Business

Wednesday November 4, 2009

Groundwater supply by Sime may start by 2013

By LEONG HUNG YEE


It hopes to supply 500 litres per day to Selangor

SEOUL: Sime Darby Bhd, which has been working on its groundwater project in Perak for about two years, hopes to start supplying 500 million litres per day (mld) to Selangor by Jan 1, 2013.

Sime Darby energy and utilities division’s head of water management Dr Azuhan Mohamed said the conglomerate expected to complete the infrastructure of the project by end-2012.

“The first (groundwater) supply should come on stream by January 2013,” Azuhan told reporters during a groundwater technology tour in Seoul.

He said the group had yet to finalise the construction of the groundwater project. “We are currently finalising the infrastructure of the groundwater project,” he added.

Going forward, he said the group would engage consultants for the detailed design of water treatment as well as engineering infrastructure.

The tender for the project is not out yet but Azuhan expects it to be out in January. He added that most of the bidders were foreign players including a South Korean company DA JOO Construction Co Ltd.

DA JOO has about 30 years of experience in groundwater technology. In South Korea, there are about 300 radial collector wells and DA JOO constructed some 200 of these wells.

Azuhan believes foreign contractors would tie up with local contractors to make their bids more competitive. While he did not disclose the cost of investment for the whole project, Azuhan said it was “viable”.

It was reported that Sime Darby was expected to spend about RM1.3bil on its groundwater project in Batang Padang, Perak. The investment was said to include the construction cost, piping and maintenance for the water treatment plant in Cluny-Bedford Estate in Batang Padang.

Azuhan said the conglomerate aspired to be the “Petronas of groundwater” in the country.

Sime Darby plans to develop 500 mld of groundwater supply from 10 well fields (each with a capacity of 50 mld). The development will be undertaken in two stages. The first stage involving the development of a 50 mld pilot well field is expected to be ready by year-end while the second stage involving development of 450 mld from nine well fields is expected to complete by end-2012.

The investigative phase for the pilot well field within Cluny-Bedford Estate is nearing completion.

Sime Darby picked Batang Padang for its pilot project in groundwater abstraction as the area enjoys a high annual rainfall of almost 3,300mm and contains favourable natural fracture and fault lines as well as large areas of undeveloped land and water catchment areas.

To date, 141 wells have been drilled and many have located high yields exceeding 0.7 mld. The biggest water find is a well producing some 5.5 mld of water based on airlift test.

Azuhan said Sime Darby was also currently undertaking a groundwater project initiated by the Government in Labuan.

 
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