2006/01/24 global news digest

Main story - Headlines - Business - Loans and tenders - Research

Main story
UK: Businesses line up for Thames Water sale
Shares in German multi-utility giant RWE soared on rumours that several major businesses were preparing to bid for Thames Water when it is sold, probably sometime in the second half of 2006.

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Headlines
CHINA: ADB representative warns on Songhua pollution
A representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned a workshop in China that pollution levels in the Songhua River are affecting natural resources and economic development in the north-eastern region. Bank representative Toru Shibuichi told the meeting that addressing management of water resources and environmental pollution are crucial to promoting successful economic development. ADB is supporting projects on flood damage rehabilitation and flood management, wetland protection, and water supply in Harbin. The bank has also supported the Jilin water supply and sewerage development project, which directly addresses pollution control in the basin. China has announced that it has set aside $3.3 billion in its 2006-2010 five-year plan to make the Songhua Riverﾒs water potable by 2010. The funds will be used to create treatment works for some 1.4 billion tonnes of wastewater that currently discharge to the river.

US: Southern California suffers major sewage spill
Nine million litres of raw sewage spilled onto beaches around Los Angeles last week, closing the area to beachgoers and surfers. The spill, which also saw raw sewage pushing out of manholes into some local homes, has been called one of the worst for a decade by environmental officials. Ten miles of seashore from Manhattan Beach to Palos Verdes was affected by the spill, which was caused by an electrical malfunction at a pumping station near Manhattan Beach. 

CZECH REPUBLIC: Cyanide kills fish on river Elbe
A leak of cyanide from a chemicals plant in the Czech Republic has created a major fish kill on the river Elbe, known as the Labe in the republic. Government officials have said that the spill is becoming more diluted as it moves downstream, particularly after its confluence with the river Vitava, and should pose no threat to animals or people. The Czech Environment Inspection department has pinpointed the discharge to an accidental wastewater overflow out of the Lucebni Zavody chemicals plant in Kolin, which produces substances for use in pharmaceuticals and farming, and said it would launch an investigation.

EUROPE: EC launches environmental strategy
The European Commission has launched a new Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment to help Member States and regional and local authorities improve the environmental performance of Europeﾒs cities. The Strategy is one of seven under the 6th Environmental Action Programme. One of the key challenges for urban areas is seen as the generation of wastewater. The strategy will provide guidance on integrated environmental management, training, support for EU-wide exchange of best practice and the set-up of a new web portal for local authorities on the Europa website to provide better access to information.

EUROPE: EC proposes flood directive
The European Commission has proposed a directive to help member states prevent and limit floods, and their damaging effects on human health, the environment, infrastructure and property. The new directive will require member states to carry out preliminary assessments to identify the river basins and associated coastal areas at risk of flooding. Such zones then will be subject to flood risk maps and flood risk management plans. These plans will focus on prevention, protection and preparedness.

US: Two die in wastewater plant explosion
An explosion at a wastewater plant in Daytona Beach, Florida, has killed two men and injured a number of others, one critically. Employees were reported to have been on the roof of the Bethune Point wastewater treatment works using a blowtorch near methanol and sodium sulphate tanks. The workers were repairing hurricane damage. Methanol, used to remove nitrates from wastewater, is highly flammable.

IRELAND: Government announces major sewerage investment
Ireland is to invest ﾀ5 billion ($6.1 billion) in water and sewerage infrastructure improvements, focusing on leakage reduction and cutting red tape to help reduce construction times ﾖ any project worth less than ﾀ5M will be able to go straight to construction without the sanction of the Environment minister Dick Roche. The Water Services investment programme 2005 - 2007 provides details of 899 individual schemes, 193 due to start next year. 

AUSTRALIA: Murray River deal returns water to system
A $93 billion deal struck between the state of Victoria and Australiaﾒs federal government will see billions of litres of water returned to the Murray River each year. The Living Murray agreement will give back 145 gigalitres of water to help the general river environment and its aquatic species. The bulk of the water, 120 gigalitres, comes from an agreement by Victoriaﾒs farmers to give up a proportion of their irrigation water. In return the state government will improve dams and irrigation and improve the farmersﾒ legal security of supply. The remainder of the water will come from ending wastage by covering irrigation channels and reducing losses to the ground.

US: Owens River restoration begins
Work has begun on a project to restore a 62 mile stretch of the Owens river, which dried up almost entirely when work began a century ago to divert water to provide Los Angeles, 250 miles south of the area, with a supply. The $29M project will divert water from the Los Angeles aqueduct to the delta of Owens Lake and part of the river. Hundreds of hectares of wetlands and ponds should be created ﾖ the controversial diversion in 1913 turned the fertile valley into a dust bowl.

