Keiti finishes water treatment plant in Tanzania

ARUSHA, Tanzania - The completion of a 150-million-won ($137,926) water supply and sewage treatment plant in Arusha was announced on Tuesday by the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (Keiti), which is overseen by the Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with Cheil Engineering, an affiliate of Samsung, with funding from the African Development Bank.

The project, an outcome of the Environmental Management Master Plan, comes at a time when diplomatic relations between South Korea and Tanzania are strong, marking their 25th anniversary this year. Under the plan, the Korean government agreed to provide environmental technology resources to partner countries “to assist Korean businesses with early entry into and occupation in target markets” and “support environmental technology exports,” according to Keiti.

The institute supports the market entry of Korean enterprises from “the collection of information on overseas markets, to the establishment of a network for global environmental cooperation and winning overseas project contracts.”

Cheil Engineering, which specializes in infrastructure projects, was tasked in 2011 with creating Korea’s environmental master plan for Tanzania. It is also in charge of constructing sewage treatment equipment next year for the 5.1 million residents of Dar es Salaam, the former capital and largest city in Tanzania, through the Korea Economic Development Fund.

The city water supply currently only covers 44 percent of the population, according to the Arusha Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority, leaving about 325,000 residents to fend for themselves. With the help of the new facilities, the Tanzanian Ministry for Water and Irrigation expects to see a supply surplus in the region.

“This is a project to cater for Arusha residents,” said Tanzania’s Minister of Water and Irrigation Isack Kamwelwe at the opening ceremony of the plant, “and therefore all people need to witness it being signed so that they may feel to be part of the project and thus take total control of the water project, including helping to protect the facility.”

Keiti also announced that next month it will contribute to another infrastructure project in Tanzania worth $200,000.

To expand economic relations with other African nations, Keiti formed a partnership with Ethiopia to create an environmental master plan next year, and discussed its ongoing master plan with Mozambique, at the Middle East-Africa Environment Forum in Seoul last June.

“Korean environmental technology companies are highly skilled, but lack the funds [to carry out projects] compared to its competitors from other nations,” said Keiti President Nam Kwang-hee, “so the Keiti will actively support Korean [environmental technology] companies wishing to expand overseas through funds from Multilateral Development Banks (MBDs).”

The African continent is projected to constitute 54 percent of the world’s population by 2050, according to predictions by the United Nations Population Division, with its environmental market expected to grow by $19.4 million in two years.

The Korean government entered into an Official Development Assistance (ODA) Priority Partnership with Tanzania from 2016 to 2020, under which Korea will support Tanzania’s transition to being a middle-income country, with a per capita GNI of $2,000.

BY LAURA SONG, KANG CHAN-SU [song.hankyul@joongang.co.kr]