Photo: Courtesy of Chengdu Engineering Corporation under PowerChina

The China-funded Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant in Bangladesh, the largest sewage plant in South Asia, officially began operating on Friday. 

The project provides 1,000 local jobs and processes sewage for nearly 5 million people in Dhaka daily. 

The project was designed and constructed by Chengdu Engineering Corporation under PowerChina, with one year of operations and maintenance. The company received the handover certificate on Thursday. 

The project is a significant part of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which started construction on August 1, 2017.

The project construction includes an off-site sewage lifting pumping station, sewage conveyance trunk pipe, the main sewage treatment plant which can process 500,000 tons of sewage per day, and a sludge drying-incineration system with a processing capacity of 580 tons per day. 

The Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant has created several records, such as the first and the largest modern sewage treatment plant in Bangladesh, the largest single sewage treatment plant in South Asia, and the first modern sludge drying-incineration in Bangladesh. 

There are not many projects like the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant undertaken by Chinese enterprises overseas, Hao Yuanlin, general manager of Chengdu Engineering Corporation, said. 

The team gave full play to its leading role in design and rich construction experience in the water sector, carrying out a refined design with innovative management model, which significantly improved work efficiency and quality control, according to Hao. 

The team also overcame obstacles such as dengue fever, terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 epidemic, successfully completing and handing over the project in less than five years. 

Bilateral trade between China and Bangladesh in 2021 reached $25.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 58.4 percent, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Among which, China's exports to Bangladesh accounted for $24.1 billion, up 59.8 percent, while importing $1.05 billion in products from the country, an increase of 30.9 percent. 

Global Times