Pathum Thani Water Project

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In August of 1995, Pathum Thani Water Co., Ltd. was awarded a 25-year BOT contract by the Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) of Thailand to build a water treatment facility to be located in Rangsit, Bangkok in order to supply drinking water for 800,000 customers with a capacity of 288,000 cubic meters a day. The project began supplying water in October of 1998. Thames Water later won a 5-year contract to manage the distribution of the Pathum Thani network and reduce non-revenue water (NRW) in 1999. Pathum Thani Water was composed of Thames Water of the UK (a subsidiary of RWE) and Ch. Karnchang (a Thailand construction company) each holding a 31% stake in the company, while Berli Jucker (15%), Capital Rice (10%) and state-owned companies PWA (5%) and Krung Thai Bank and Thai Military Bank holding 4% each. In July 2007, Thai Tap Water Supply Public Co acquired 98% stake of Pathum Thain. The total cost of the project was estimated at 4 billion baht (US$160 million). Hyder Consulting carried out the tender and detailed design of the civil engineering, structural and geotechnical components of the project. The new plant was constructed in two phases. By the end of phase I in 1998, the plant had a capacity of 140,000 cubic meters/day of treated water. By the end of phase II in 2000, the total capacity of the plant was 288,000 cubic meters/day. The project was only operating at 50% capacity, however, since most residents in the area prefered water sourced from underground supplies due to its cheaper price. The project utilized water efficient technology including SCADA system, a telecommunication based computerized water management system for automated water treatment plant and reservoirs, sludge centrifuges, flat-bottomed clarifiers, and recycling of back-washed water. The project was designed by Thames Water and constructed by CH Karnchang. In the Pathum Thani contract, about half of the market was commercial and domestic users, while the other half were industries. After the acquisition, Thai Tap Water planned to expand Pathum Thani’s tap water supply capacity up to about 700,000 m3/day by March 2008. This expanded capacity will equal as much as one third of the total tap water supplied by Provincial Waterworks Authority of Thailand, which operated throughout the whole of Thailand except in the Bangkok metropolitan area, thereby making Thai Tap Water one of the largest tap water supply companies in South East Asia. None None