The treatment and distribution of water, the collection, treatment and recycling of wastewater, and the collection and recycling of waste are essential factors in making towns and cities attractive. SUEZ offers its high level of expertise and innovative technologies to local authorities, proposing a wide range of customizable partnerships to match their requirements and local regulations.
Our types of partnership

A full range of partnerships to meet all requirements

Regardless of the challenge facing your town or city — environmental transition, sustainable water management, production of renewable energy from waste, etc. — we have a large range of contractual models to suit all needs.

We can provide occasional consulting and engineering services, deploy digital solutions to optimize the performance of your water and waste departments, or form long-term partnerships including investments.

Contractual innovation, combined with technological, societal and digital innovation, is our trademark.

Our references

Partnerships to suit all needs

Towns and territories of all sizes throughout the world have materialized their vision of the future thanks to our types of partnership and expertise.

Consulting and engineering


We are entrusted with consulting and engineering missions to design and create the towns and cities of the future, to build sustainable infrastructures and to reconcile the economic and environmental performance of their facilities.
We provide a large panel of experts in hydraulics, hydrogeology, environment, oceanography, biodiversity, waste, civil engineering, urban planning, transport, energy, telecommunications, governance, economy, etc.

Cambodia has set itself the target of providing access to safe drinking water in 100% of urban areas by 2025. Our teams used an original methodology for forecasting water demand in order to design a master plan to supply drinking water throughout Greater Phnom Penh. We designed a drinking water production plant that will supply 400,000 m3 of drinking water per day. This plant will be fully automated to improve the quality of treatment and optimize energy consumption (watch our video). 18,000 m2 of solar panels will supply it with energy. We have also been helping the city of Phnom Penh to reduce water losses in the networks for 25 years: they have fallen from 70% in the early 1990s to 10% today.
In Russia, the city of Moscow is implementing a vast urban transformation project. It involves the development of a multi-modal transport network for the Greater Moscow area by 2021, including the subway with more than 60 stations and 140 km of new lines. We are contributing to the design of the master plan with the intelligent management of the 50 million m3 of spoil that will be generated, including spoil traceability and optimization of recovery modes by deploying digital solutions.
In Nigeria, we are helping the Niger Delta Support Programme, supported by the Nigerian government and the European Union, in the field of water and sanitation. This technical assistance contract supports the provision of water and sanitation services to the communities and villages of the Niger Delta by developing small hydraulic facilities, training user associations in the local management of water and improving water governance by improving the institutional, legislative and regulatory frameworks.

Deployment of digital solutions


Our digital solutions, Advanced Solutions, are shaping the cities of tomorrow today: a more resilient city thanks to optimized management of its various flows. These solutions notably included connected objects to collect data (smart meters, sensors, probes) to feed the digital models and applications in real time in order to progress towards reasoned use of resources and resilience to extreme climatic events.

To help Chongqing, China, to achieve its goal of becoming a “sponge city”, we deployed AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage, a solution to monitor, anticipate and optimize the sanitation system based on real time processing of weather data and network measurements. The software helps the city to manage its rainwater and improve its flood resilience.
We worked closely with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, to deploy the AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage solution. The software is installed in PUB facilities, such as the Marina dam, a key element of the city-state’s water independence. It ensures real time monitoring and offers decision support to optimize operations concerning the dam. It monitors town water quality and anticipates flow rates and levels in the reservoirs and canals. It uses weather forecasts and data collected from the sensors installed near the canals and reservoirs; all data is compiled into a single indicator table.
In France, we have installed 22,000 ON’connect™ smart water meters in Mulhouse to gather more accurate, real time information on the city’s entire water network. Our technology facilitates everyday life for local inhabitants, who are rapidly informed of any suspected leaks at their homes. It enables automatic collection of data on water consumption, monitoring of volume distribution and improved invoicing processes, since subscribers are billed for their actual rather than estimated consumption.

Design, construction and operation of treatment plants


For decades, towns and cities have been entrusting us with the construction of their drinking water production, desalination, wastewater treatment and waste recycling and recovery plants. They particularly appreciate our technical expertise, our methods and our Degremont® treatment processes.

As well as designing and constructing the plants, we can operate and maintain them. This integrated service model (Design, Build, Operate) means local authorities have a single contact for design through to operation.

