Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Peru began operations today at the
Taboada water-treatment plant, South America’s largest, which
will handle sewage for almost half of the 9 million inhabitants
in the capital, Lima.
The plant, built by Spain’s Actividades de Construccion &
Servicios SA, will be running at full capacity by July, Peru
President Ollanta Humala said.
Taboada will boost sewage treatment capacity in Lima and
the neighboring port of Callao to 75 percent from 16 percent
now. Fishermen and beachgoers will benefit as less raw sewage is
dumped into the sea, Humala said. After removing solid waste,
the residual liquid will be pumped into the sea 4 kilometers
(2.5 miles) off Peru’s Pacific coast, he said.
“This is part of the master plan to resolve the problem of
water and sewage in Lima and Callao,” Humala said. “A big part
of what we eat comes from the sea so we need to treat nature
well.”
Work is due to begin this year on Acciona SA’s La Chira
plant to boost the sewage treatment capacity to 100 percent in
Lima by 2015, Housing, Construction and Sanitation Minister Rene Cornejo said in December.
Peru plans to invest $3.3 billion in drinking-water
infrastructure over the next three years in the Lima
metropolitan area, where about 1.9 million residents lack access
to running water, Cornejo said this week.
To contact the reporter on this story:
John Quigley in Lima at
jquigley8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Randall Hackley at
rhackley@bloomberg.net
