Veolia to expand clean water production in India

Veolia Water, the water division of Paris-based Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE), announced today it was awarded a new contract by the city of Nagpur, located in central India in the state of Maharashtra.

The deal, worth an estimated €24 million, covers the design, build and operation of a new water production plant for a period of 15 years.

The plant is to have an operating capacity of 240,000 cubic meters per day and is to be the first plant in India equipped with Veolia's Multiflo lamellar settling process, the company's water clarifying system.

Veolia said the system has been in development since 1969.

"In this part of the world where challenges associated with water have such great importance, Veolia Water's assignment is to ensure that residents who currently only have running water intermittently for three hours a day, can at last have a continuous and perfectly healthy quality water supply," said Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia Water.

"In order to do this, we also need to take up the challenge of quality water, because this area is often affected by pollution from domestic, industrial and agricultural sources."

In Nagpur alone, Veolia Water has already refurbished and augmented an existing water production plant, and according to the company has increased its operation capacity from 113,000 cubic meters per day to 136,000.

Additionally, Veolia's water arm said it has already begun work on rehabilitating a water distribution network in a pilot area of 15,000 customers to convert an intermittent water supply to a continuously available water supply.

Earlier this year, Veolia Water and Germany's WTE won a contract worth approximately €500 million to upgrade and extend the Czajka wastewater treatment in Warsaw, Poland (see Veoilia & WTE share water treatment contract in Poland ).

Veolia Water employs 82,867 people globally and has permanent operations in 60 countries.

In 2007, the water division of Veolia Environment had revenues of €10.9 billion.

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