In New Delhi, India, we have built the country’s largest drinking water production plant (supplying almost 4 million inhabitants) and will be operating it until 2027. This contract is a perfect illustration of our “Design, Build and Operate” model, in which our response to the master plan defined by the customer is combined with a desire to support local development.
Perth, Australia’s fourth-largest city, signed a public-private partnership with SUEZ in response to a water shortage. The so-called Alliance Contract is based on risks and opportunities being shared between the operator and the customer. Our culture of partnership and our emphasis on operational excellence and customer relations enabled us to support our customer through the construction phase of the installations in 2005–2007. This was followed by an operating contract beginning in 2007, which is due to end in 2032.
In Perth, the SUEZ teams designed and implemented the first large-scale desalination plant in the southern hemisphere. When it was built, the facility was the largest reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant in Australia. Today, 45 billion litres of fresh water are distributed to two million people every year.
In Egypt, the Gabal El Asfar plant treats the wastewater of five million people in the city of Cairo. It has total capacity for one million cubic metres per day. Using the sludge for a waste-to-energy process reduces the site’s carbon emissions and enables it to achieve 65% energy self-sufficiency. In total, 28,000 tonnes of carbon equivalent emissions are avoided every year.
In China, SUEZ has produced and distributed drinking water for the city of Macao, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, since 1985. Today this contract is often cited as one of the most efficient examples of a public-private partnership in Asia, and is even used as a benchmark in terms of operational excellence in the water management sector in China.
In Macao, SUEZ has deployed all its technological expertise to preserve water resources and limit its environmental impact, using innovative solutions in both its traditional water treatment activities and in its use of new technologies to improve the performance of the distribution network. The most recent treatment plant has been awarded the first “Green Building” label for its environmental performance in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and thanks to digital technology we have improved the operational efficiency of the distribution networks and reduced resource consumption, saving two million cubic metres of water a year (enough for around 3,200 households).

Complex projects including financing


Towns and cities also seek our expertise in financing all or part of the construction works for new plants or optimization of existing facilities. We can organize 100% financing or a partial investment, on a case-by-case basis, possibly involving other stakeholders: commercial lenders, international finance institutions, money lenders, etc.

In Melbourne, Australia, the AquaSure joint venture, bringing SUEZ together with Ventia, has been commissioned by the Victoria state government to fund, design, build, exploit and maintain the Victorian desalination plant, which produces nearly 450,000 m3 of drinking water a day.
Located in Wonthaggi, the plant provides a source of drinking water for the residents of Melbourne and several regional communities, independent of rainfall and open-air storage. This public-private partnership (PPP) has led to the construction of the largest desalination plant in Australia, and one of the largest in the world. We are scheduled to operate the site for 30 years.

Full management of public utilities: water and waste


For almost 150 years, towns and cities have been trusting us with the long-term management of all or part of their public utilities, including management of customer relations with their citizens. Our expertise covers the entire value chain of utility management in the fields of drinking water, sanitation, and waste collection and recovery: operation and maintenance of facilities, heritage works, continuous improvement of services, invoicing and customer relations, investment financing, etc.

In Pau, SUEZ operates a wastewater decontamination plant and builds anaerobic digestion and methanation plants. This project includes the use of brand-new technologies that will considerably increase the quantity of biomethane produced by the new methanation plant.
For example, ultra-dehydration is a new technology that divides treatment sludge volumes by four and consumes three to four times less energy than a conventional thermal dryer, while reducing the potential nuisance associated with drying.
The site’s energy performance is increased by the production of synthetic methane from the methanation of carbon dioxide (CO2, a greenhouse gas). For the first time in the world, this innovative catalytic methanation technology will transform all the CO2 emitted into synthetic methane, a renewable green gas.
Via its Moroccan subsidiary, Lydec, SUEZ manages water and electricity distribution, rain and wastewater collection and street lighting for 4.2 million residents in the Greater Casablanca area. It was commissioned to provide these services through a delegated management contract signed in 1997 by the delegating authority (the urban municipalities of Casablanca, Mohammedia and Aïn Harrouda) and the supervising authority (the Interior Ministry).
In India, we have developed a new contractual model for water services based on the supply of services to whole cities, such as Coimbatore, Davanagere, Udupi and Puttur. For example, in Davanagere, the contract concerns the improvement of service quality as well as operational performance through transfer of expertise. It sets objectives in terms of improving network efficiency, water quality and customer service.

In France, Greater Dijon is an ecological reference in Europe for its transport, energy and water policies. We manage the agglomeration’s drinking water and wastewater, as well as waste collection and sorting. Dijon Métropole, has signed a contract with our group and a number of partner companies* to create and manage a connected coordination station for public facilities in the city’s 24 communities. A unique smart city initiative based on Open Data, representing 65% energy savings by the end of the contract.

* Bouygues Energies & Services (Bouygues Construction subsidiary), Citelum (EDF subsidiary) and Capgemini.

We have partnered the city of Dole, France, to create the first two SemOp (single operation public-private) companies in the field of water and sanitation. This is an innovative, new generation model, a milestone in the public/private sphere, with unique governance involving the elected representatives in every decision. The city directs the two 2 SemOp companies and our group contributes its expertise.
In Dakar (Senegal): high-quality water accessible to the greatest number and digital excellence at the heart of our service. This 15-year lease contract guarantees the supply of drinking water to a population of approximately seven million inhabitants in Dakar and in several other cities. SUEZ provides access to high-quality water for everyone, excellent service and sustainable results. Emphasis has been placed on innovation, with the opening of a Research and Innovation Centre in Dakar in partnership with Senegalese universities.
In Meknès, Morocco, we have been entrusted with a 20-year concession contract for the management of 200,000 tonnes of household and similar waste collected annually. We have invested to renovate the household waste storage site in Meknès and create an innovative elimination and recovery center that meets the sustainable development targets set by the Moroccan authorities. The new site favors greenhouse gas reduction, preventing the emission of an annual 100,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent.