The Official Gazette of Minas Gerais published last Tuesday (06) the result of the public tender carried out by Copasa for the project to implement the Water Supply System in the Municipality of Montes Claros - Sistema São Francisco. OEC was declared the winner of the event with a global price proposal of R$ 209,6 million. The project, in Brazil, will be financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and will have a period of 16 months to be completed. Around 240 jobs will be created in the region, with the hiring of primarily local labor.

This new supply system will expand the existing one in the city, which started operating in 1974 and has gone through updates in last few years. The project foresees the collection of water from the São Francisco River in the municipalities of Ibiaí with floating pumps, with the adduction crossing the municipality of Coração de Jesus. A total of 92.5 km of pipelines with diameters ranging from 700 to 600 mm will be built, as well as four pumping stations with a reservoir of 1,000 cubic meters and a 2MVA substation, 13 unidirectional feed tanks (TAUs), two transition boxes, a water treatment station, sand extractor, chemical house and the connection of the pipeline to the distribution reservoir of Pacuí Water Treatment Station, which is already in operation. In addition, the contract provides for commissioning, pre-operation and assisted operation of the implanted system.

For Clebio Batista, OEC Contract Manager responsible for the work, a gradual heating up of the infrastructure sector is noticeable. “This is the sixth contract that OEC has won in the last five months, between public and private clients. The prospect of further acceleration in the sector due to the new Sanitation Framework in Brazil is also positive”, he points out.

Industry history

Construction - OEC has a wide and significant history of operations in the sanitation sector. The company is responsible for the construction of more than 250 treatment plants, pumping and lifting stations, 157 kilometers of outfalls and more than 5,700 kilometers of pipes, in addition to more than a thousand kilometers of channels. He is currently responsible for the execution of the work on the new adductor system of Governador Valadares, for the Renova Foundation, and for section IV of the Canal do Sertão Alagoano, which will take water from the São Francisco River to 42 cities in the interior of Alagoas, benefiting more than one million of people.

Operation - In 2008, Odebrecht Ambiental was created, consolidating water and sewage concessionaires already belonging to the group. After a process of strong investment and expansion in cities in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranhão, Goiás, Tocantins and Pará, it became the largest Brazilian private company in the sanitation sector, sold in 2016 to a Canadian group.