An Australian company is to be involved with providing clean water to the Ampara district of eastern Sri Lanka.
Outotec Pty Ltd will undertake delivery of the third phase of an ongoing project, establishing a drinking water treatment plant, transmission mains, distribution systems and associated infrastructure to supply inland areas of the region.
Outotec’s Finnish parent company, a world leader in sustainable solutions for utilising natural resources, was the turnkey contractor for the initial stages of the project, servicing Ampara’s coastal areas.
“Phase three of the project will bring clean drinking water of an international standard to around 460,000 people,” said Outotec’s managing director for South East Asia Pacific Neil Jagger.
Outotec’s contract is underwritten by the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), which has guaranteed an ANZ bank loan of US$105.2 million to the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to finance the third phase of the project.
Outotec Pty Ltd has been working with EFIC and ANZ on this project for more than a decade. EFIC’s Executive Director, Origination and Portfolio Management, Peter Field said the project was a good example of how EFIC can work with a commercial bank to support financing Australian exports on terms that exceed the bank’s capacity for risk.