The President of the Republic of Peru, Ollanta Humala, has recently inaugurated the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Underwater Outlet of La Chira, which has been developed by a joint venture formed by ACCIONA Agua and the local company Graña y Montero in Lima.

The wastewater project has been developed on a design, build, finance, operated and maintain (DBFOM) basis under a 25-year concession. The treatment plant, representing a total investment of over PEN360 million (US$107 million) will help to solve Lima’s sanitation and environmental problems. These originate in wastewater from the Surco, Circunvalación and San Genaro sewers, which have directly discharged into the sea without any treatment to date.

ACCIONA built the required infrastructure and will provide a service to the Drinking Water and Sewerage Authority (Sedapal) involving the treatment of around 25% of the wastewater generated in Lima, covering 18 districts in the city and around 3 million people.

The plant will have an average flow rate of 6.3 m3 per second and a maximum level of 11.3 m3 per second. La Chira, located in the neighborhood of Chorrillos, will also help with the environmental recovery of currently polluted beach areas, increasing their use as places of recreation and tourism and driving a number of tourism projects along the shoreline.

The plant has an advanced system to neutralize bad odors through biological (bacterial) treatment, avoiding the atmospheric pollution created by the traditional use of chemicals in this kind of process. La Chira includes a large pipeline more than 800 long at a depth of more than 23 meters below ground level.

The plant is the final element in the water treatment program of Lima, the fifth biggest city in Latin America with a population of 10 million. It will also contribute to the environmental regeneration of the city’s shoreline and the revitalization of the tourism sector and the general economy of the area.