- The plant will treat the wastewater of around 3 million people, one third of the population of Peru’s capital city
- The investment is 97 million euros and it will mean the environmental recovery of the shoreline and the revitalization of the area’s tourist industry and economy in general
The President of the Republic of Peru, Ollanta Humala, today inaugurated the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Underwater Outlet of La Chira in Lima. It was built – and will be operated – under a 25-year concession by a joint venture headed by ACCIONA Agua and the local company Graña y Montero.
The plant is the final element in the water treatment program of Lima, the fifth biggest city in Latin America with a population of 10 million. It will also contribute to the environmental regeneration of the city’s shoreline and the revitalization of the tourism sector and the general economy of the area.
The treatment plant, representing a total investment of over 360 million Peruvian soles (around 97 million euros) will help to solve Lima’s sanitation and environmental problems. These originate in wastewater from the Surco, Circunvalación and San Genaro sewers, which have directly discharged into the sea without any treatment to date.
ACCIONA built the required infrastructure and will provide a service to the Drinking Water and Sewerage Authority (Sedapal) involving the treatment of around 25% of the wastewater generated in Lima, covering 18 districts in the city and around 3 million people. The plant will have an average flow rate of 6.3 m³ per second and a maximum level of 11.3 m³per second. La Chira, located in the neighborhood of Chorrillos, will also help with the environmental recovery of currently polluted beach areas, increasing their use as places of recreation and tourism and driving a number of tourism projects along the shoreline.
The plant has an advanced system to neutralize bad odors through biological (bacterial) treatment, avoiding the atmospheric pollution created by the traditional use of chemicals in this kind of process. La Chira includes a large pipeline more than 800 long at a depth of more than 23 meters below ground level.
Management contract
Last year the EULEN-ACCIONA joint venture, with a 50% holding by each company, was awarded one of the three contracts for the commercial management of water in Lima: the one corresponding to the North zone for 112 million soles, around 30 million euros. ACCIONA and EULEN undertake helpdesk support, meter readings, the distribution of invoices, the connection of new customers, inspections to avoid fraud, the programmed replacement of meters and the repair of faulty connections. This is not the first time that both companies have worked together, as they were previously awarded the maintenance of the drinking water and sewerage systems in the southern area of Lima (Gerencia de Servicios Sur), covering 8 districts of the city. This contract for 58 million soles, around 16 million euros, involves a service to an additional four million people, so the joint venture’s services already cover almost all the 10 million people who live in Lima.
ACCIONA Agua also operates the wastewater treatment plant at Arequipa. It was built by the company to help solve the sanitation and environmental problems of the second city of Peru – the biggest one in the south of the country – and the decontamination of the river Chili. Through the biological treatment of wastewater, the plant reduces the pollutant load by up to 90%. Thanks to this process, the water can be re-used for agricultural purposes. It has a capacity of 34,800 m³/day and supplies a population equivalent of more than 150,000.
Another facility operated by ACCIONA Agua is the desalination plant at Talara, with a capacity of 2,200 m³/day. When it was built it was the first plant to use reverse osmosis technology on an industrial scale in Peru. The water is collected from the sea through an open surface inlet next to the cargo wharf and fuel unloading point at a depth of ten meters. Once in the plant, the water undergoes a desalination process, with a conversion rate of 45%. The water is finally sent to the Talara oil refinery.
Social commitment
As well as its activity in Water, ACCIONA appears prominently in other sectors. The company’s Infrastructure Division was awarded its first project in the country in the 1970s in the form of the Majes Project, to irrigate 57,000 hectares and install 656 MW of hydroelectric capacity, including the Condorama Dam – with a storage capacity of 280 Hm³ - and 23 tunnels with a total length of 98 kilometers through the Andes. The company recently won the contract for the construction of the Daniel Alcides hospital in Huancayo, covering a surface area of 25,000 m2.
ACCIONA is also committed to development in Peru through cooperation initiatives such as the “Luz en Casa” Project of the ACCIONA Microenergía Foundation, which has channeled ACCIONA Group cooperation activities for social development since 2008. The project, carried out in the region of Cajamarca, sets out to facilitate access to electricity supplies for rural populations located far away from the usual power distribution grids. The model is the “social micro-company”, i.e. the user receives a basic electricity service through domestic solar panel systems and pays an affordable fee based on his/her income. Thanks to these programs, the Foundation now provides a basic electricity service to around 3,900 households and 17 community centers in 115 towns and villages in the region of Cajamarca.
Discover the story of La Chira WWTP - BRINGING THE COAST BACK TO LIFE