ACCIONA to modernise sewer network in Guayaquil (Ecuador)

• ACCIONA Water is to build a new pumping station for the future Las Esclusas treatment plant
• The project budget is 22 million dollars (about 20 million euros).

The Municipal Drinking Water and Sewage Company of Guayaquil has awarded ACCIONA Water the contract to build the La Pradera pumping station as part of the system for the future sewage treatment plant at Las Esclusas in Guayaquil (Ecuador), to replace an existing pumping station and contribute to modernising the sewer network.

The project, financed by the European Investment Bank, will be executed by ACCIONA Water on a turnkey basis; it has a budget of 22 million dollars (about 20 million euros) and is part of the sewer extension project covering the central and southern part of Ecuador's largest city, to benefit one million people.

The new station, which will accommodate equipment designed to handle projected flows of 3.18 cubic metres per second, will be built on a three-hectare site that will also contain buildings for the electrical system, a control room and additional services, as well as an odour control system to be installed over the pump structure.

The work, which is expected to take 18 months and includes commissioning the new station, will not interrupt the operation of the existing pumping station, which will be decommissioned only when the new station is fully completed and ready to operate in its place.

Experience in Construction and Water

ACCIONA has had an office in Ecuador since 2012 and has already obtained major construction and water contracts there. Late in 2015, the City of Quito awarded it a contract to build the second phase of Metro line 1, for 1.538 billion dollars (about 1.4 billion euros). The contract includes building a 22-km tunnel with thirteen new stations, as well as depots and workshops and the necessary railway infrastructure to operate the line. The civil engineering work for the La Magdalena and El Labrador tunnels was performed by ACCIONA Infrastructure as part of the first phase of the project.

In 2016, ACCIONA obtained a contract worth 30 million dollars (about 28 million euros) to build, expand and upgrade water capture and treatment structures in the city of Esmeralda, the capital of Esmeralda province, in northern Ecuador. The project, to be executed by ACCIONA Water (51%) in partnership with BTD (49%), will benefit over 200,000 people. This turnkey contract is expected to take 24 months and is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); it includes a drinking water treatment plant and an electric substation.

ACCIONA is also building the Ibarra wastewater treatment plant, in northern Ecuador, with a capacity of 43,200 m³ per day, which will serve an equivalent population of close to 200,000 people when it is completed. The plant was designed in accordance with a rigorous environmental protection plan using an advanced biological process for nutrient removal.