Mitsubishi Chemical to Market Drinking Water Systems in Myanmar

Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings will begin selling a river water treatment system to the private and public sectors in Myanmar, where economic growth is expected to drive demand for safe drinking water.

Tokyo-based Wellthy, a Mitsubishi Chemical's unit in the water treatment business, will establish a joint venture with its local partner Myanmar Water Engineering & Products with Wellthy taking a 60% stake.

By joining hands with MWEP, which has a good domestic track record in the water treatment business, Wellthy aims to smoothly launch their business operations and negotiations with the Myanmar government officials.

The companies will embark on the so-called EPC business, which designs plants, procures materials and builds under a contract. Wellthy has an advantage of being able to freely adjust treatment processes and devices that will be incorporated into a system according to the quality of drinking water and water sources.

In Myanmar, the companies will use the Yangon River which runs near the city as the water source. The river water will be filtered through hollow fiber membranes for purification and then passed through reverse osmosis membranes for desalination.

As the city has rainy and dry periods, the water quality in the Yangon River, which flows into the Andaman Sea, varies with the season.

Through the previous experiments, Wellthy has obtained know-how needed to deal with water quality variations such as by adding flocculants, which improve filterability, when the water contains a high level of sediment and pollutants as a pre-treatment step.

As first step, the companies envision providing the system to luxury apartments built along the river.

They are advancing talks with the owner about a system that can supply 5,400 tons of drinking water a day -- enough to serve 27,000 residents -- at a group of apartments currently under construction.

Read more: Nikkei Asian Review