Water and Environment Initiatives

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ITOCHU has already worked on four energy-from-waste projects in the UK which collectively treat around 1.3 million tons of waste annually, approximately 10% of the waste incineration market in the UK. In the Republic of Serbia, we concluded an energy-from-waste PPP (public and private partnership) agreement with the municipal government of Belgrade and commenced construction in 2019. The project involves closing and appropriately managing the existing landfill site which is an environmental catastrophe on the bank of the Danube River and treating the municipal waste generated in Belgrade to generate clean, fossil fuel-free power over a period of 25 years. In December 2020, we signed an operational rights agreement with Dubai Municipality for a 35-year energy-from-waste project and construction is currently under way. This is the first energy-from-waste project in Dubai and the new plant will be the largest of its kind in the world, capable of treating 1.9 million tons of waste annually, which is half of the general waste generated in the country. In November 2020, ITOCHU also joined a project to treat industrial waste generated by the petrochemical industry in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. In its continuing efforts to protect the environment, ITOCHU will continue contributing to the realization of sustainable local communities and the reduction of environmental impact in regions struggling with environmental and social issues.
In the water field, we entered the water supply business in the UK in 2012 and then went on to enter the water supply and sewage business in the Spanish Canary Islands in 2014. We have also entered the seawater desalination business through participation in projects in Victoria, Australia and Oman in 2012 and 2016 respectively. In the Oman project, the seawater desalination plant, which is Oman's largest, went into commercial operation in 2018. The produced water will be supplied as daily life water to Oman's capital city Muscat and its surrounding area for the next 20 years in accordance with the water sales contract. Against a backdrop of soaring water demand associated with rapid worldwide population growth, economic development and global warming, ITOCHU is committed to actively promoting projects that will contribute to the effective use of water resources in the Middle East and other regions around the world.