VINCI Construction wins a contract to build a water treatment plant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

On 14 November 2019, VINCI Construction Grands Projets signed a contract with the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority to design and build the Bakheng water treatment plant in the northern outskirts of the Cambodian capital.

The first phase of the project, with a value of $155 million (€141 million), covers construction of:

• a first treatment line with a capacity of 195,000 cu. metres per day,
• the intake in the Mekong River with a capacity of 390,000 cu. metres per day,
• two 1.4 metre diameter pipelines with a length of 1.5 km to carry water from the Mekong to the treatment plant,
• a 2 metre diameter pipeline with a length of 7.8 km (including a 630 metre river crossing to be built using a microtunneling machine) to bring drinking water to more than 500,000 inhabitants of the capital city.

To minimise the plant's carbon footprint, its electricity requirements will be partly supplied by 27,000 sq. metres of solar panels with 3.8 MW installed capacity.

The project, co-financed by the French Development Agency, the European Investment Bank and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, will employ more than 500 local workers and supervisory personnel at the height of activity.

The contract provides for a second conditional works phase with a value of $45 million (€41 million). This phase is designed to double the plant's treatment capacity to 390,000 cu. metres per day. Following handover of the second phase, the project will provide drinking water for a population of one million.

The new project confirms VINCI Construction Grands Projets' commitment to expanding drinking water access in Cambodia. In 2017, the company handed over the Niroth drinking water plant on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and the wastewater treatment plants at the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports. This year, the VINCI Construction Grands Projets hydraulic engineering teams also delivered two drinking water plants in Siem Reap and Chamkar Mon (in the centre of the Cambodian capital).

Since it was founded in 2000, VINCI Construction Grands Projets has built water projects that supply six million people with drinking water and treat wastewater for a population equivalent of 2.5 million around the world.