Suez, Vinci to Build New Green Sewage Facility in Belgrade

Suez and Vinci Construction have partnered to start building the first wastewater treatment plan in Belgrade, Serbia.

This will be Europe’s newest large-scale greenfield wastewater treatment plant. 

Following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the companies have signed an agreement of interest in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron and President Aleksandar Vučić with Goran Vesic, the Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. 

Sabrina Soussan, Chairman and CEO of Suez, says: “It’s a powerful example of the value of international cooperation for improving people's quality of life."

As populations continue to grow and the environment is damaged, more work is needed to ensure all people have access to safe, sufficient water supplies. 

The United Nations says that in 2022 globally 42% of domestic wastewater was not safely treated before being discharged into the environment, causing harm to the health of humans, ecosystems and nature.

She adds: “It’s a new milestone in the concretisation of this strategic facility, which will treat 423,000m³ of wastewater daily, serving the equivalent of 1.5 million people. 

“The plant will significantly reduce water pollution in the Danube and Sava rivers.”

About Suez

Suez is a Paris headquartered utility company that primarily provides water and waste management services. 

In 2023 it had revenue of €8.9bn (US$10bn) and 40,000 employees.

The company says that it provides 57 million people with drinking water worldwide and benefits more than 36 million people with its sanitation services. 

Suez uses more than 50,000 connected objects and sensors for intelligent waste management.

Meet Vinci Construction

Vinci Construction is a French company founded in 1899. 

The company has 119,000 employees and works on more than 69,000 projects each year.

Vinci says it has revenue of €31.5bn (US$35bn).

It offers more sustainable building solutions using materials like low carbon concrete.

The new Serbian wastewater plant 

The plant, known as Veliko Selo, will use cutting edge technologies to be a world-class highly advanced treatment facility.

The project of building the plant is divided into two phases:

• The construction of the state-of-the-art facility, executed by Suez and Vinci Construction
• The long-term operation and maintenance of the facility through a joint venture between Belgrade Water works and Sewage (BVK) and Suez.

The operation and maintenance phase includes the training of local teams and transfer of information and knowledge. 

Suez says the plant will use new technologies to recover heat, enhance biogas production, reduce electricity consumption and potentially produce renewable energy through a photovoltaic plant project.

Sabrina says the MoU for the project is “a new illustration of our ability to build relevant integrated partnerships with strong environmental value”. 

She adds: “It also demonstrates our commitment to enable our customers to provide access to wastewater services with resilient and innovative solutions.”

The wastewater facility will include advanced sludge carbonisation technology which reduces the volume of sludge to be incinerated through increasing biogas production in digesters.

These advancements represent a major step forward in the circular economy approach to wastewater management, turning what was once considered waste into valuable resources.

The companies hope this new treatment plant will contribute to preserving water quality and biodiversity in local rivers and provide renewable energy for the inhabitants of Belgrade. 

The local Danube river is Europe’s second-longest at 1,170 miles long, and is important to the ecosystems of the 10 countries it flows through.

Capucine Journet, Procurement Excellence Director at Suez, says: “The Danube Delta is the largest remaining wetland in Europe and shelters precious biodiversity. 

“The more we act upstream, the better.”

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