Costa Rica's biggest wastewater plant to be built by Acciona

Costa Rica’s capital will be home to the country’s largest wastewater plant.

The contract to design and build the Los Tajos wastewater treatment plant has been signed by Acciona Agua.

The firm operates on five continents, and describes itself as concentrating on "water treatment and reverse osmosis desalination, a technology in which it is the world leader".

The Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts & Sewage Systems, part of the Costa Rican government, awarded Acciona the contract.

Included in the contract is the facility's commissioning, technology transfer and assistance with operation and maintenance.

Overall, the project will take 48 months – with 30 of these taken up by the technology transfer and assistance with operation. The last 18 months will be used for continuing maintenance.

The project is the first for Acciona Agua in Costa Rica.

The company has laid out its aims. "The design is for a primary WWTP (wastewater treatment plant) with full sludge capacity for an average daily flow of 2.81 m3 / second and a maximum daily flow of 3.45m3 / second in its first phase. The plant will service 65 per cent of the metropolitan area of San José, home to more than 1.6 million people."

This project marks the initial phase of the San José Environmental Improvement Project, a program which aims to refurbish and extend the network of collectors and secondary sewer networks.

The Costa Rican government is investing US$290 million in a bid to reduce the amount of untreated wastewater from the current 20 per cent to 0.1 per cent.

Acciona Agua claims that it was chosen because of "strict economic, technical and environmental requirements", which it is able to provide because it is "backed by an international cooperation loan from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation".

The project reflects Acciona Agua’s presence in Latin America, where, over the past four years, it has been engaged in a number of successful projects.

Posted by Joseph Hutton