Chapter 661 - Lacking Water
Compared with the quietness from a year ago, the presidential palace located on Coro Island became more bustling. The white paint and marble poles resembled the White House and the beautiful tropical garden became a tourist attraction.
On the grass field in front of the palace, Jiang Chen saw the bodyguards in suits and shades; he also saw the tourists taking photos.
When he arrived, the advisor of the president was already waiting at the door.
He was the only one in Xin that didn’t require a reservation to see the president. After explaining the purpose of the visit, the advisor respectfully led him into the grand hall and brought him to the office.
There were two people sitting on the sofa in the office.
One of them naturally was Zhang Yaping while the other person looked rather unfamiliar.
Seeing Jiang Chen come in, the two people stood up, Zhang Yaping first introduced Jiang Chen as the more honorable guest.
“This is Jiang Chen, the president of Xin’s star corporation. You must have heard of him before.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jiang Chen.” Smith ina black suit, was clean shaven, and politely extended his hand.
“This is the representative from Matrix Desalination Company, Lude Smith.” Then, Zhang Yaping introduced his guest to Jiang Chen.
“Hello, Mr. Smith, it is pleasure to meet you as well.”
Jiang Chen shook hands with him and nodded before taking a seat. Then he looked at President Zhang Yaping.
Zhang Yaping sensed the question in his eyes and began to explain.
“So this is the case. Currently, we plan to construct a water desalination plant in Xin, so we invited Matrix Desalination Company to conduct a construction analysis for us on Coro Island.”
“Desalination Plant? Is there not enough fresh water on the island?” Jiang Chen was surprised.
“Not enough is an understatement. Xin’s current water supply relies on imports from Australia,” Smith said while taking out a stack of documents from his briefcase, “This is the underground water basin distribution amd these are the possible water treatment plant locations.”
Jiang Chen had no idea how much his water bill was for his mansion, especially compounded with the fact that he constantly ran to the apocalypse. It was not until Zhang Yaping mentioned this did he realized this problem.
Before the 20th century, Coro Island’s underground aquifer stored an ample amount of water. But due to global warming, rising sea level, sea water being used to clean the roads and houses, the sea water filtrated and polluted into the underground aquifer. This depleted the fresh water resources, hence the water supply on the island could only rely on the aquifer in the center of island as well as the small fresh water lake in the nearby Galin Island.
Tropical regions typical experienced a long rain season and Xin had an ample amount of fresh water resources, but with the increase in immigration and exponential growth in tourism, the water system previously designed to supply 50 thousand people now must supply 150 thousand people. To avoid paying for the expensive water price, a lot of tourists came with bagfuls of water.
But it made life difficult for the locals. It would be ridiculous to buy fresh water off of Amazon.
Including the workers without Xin citizenship, Xin’s population reached the 50,000 mark.
Typically, in major city with sophisticated facility, everyone consumed on average 400 kilograms of freshwater, therefore Xin’s average water consumption was 20 thousand tons of water per day. Based on stats, 1% to 2% of the water was needed for drinking, therefore Xin require 200-400 tons of freshwater for its residents.
Water for showering could be conserved, but drinking water could not be conservatively measured.
The saving grace was that Xin’s government had money and was able to sign a water supplying contract with Australia City West Water to alleviate the water supplying pressure domestically. But the high price of transportation meant that importing water was not a long term solution.
The Xin Congress voted to start a bid for the construction of a water desalination plant on Coro Island to decrease the high water price.
Before the citizens’ dissatisfaction turned into protest.
Jiang Chen flipped through the documents while Zhang Yaping continued to explain.
“We plan to give the water desalination plant project to you. If Future Group is not interested, we can think of other solutions.”
“Why doesn’t CWW build the water plant?” Jiang Chen asked.
In Jiang Chen’s memory, it was Australia’s City West Water (CWW) Corporation that handled the water supply and pipeline maintenance on Coro Island. Jiang Chen was really disinterested in the fresh water market.
Even if the water reached a ridiculous price of 5 USD per ton and they gained an monopoly on Xin’s water supply, the water desalination plant’s monthly profit was at most half a million USD.
A yearly profit of six million USD would not even make a material impact on any of Future Group’s internet, food, automotive, or health care business.
