Water treatment company Aquafin has started construction of the Ghent water treatment plant at ArcelorMittal Belgium's site in the port of Ghent, Belgium.

Aquafin entrusted the design, build, financing, operation and maintenance of the plant to the BESIX-Indaver consortium. FOSTER, the 'Special Purpose Vehicle' (SPV) set up by Indaver and BESIX for this purpose, has now fully completed its finance package and has started construction, which will take just over two years. This DBFMO (design-build-finance-maintenance-operation) contract was awarded to FOSTER, which is responsible for operation until 2046. With the financial close of this project with an investment cost of around EUR 200 million (US$ 216.7 million), FOSTER was able to fully complete the financing process and start engineering work. 

ArcelorMittal Belgium gives Aquafin a building right on the site and takes the entire steam production of the sludge treatment as an additional feed for the internal steam network. From 2027, the sludge mono-processor will be responsible for the final treatment of two-thirds of the sludge from the treatment of household wastewater in Flanders. In a follow-up project, Aquafin also plans to start full-scale phosphorus recovery from sludge treatment fly ash with this plant.