ASA announces plans for the implementation of circular economy approaches at the Metapán WWTP

During the 2024 Regional Dialogues held in San José, Costa Rica, from March 11 to 13, a special session was dedicated to local water Circular Economy projects, called “Circular Economy Opportunities in the Sanitation Sector – Towards a Roadmap for LAC”, financed by the United Nations Trust Fund for Peace and Development (UNPDF), German Cooperation and the ROSA project. The objective of this session was to present a roadmap to transform public policies and regulatory frameworks in order to expand investment opportunities in circular systems at different scales and with a multi-actor approach.

During this panel, Jorge Castaneda, President of the Salvadoran Water Authority (ASA), formally announced the municipal commitment to follow the investment plan co-designed by ASA, Metapán and ECLAC, for the wastewater treatment plant of said municipality. , as well as its plans to collaborate with financial actors to implement circular economy approaches at the plant.

Together with Panama and Mexico, El Salvador is part of the Circular Economy project implemented by ECLAC, which aims to strengthen national capacities in circular economy principles in the water sector, including nutrient recovery and methane capture in Wastewater treatment systems. As part of this project, a training workshop was organized in San Salvador last September 2023 for preselected wastewater treatment plants in order to explore opportunities to transform them into circular systems and improve their capacity in methodologies for estimation and methane utilization, as well as in the financial evaluation.

Preliminary results from the workshop for the Metapán wastewater treatment plant were promising, with an estimated methane recovery of 278,148 m3/year. It was projected that an investment of USD 395,464 would be required to transform the wastewater treatment plant to a circular system, with anticipated annual savings of USD 145,228. The benefit-cost ratio over a 20-year time horizon was estimated at 3.13, indicating an attractive expected return on investment. In addition, it was calculated that the expected investment recovery time would be only 3.4 years, with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 35%. These results suggest favorable prospects for investing in the Metapán WWTP due to the short recovery time and the high expected return on investment.

Castaneda emphasized in his comments that initial discussions have been held with FIDEAGUA, a local NGO financing mechanism operating in El Salvador, expressing interest in exploring investment opportunities in this specific wastewater treatment plant. Likewise, he indicated that the Salvadoran Water Authority is also willing to financially and technically support the initiative. He stressed the importance of the training provided by ECLAC at the local level and the collaborative spaces created between various partners (municipality, NGOs, national authorities, etc.). The ASA President also highlighted that next steps involve enhanced feasibility analyzes and sustainability considerations to ensure that investment plans are as realistic and accurate as possible. It was agreed that ECLAC will continue to accompany the entire process from a technical, regulatory and financial point of view.

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