EMCO Engineering was established in the US by a group of engineers in the 1970s to provide professionally rendered engineering services for water/wastewater treatment in the Arab world. The company bagged its first project in the region in 1975 in Iraq and in the Gulf region in 1977. Today, EMCO's market focus encompasses the entire Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. In an interview with Anoop K Menon, Elie Shalhoub, General Manager at EMCO Engineering, shared his perspective on the current and future directions of the region's water and wastewater industry.
Could you provide an overview of your company's activities in the region?
We primarily undertake Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) contracts in water, wastewater and desalination segments, focussing mainly on Design-Build (DB) contracts. We have implemented several medium-to-large and municipal-size DB projects in the Gulf region, and also in Iraq and Syria. In terms of large capacities, we have executed a 330,000 m³/day water treatment plant for the Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC), a 100,000 m³/day desalination plant, and a 138,000 m³/day wastewater treatment plant. We are currently implementing a 150,000 m³/ day nanofiltration plant in Saudi Arabia, second only to a plant in France. Apart from the EPC business, EMCO also has an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) division, which assembles and sells pre-packaged units that range in capacity from a few hundred cubic metres to a few 1,000 cubic metres/day for desalination, wastewater treatment and surface/well water treatment.
How do you differentiate from competition?
Strategic partnerships are one way of differentiation because combining your strength with those of your partners' enables you to provide a much stronger technical and financial proposition to the client. Today, we are in the value engineering era, where clients and consultants may come up with a concept, but engineering contractors are expected to come up with value propositions where the client can save on their short-term capital costs and long-term O&M costs. In such a scenario, companies who know their business, and have the knowhow to spot and chop out unnecessary fat to come up with a lean proposition have the upper hand.
While a strong value engineering competency could be a differentiator, clients are discouraged by the time required to apply it and there is also a debate on when and where it yields the greatest benefits. How should one proceed?
Value engineering should ideally happen at the start of the project, but this doesn't mean it cannot be applied throughout the project's lifecycle. For example, you cannot design your electrical systems before you have selected all your mechanical parts. However, you want to link them together in such a way as to provide value proposition. If, in the value proposition, you can optimise on that particular purpose, you can present it to the client. We should always try and provide clients with value propositions throughout the project's life cycle, so that they save money, and we save money.
Of course, value engineering cannot be applied unless you know what your client wants. You need to look at the triangle of quality, price and time, see what the propensity of the client is and act accordingly. If the client is prepared to wait to enjoy the short term and long term benefits of value engineering, you should go for it. The key is clear communication and understanding the requirements of the customer, which change according to market conditions.
How do you see the market for wastewater treatment evolving in the region?
Historically, in the Arab world, wastewater treatment had always lagged behind water treatment. But this is now changing as the region starts looking at wastewater not only as something we need to treat to save our environment, but also as a viable resource that can be utilised as a substitute for fresh water in industrial processes or landscaping or even cleaning. There are also differences within the Arab world when it comes to wastewater infrastructure. I think wastewater treatment, disposal and re-use infrastructure in the UAE is far ahead of other countries in the region. The GCC region as a whole is ahead of other countries in the Arab world because they have been spending the last 10 years building up their wastewater infrastructure. Other countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt are definitely lagging behind.
But if we look at the GCC in isolation, what we see is one of the highest population growth rates in the world with the least infrastructure per capita, whether it is house connections to networks or actual treatment plant capacities or disposal of treated wastewater or even re-use. We are still playing catch-up in all these areas.
From a re-use standpoint, where are we headed?
Re-use is one aspect, but what we are ultimately trying to achieve is environmental balance. Treating and re-injecting wastewater into aquifers is also a viable option because we should also be looking at long term solutions. I subscribe to the decentralisation philosophy with regard to use, treat and re-use. Networks are the most inefficient of transportation. You lose over 30% of water supply and 30% of wastewater on long hauls. You also require pumping stations for areas where there are geographical and topographical restrictions.
