Dubai contractor Drake & Scull International has been awarded two major contracts worth Dh50 million to build water treatment projects in India.
The Dubai-listed mechanical engineering and plumbing specialist said that its German subsidiary Passavant-Roediger had won contracts to build 80 kilometres of sewers in Rajasthan and a waste water treatment plant in Gujarat.
In Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Passavant-Roediger won a contract to build an effluent treatment plant for Ford India which has a design capacity of handling 8000 cubic metres of river water per day, and a state of the art wastewater treatment plant to process 4500 cubic metres per day.
The plants, which will supply water to Ford’s new vehicle and engine assembly plant, will make the river water fit for drinking and firefighting purposes as well as for automobile manufacturing.
And in the town of Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Passavant-Roediger has been appointed by the Rajasthan Government to undertake complete testing and commissioning of 80km of sewer system, including installing manholes and a sewage pumping station as well as a contract to operate and maintain the system for 10 years.
DSI said that the two new contracts would help the company to “consolidate its position in the growing water and waste water treatment sector in the country.”
“We see [India] as one of our key emerging markets for water and wastewater management,” said Mazen Bachir, managing director of Passavant-Roediger. “We see tremendous potential and opportunities in this market and we will continue to pursue our strategy to establish a greater presence in the growing Indian market and utilise DSI’s existing resources, personnel and network of offices to secure projects across India.”
Many Indian communities are in dire need of safe drinking water and improved sanitation. According to charity WaterAid, around 96 million people in India do not have access to clean water and more than 186,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation each year in the country.
Groundwater supplies in many rural areas have been found to have harmful high contents of arsenic or fluoride as well as harmful pesticides, while surface water supplies are often contaminated with raw sewerage.
The World Bank estimates that inadequate sanitation in India causes economic losses equivalent to US$53.8 billion.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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