Compania del Acueducto y Alcantarillado Metropolitano de Santa Marta

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In August 1997 the municipal government of Santa Marta, Columbia, awarded a 20 year lease contract for the city’s water and sewage systems to mixed company Compania de Acueducto y Alcantarillado Metropolitano de Santa Marta METROAGUA S.A. E.S.P. In 1997 the company serviced 48,316 water and 35,200 sewage connections, representing coverage rates of 76% and 59%, respectively. METROAGUA was created in 1989 to replace public utility Empomarta. METROAGUA was 49% owned by the Santa Marta municipality and 51% by private investors. In the mid 1990s the government tried a number of times to bring in a private operator for the utility. In 1995, a lease contract was established with Ogden Yorkshire, ICA (Mexico) and Termotecnica Coindustrial de Colombia, but the lack of agreement on financial closure ended the contract. The 20 year lease signed by Metroagua in 1997 was awarded after Spanish utility Aguas de Barcelona (Agbar) acquired a 51% stake in the utility for US$ 4.7 million. The parties agreed on a lease fee of 33% of METROAGUAS’ gross revenues. Infrastructure investments were to be financed by the federal government, the municipality and the company’s internal cash flows. Agbar operated METROAGUA until 2000, when it sold its participation to Columbian firm Sociedad de Acueducto, Alcantarillado y Aseo de Barranquilla S.A. (AAA). The new operator oversaw an investment program to rehabilitate and expand existing water infrastructure, including the treatments pants in Mamatoco and El Roble, with treatment capacities of 800 and 280 liters per second. By 2005 METROAGUA had achieved coverage rates of 88% for water and 74% sewage services. This amounted to 69,640 water and 59,025 sewage connections at the end of 2005.