Of course, before re-injecting aquifers, you have to study the geology of the area and know where and how to inject the treated wastewater. But it is a viable solution for the future because our region is depleting its aquifers at a very alarming rate. In the end, what matters is that you don't discharge untreated wastewater into the environment.
From EMCO's standpoint, which are the exciting markets in the region for the water and wastewater industry?
For me, exciting markets are those where not only the need is high but projects tend to have a direct, immediate impact on the lives of the people. For example, eight years ago, EMCO built a RO desalination plant for a small town in Syria. They had artesian wells, but the high sulphur content of the water exposed the people to various health risks. Supply to the area was problematic because of network problems. Once we finished the project, and water began to be supplied to the entire town, it had an immediate impact, which left a deep impression.
In terms of sheer potential, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are huge markets because of their population, followed by Syria. Qatar is a growing market while the UAE is a mature market. The entire Mediterranean coast from Lebanon to Morocco too holds tremendous potential as also sub-Saharan Africa. If we narrow things still further, the wastewater sector alone holds huge prospects because, by some estimates, only two per cent of the region's wastewater is treated.
Could you elaborate on the potential in Iraq with regard to water and wastewater projects?
Iraq is a country which is rebuilding its infrastructure. From an oil & gas perspective itself, the potential is huge. Oil extraction requires water to be treated for water injection. There are industrial processes that require a particular quality of water. Also, areas where oil & gas projects are being developed require potable water for workers and also wastewater treatment facilities. Additionally, there is power generation which requires demineralised water. Iraq also has a lot of industries like fertilisers and iron & steel that require input feed water as well as wastewater treatment. Municipal water treatment infrastructure too needs to be re-built. There is also a huge surface water treatment potential as the country's two main rivers - Tigris and Euphrates - are heavily polluted.
Is EMCO involved in industrial water treatment?
EMCO prides itself on its industrial water treatment engineering capabilities because it is an area where value engineering and process knowhow really come into play. Recently, we executed a tannery wastewater treatment project in the UAE. Tannery wastewater is among the most polluted industrial wastewaters in the world. In this case, we treated the wastewater and re-used it as process water in the same plant. The treatment process utilises every key unit operation in wastewater treatment from pre-treatment to MBR to advanced sludge treatment and RO.
The impact of this project can be gauged from the fact that the only waste coming out is one per cent of what they otherwise were discharging. While 50% of treated water is re-used in the process, 49% is discharged into the network as clean water because it cannot be reused in the process due to high salinity. The remaining one per cent, which is basically sludge and contaminants, is caked up and disposed of safely.
What are your thoughts on the potential for industrial water treatment in the region?
Industrial wastewater has a lot of potential; unfortunately, regulation is lagging and unless that is corrected, not many industries will opt for treating and re-using wastewater. Only when water tariffs for industries reach a level, which is not completely subsidised, will they treat their wastewater for cost savings rather than just meet discharge regulations. Only then will the industrial wastewater treatment segment truly take off. Right now, most of the projects are government driven, and are more like a slap-on-the hand to meet effluent discharge quality.
Of all the water and wastewater engineering projects executed so far, which are the ones that EMCO is particularly proud of?
There are two projects that we take great pride in because they represent a 'leap forward' for the company. In 1992, we started working on a 100,000 m³/day desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, which at the time, was one of the largest desalination plants being built in the country. We successfully commissioned the plant, overcoming all obstacles and doubts, and the plant is still in operation today.
The other project, in the mid-90s, was DB wastewater treatment project in Saudi Arabia, which gave us the confidence to 'leap forward' into larger systems. EMCO put a lot of resources and energy into these projects, which not only enriched our knowledge base and skill sets, but also enabled us to progress in our domain and execute ever-larger projects. One of EMCO's core strengths is that we have built and maintained a strong knowledge base in house. This knowledge base related to process know-how, manufacturing and assembly has been a directive of EMCO and built over decades.
© H2O 2011
