connections by 2015, the company said.

There are currently one million connections in the city of about 2.5 million people.

The company said it expected a turnover of over US$2 billion, or an average of US$80 million a year.

Lyonnaise des Eaux has been working in the country for over 40 years through its subsidiaries Degremont and Dumez-GTM.

The group has supplied water since 1993 to the industrial zone of Cilegon, West Java. It said it was now in the final stages of negotiating a water management contract for West Jakarta.

The company provides water to 13.4 million people in the Asia Pacific region and 68 million people worldwide, it said. (das)