Panama City’s 238000 m3/dWWTP, commissioned by the Panama Ministry of Health, is the first in the country. This article provides an overview of the project execution,which is expected to be undertaken over a three-year period.

The Panama wastewater treatment plant entered the assembly phase in May 2011. This date, an important new contractual milestone, also marked the start of the installation of equipment (mechanical assembly) following the erection of the buildings and structures by the Brazilian civil engineering company, Odebrecht (Degrémont’s partner on this contract). The electrical assembly began in August 2011.

Limiting discharges into the Bay of Panama
Degrémontwas also awarded the task of operating the plant for four years in a contract amounting to a total of €180 million, in partnership with Odebrecht. The other party involved in the project is the engineering consulting company, Nippon Koei.

The plant, which is located on the outskirts of the capital, is intended to clean up the Bay of Panama by treating effluents before they are discharged. Panama City, representing the equivalent of one million inhabitants, will also benefit from numerous new collection systems and networks, as well as two pumping stations, built by the Degrémont-Odebrecht consortium.

A plant with global financing and an international construction site
The construction of this urban wastewater treatment plant has been funded by CAF (Corporación Andina de Fomento), JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the government of Panama. The project is part of an ambitious public health, environmental protection and sanitation programme launched in Panama at the start of the millennium and which provided for, amongst other things, the renovation and extension of the sewage networks. The team is also truly international, comprising French and Panamanian members, as well as Spanish, Italian, Colombian, Chilean, Venezuelan, etc. In total, more than 15 nationalities are represented on the site.

Environmentally-friendly energy and construction
The plant uses environmentally friendly technology. Reusing biogas emanating from sludge digestion will enable the production of 18% of the plant’s energy needs and 100% of the energy required for heating and maintaining the temperature of the digesters. Particular attention has been given to the plant’s architecture, located beside the sea in the mangrove forest and soon to be surrounded by the city – it has been designed to integrate into its environment.
A deodorising system has been designed to limit any risk of olfactory nuisance to the surrounding populations.