Opportunities in the wastewater sector continue to grow, particularly in developing countries.
Although large wastewater systems are being built around the globe, the market is changing,
with new approaches to looking at wastewater and different mechanisms emerging for financing projects.
The global wastewater market should reach $27.5 billion in 2012, with work divided roughly evenly between
developed and developing countries, according to Lux Research, a Boston-based research firm.
In 2010, the United Nations declared sanitation a basic human right, says Glen Daigger, senior vice
president and chief technology officer at Englewood, Colo.-based CH2M Hill. Moreover, according to the U.N.,
approximately 1 billion people lack drinking water supply, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation (toilets and a hand-washing source).
Those numbers are likely much higher, experts say, with nearly half of humanity lacking a source of
safe drinking water and about 80% lacking modern sanitation systems.
“Work is starting, but I think the work will really increase in the developing world in coming years,” says Daigger.
One of the most ambitious wastewater construction programs in the world is currently taking shape in Mexico City,
where workers are digging a 62-km long tunnel called the Eastern Outfall. Costing $1.45 billion, it will
double the drainage capacity of the Mexico City basin. The project will convey rainwater and wastewater to
the Atotonilco de Tula plant, which will have a capacity of 525 million gallons per day during dry weather.
Upon its completion in 2014, the Atotonilco plant will be the largest in Latin America. Its estimated cost is $750 million.
The completion of the Atotonilco plant will increase Mexico City’s wastewater treatment rate to 60%,
a tenfold jump. Five additional treatment plants are planned, which, when completed, will bring the treatment
rate to 100%. However, at present only one of those, the El Caracol plant, is currently in the design stage.
Systems in countries like Africa and India are largely distributed, or decentralized, with smaller systems
fitting like a mosaic into a larger, more conventional centralized system, CH2M’s Daigger says.
In the United States, he sees the opposite pattern, with large, centralized systems supplemented
by smaller decentralized systems.
摘自：http://enr.construction.com/)>http://enr.construction.com/