PAKISTAN: Government backs major dam building programme
Pakistanﾒs president Pervez Musharraf is leading a drive to secure Pakistanﾒs water supply by creating a number of major dams across the country. He announced the construction of the Bhasha and Munda dams in Sindh province last week as the first stages in the programme. He has, however, been forced to delay moves to construct the controversial Kalabagh dam after considerable opposition from three out of Pakistanﾒs four provinces. President Musharraf has announced that five dams, including Kalabagh, need to be built by 2020. The move reflects the findings of a World Bank report, which found that the countryﾒs survival is threatened by its water problems. One of the most water-stressed countries in the world, Pakistan depends heavily on one river system, while its natural resource base is largely degraded, groundwater is over-exploited and deteriorating in quality, and flooding problems are likely to get worse.

CHINA: Shanghai plans major environmental investment
City officials in Shanghai have announced that $4.9 billion will be spent between now and 2008 on improving the cityﾒs environment. This sum will finance 260 projects, including infrastructure for environmental protection, pollution reduction schemes, and upgrades to environmental management standards. Wastewater pipelines will be constructed and renovated and treatment plants built, and two major wastewater treatment works in Pudong will be upgraded. 

US: Ski resort opts for snow from wastewater
A US federal judge has cleared moves by the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort to use treated wastewater to make artificial snow for its slopes. The $25M project for the resort, sited in the San Francisco Peaks, has been opposed by the local Navajo tribe which is protesting that the area is sacred and therefore unsuitable for such a scheme. 

UK: Defra sets up working group to look at overflow impact on Olympics
Defra is to chair a working group set up to urgently consider options for dealing with intermittent storm sewage overflows into the river Lee and the tidal Thames, which a report has warned would negatively impact on the 2012 Olympics. Other members of the group are the interim Olympic development authority, the Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Environment Agency, ODPM, Thames Water, Ofwat, the Government Office for London, the Greater London Authority and British Waterways. 

TANZANIA: Biwater takes dispute action
Following the deportation of three of its local City Water employees last year, water services company Biwater has instituted proceedings via the ICSID international dispute service under the bilateral treaty between the UK and Tanzania. The Tanzanian government unexpectedly terminated City Waterﾒs ten-year contract, seizing its assets.

Business 
ARGENTINA: Suez water business drops arbitration claim
The public works minister for the Argentinian province of Santa Fe Alberto Hammerly has announced that Suez, which part-owns the local water company Aguas Provinciales de Santa Fe, has agreed to withdraw a World Bank arbitration claim made under the terms of its bilateral investment treaty. The provincial government has said that it would not approve of Suezﾒs proposed disposal of its stake in the company to a private bidder if it went ahead with the claim. Officials say Suez is negotiating with Alberdi Aguas, part of a local business chain, to sell its shares. The claim is one among several made by Suez and other private investors against Argentina following its 2002 decision to convert dollar rates into the devalued peso and freeze them. A claim by Aguas Argentinas, which serves Buenos Aires, is pending. 

CHINA: Black & Veatch wins Luizhou environmental management contract
Consultant Black & Veatch has announced that it has signed a contract to work on a four-year consultancy programme to improve urban environmental management in Luizhou, the industrial centre of the Guangxi Zhuang Zu autonomous region in China. Implementation of the Liuzhou environmental management project will help land and water resources in the city recover from environmental degradation by improving wastewater management and treatment, transfer and collection of solid waste, and public lavatories. 

ITALY: Spanish company wins contract for Italian water services
Spanish construction and services company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas has announced that it has won a ﾀ1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) contract to provide water services in the Italian province of Caltanissetta. FCC will provide drinking water to Caltanissetta's 275,000 inhabitants for 30 years. The contract, the company's first in Italy, calls for investment of ﾀ247M, ﾀ85M of which will be provided by Italian and European authorities. FCC expects the contract will create ﾀ1.5 billion-worth of revenue over its 30-year term.

JAKARTA: Private companies warn of investment problems
French PAM Lyonaisse Jaya (Palyja) has warned that it is likely to have to reduce its investments in its Jakarta contract this year to cover burgeoning operational costs, after the city decided to indefinitely delay rises in water prices. Palyja had allocated Rp150 billion ($3.4 billion) in investment for 2006, mainly for the repair of pipe networks. Paljya and Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ), had tried to compromise by reducing their proposed bill increase from 25% to 17.32%.

UK: Bank tipped to take Southern Water stake
Royal Bank of Scotland is being strongly tipped to take the 25% stake in Southern Water put on sale by Veolia Environnement at the end of last year. The bank already has a 40% stake in the company, as part of its venture with Veolia to aid its ﾣ2 billion ($3.5 billion) acquisition of Southern in 2003. Vivendi was prevented by the DTi from taking a controlling stake in Southern, leaving RBS in charge, a situation that it has now moved to resolve.

