Veolia Water's business in China has grown significantly over the last few years.
Veolia Water has been present in the water market in China since the 1980's, through its subsidiary OTV-Kruger which specializes in water engineering. The Company won its first water management contract in China in 1997, a 20 year contract for the operation and maintenance of a water production facility in the city of Tianjin, including its renovation. The facility supplies 1.85 million inhabitants with water. In 1998, Veolia Water and its Japanese partner, Marubeni, won the first BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract ever awarded to a water services provider in China, with central government approval. This contract, which concerns the city of Chengdu in the west of the country, allowed for the operation and maintenance of a drinking water facility built by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies for a period of 18 years, serving a population of 2.66 million inhabitants.
Veolia Water was the precursor for the full management of a water distribution network in the PRC. Whereas in the past there were various water treatment plants (some of which were constructed by Veolia Water Solutions & Technology) that produced drinking water to standards equivalent in western countries, the first project that covered the full management of a distribution network was the Veolia Water contract in Pudong, Shanghai. This contract was signed in 2002, and it was the first time a private company was permitted to be involved in full water services. Since then, the Company has seen an increasing interest from municipalities seeking help in managing their full water services, as shown by the subsequent signing of full water services contracts in Shenzhen, Kunming, Changzhou, Liuzhou, Lanzhou, Haikou and Tianjin in the last few years.
It was Veolia Water therefore who opened the way forward in the water industry in China and knew how, in the context of the Pudong contract, to transfer and adapt in the Chinese language all the modern tools and technologies needed for efficient network management (GIS, SCADA using satellite images, hydraulic models providing real-time data etc).
It is thanks to the success of Veolia Water, as evidenced by the performance of the Shanghai Pudong Veolia Water joint venture, that other cities in China have moved towards a similar approach to the management of their water services.
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