INFO TEMPO: Indonesia the Potential Market of Water Treatment
22 July 2017 10:26 WIB
INFO TEMPO - As a multinational company in the field of water treatment, Suez sees considerable potential in Indonesia. Suez has been working for more than 60 years in Southeast Asia and has seven representative offices in the region, one of them is Jakarta. Of the 1,500 employees spread across Southeast Asia, about 1,270 employees are located in Indonesia.
Suez Public Relations & Communications Manager for Southeast Asia Julien Bachelet said, "We have several projects in Indonesia, namely water and wastewater treatment plants. Total water treatment plant in Indonesia is more than 150 units and able to produce clean water as much as 800 million liters per day. While total in Southeast Asia only 180 units," he said when met at Indowater 2017 Expo & Forum, Jakarta Convention Center, Thursday, July 13.
Indowater 2017 Expo & Forum is the biggest event for the water and wastewater treatment industry. The event was attended by more than 10,000 professionals and industry experts with more than 550 exhibitors from 30 countries.
Julien added, "Our greatest cooperation is with Palyja with 51 per cent of the shares owned by Suez. Since the first cooperation was held in February 1998, innovations continue. At the end of 2016, Suez completed aquadvance installation to optimize the efficiency of Palyja's water distribution network. This application is able to detect water distribution network that is not functioning well then analyze the cause," he said.
Another cooperation conducted by Suez is with PT Tirta Gajah Mungkur since 2005. The capacity of clean water produced 600 liters per second or about 52 million liters per day to reach 250 thousand residents of Semarang City. The total investment reaches 2 million dollars. In addition, Suez took PT Tirta Lyonnaise Medan to provide 43 million liters of clean water per day to 200,000 residents of Medan City.
The huge market potential in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, prompted Suez to build a research and innovation center in Singapore in July 2015. Julien explains, "There are three research projects handled: Advanced Metering Infrastructure application development following data analysis and consumer involvement, Storm water management to minimize flooding, as well as the development of energy-efficient wastewater treatment processes."
"Suez is also doing Michelin synthetic rubber waste water treatment in Indonesia by the end of 2015," he said. Furthermore, Julien explained, "In the industrial area of Cilegon, we install Greendaf-MW, a high-dissolved airborne floating unit at MBBR reactor (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor) to reduce BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) in waste water. The waste treatment process in PT Synthetic Rubber Indonesia produces 2,184 kilograms of COD content per day and more than 90 percent COD content in waste water can be eliminated.
Julien admitted there are still many potentials that can be worked on in Indonesia, considering Suez has entered the Indonesian market since 1959 through Degremont, the former subsidiary of Suez. In expanding the market in Indonesia, Suez is still discussing with the local authorities to explore the potential for clean water or wastewater treatment. Similar measures have been taken by Suez in Southeast Asia through cooperation with the Drinking Water Authority in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for more than 20 years developing "Clean Water for All". In addition, Suez advises on increasing access to clean water by supporting the sustainable urban project in Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city with a population of 1,250,000.
