International bidders conference on water sector draws big names
|
|
|
Contact: Claudia Monlouis
Friday, May 30, 2008 – Nine representatives of international companies gathered in Saint Lucia on Thursday May 29th, to obtain an overview of the operations of the water sector, in order to enable them to make bids for an available investment in water services on the island.
Projected developments in tourism, increases in meterization, and improvements in the water service, were among the factors considered when government hosted the International Bidders Conference.
The representatives were Veolia of France, Suez (France), Cascal/Biwater (UK), Severn Trent Water International (UK), Castalia (France), SAUR (France ), ASHTROM (St. Lucia) LTD. (St. Lucia/Israel), Aquas de Barcelona (Spain) and Proactiva Medio Ambiente (Spain).
Minister for Communications and Works Honourable Guy Joseph said in light of forecasted developments, government is looking for a serious operator to assist in the total reformation of the water sector.
“The whole development plan of government as far as the number of golf courses that are coming on stream, new hotel developments, all of these have major impact on the water sector. We believe that in order for us to develop adequately as a country we must have the facilities, the infra-structure that is required so that hotels for example are not faced with difficult situations, and that golf courses would not run into a problem,” he said.
Another point of concern raised by Minister Joseph was sewerage management on the island.
“As a small country, which is continuing to develop we cannot allow raw sewage to continue to go into the ground. I think this is one of the main areas of concern and concentration for us at this point in time,” the minister said.
The Public Utilities minister says the participation of the private sector in WASCO will proceed on the basis of a formula that will allocate 40 percent of shares to the new entity, and 60 percent of shares will remain with the state.
Meantime the bottom line of the country’s lone water supply company WASCO, has been feeling the financial brunt of major losses due to unaccounted water usage. Minister Joseph views the loss of almost 50 percent of water treated, as a major concern. “This is quite substantial in light of the situation that we are faced with,” he said.
The issue was also underscored by the manager of WASCO Mr. John Joseph.
“There are two areas of concern I need to highlight in terms of operating and going forward. The high cost of power has been, and it will seemingly continue to be quite an area that will challenge anybody who is going forward with the water sector. That will require a fair amount of effort and creativity in resolving it and also provide an opportunity as well for a another issue - that of resolving the high level of unaccounted for water which stems from metering issues and leakage in water systems,” said the WASCO head.
WASCO's customer base is said to be over 51,000, of which 75 percent are active. |
|
© 2008 Government Information Service. All rights reserved. Read our privacy guidelines. |