Loans and tenders
AFGHANISTAN: ADB offers assistance to river basin project
An Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance package worth $75M has been provided for a water resources management project in Afghanistanﾒs western basins. Some 400,000 people, mainly poor, will benefit from the loan. The project will help improve agricultural productivity and rural lievelihoods in the Hari Rud river basin and the Murghab river basin. It will strengthen integrated water resource management, improve irrigation, and promote more efficient agricultural practices.

YEMEN: Government allocates loan to dam project
The Yemeni government has decided to target a $150M loan offered by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development at a project to build two significant dams in the governorates of Hodeida and Abyan. The intention is to improve agriculture in these regions.

BURUNDI: Grant offers hope to war-torn countryﾒs water infrastructure
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed an agreement with the government of Burundi for a $17.5M grant to finance the rehabilitation and extension of its rural water infrastructure. Burundi saw massive destruction of its water infrastructure and equipment during its long civil conflict, which brought about a decline in access to drinking water from 70% in 1993 to 45% in 2005. The project is expected to sustainably improve access to drinking water and sanitation services in 34 communities in the provinces of Bururi, Gitega, Kayanza and Muramvya, and in two districts on the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura. It will also help strengthen the management and monitoring capacities of the rural water and sanitation sector, in central government and in 34 communal water authorities.

BULGARIA: EBRD provides funding for water project
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to provide ﾀ8M ($9.8M) in funding for a further stage of Bulgariaﾒs Rousse water investment project. The proposed project provides finance to upgrade and expand water and wastewater infrastructure of the Rousse regional water company and improves its financial and operational performance. The project is designed to complement a ﾀ35.3M ($43.2M) ISPA grant investment finance. The EBRD will focus on renovation of the water transmission main, while ISPA grant funds will be used for water and wastewater infrastructure investments, including construction of a new wastewater treatment plant. The proposed project will be the second ISPA co-financing of a local water utility following the financial close of the Bourgas water and wastewater project in June 2005.

ROMANIA: EIB lends for flood repairs
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending ﾀ300M ($367M) for repairs to Romanian road infrastructure damaged by last yearﾒs catastrophic floods. The money will finance road repair works, rehabilitation of damaged bridges, consolidation of road embankment, reconstruction of riverbank protection and preventive measures to reduce the risk of a recurrence of flood damage in future. The loan includes emergency funds of ﾀ75M ($92M), which could be allocated to local authorities for priority needs.

POLAND: EIB lends funds for water and wastewater improvements
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a ﾀ125M ($153M) loan for environment improvement investments in the city of Poznan, Poland, and neighbouring municipalities. The loan will finance a number of water supply and wastewater treatment measures, including modernisation of the Mosina water intake and rehabilitation of water and sewerage networks in the centre of the city. By improving drinking water quality and reducing the pollution originating from some 750 000 residents, the project will help reduce contamination of the Odra river and subsequently the Baltic sea and will help Poland to comply with its international environmental protection and sustainable development obligations.

US: EPA awards wetlands conservation grant 
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $263,443 grant to support Pennsylvaniaﾒs wetlands programmes and a $762,249 grant for similar work in the state of Virginia. The grant comes from a pilot EPA wetlands project, set up to study the effectiveness of state and tribal wetland programmes. The project focuses on linking programme activities to measurable environmental outcomes, particularly to zero net loss of wetlands, net gain of wetlands and the protection of vulnerable wetlands. The funding covers a three-year grant period with funds allocated evenly between the years.

Research
US: Research warns of arsenic risk to groundwater from treated timber
Scientists at the Universities of Florida, Miami and Florida International have warned that arsenic from treated timber used in some decking, fencing and utility poles is likely to leach into the environment for decades. The group examined leaching from real wooden decks and simulated landfills and found that the decking leached high levels of arsenic into rainwater runoff. It also continued to leach arsenic when landfilled. The levels of contamination were 100 times higher than from an untreated deck. Groundwater percolating through the sand layer beneath the deck was also contaminated. 

Next alert: 07 February

Read previous issues of Water21 global news digest:

10 January 2005
13 December 2005
29 November 2005
15 November 2005
01 November 2005
17 October 2005
04 October 2005
20 September 2005
06 September 2005
23 August 2005
09 August 2005
26 July 2005
12 July 2005
28 June 2005
14 June 2005
31 May 2005
17 May 2005
03 May 2005
19 April 2005
05 April 2005
22 March 2005
08 March 2005
22 February 2005
08 February 2005
25 January 2005
11 January 2005
21 December 2004
13 December 2004