“CWW thinks our market is not enough to support a water desalination plant and chose to ignore our bid. And other small companies don’t have the ability to accept the bid. If it not possible, Congress is discussing about treating the desalination project as a social benefit project, just like state schools and have the government run it,” Zhang Yapin said with a bitter smile.
Continue to fund fresh water through the state could not be sustainable even for the rich Xin government.
“Your proposal is?” Jiang Chen looked to Smith.
Smith smiled, took the document from Jiang Chen’s hand and flipped to the page with color.
“Based on an assessment of Pannu Islands, Our company recommends this integrated desalination unit in this document, which uses the LT-MED principle. The entire desalination production line can handle 35,000 tons of daily capacity and the processing cost of 1.6 USD per tonne can perfectly solve the current water supply crisis facing Xin. ”
“What’s the price?”
“Including the construction of the treatment plant, the total cost is 150 million USD.”
“It’s too expensive.” Zhang Yaping shook his head.
Without considering the cost of maintenance, the water desalination plant under ideal settings would take thirty years to recover the initial investment. Even with plenty of money, Jiang Chen had no reason to accept a losing deal.
Smith had a helpless smile.
“Water desalination is a long term investment. Trust me, the one-time investment is more worth it compared to importing water long term.”
“Can you lower the price?”
“This is the market price.” Smith, in an unnegotiable tone, said. “Matrix has designed water desalination plants for Maldives, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and their price is much more expensive compared to yours.”
To be honest, Smith was growing impatient after the negotiation had taken so long.
The negotiation was without any progress. The Xin government wanted to use water desalination but didn’t want to spend the money. The biggest water supplier CWW refused the bid from the start which made him feel like he was wasting his time.
His company urged him to finish this deal and take his team to Saudi. There was a 1 billion project with Saudi National Desalination waiting for him.
Suddenly, Jiang Chen spoke.
“Wait, you mean… the price of water desalination equipment is expensive?”
“You think? You think water desalination is just setting up a boiler? I recommend giving it a try.”
Smith said hashly, stood up, left a business card on the table, and looked at Zhang Yaping.
“Regretfully, Mr. President, we didn’t reach a partnership. My team and I already wasted a week on the island. Regarding the cost to the geology analysis, water treatment plant location selection, we’ll bill separately and send it to the Presidential Palace seven days later. If you and your advisors have come to a decision, please contact us then. I have a plane to catch in two hours. See you.”
Smith picked up the briefcase and left without turning his head.
Zhang Yaping wanted to keep him here, but Jiang Chen stopped him.
“Let him leave. I don’t want to work without them anyways.” Jiang Chen laughed.
“Eh, we’ll spend the money if it is necessarily since we can’t just rely on importing freshwater…. Wait, what are you saying? You want to get into the desalination business?” Zhang Yaping suddenly realized and looked at Jiang Chen, ecstatic.
IF Future Group planned to take this project, there was nothing for him to worry about!
“I didn’t have the plan from the start,” Jiang Chen started to grin, “But based on what he said, the water desalination business is quite big.”
Jiang Chen almost forgot that not only Xin lacked in water! Companies such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE were all countries where water was more expensive than oil.
Even in Han, why did the Han government spent massive amounts of money to move the water from the south to the north? It was because the north lacked water! If the Han government could build tens of water desalination projects off of the northern coast, there would be no need to move water.
Water desalination was not a small market at all, there were massive gains! Was water desalination technology a problem in the 22nd century? Reverse osmosis, low-temperature multi-effect method, electrodialysis were all outdated!
He almost didn’t pick up the cash lying on the ground.
Jiang Chen couldn’t sit around any longer as he stood up abruptly.
[Sorry, is it Matrix? From now on, you have competition!]
Seeing Jiang Chen was about to leave, Zhang Yaping rushed to asked.
“You’re going to?”
He didn’t stop Smith from leaving, now that Jiang Chen was about to leave too, he was uncertain.
Someone must take care of the fresh water problem!
Jiang Chen stopped, turned around, and smiled at him.
“I’m going to see CWW. I suddenly remembered Future Heavy Industrial could potentially make water desalination equipment.”
The “could potentially” almost made Zhang Yaping cough blood in anger, he heavily criticized him in his mind.
[Fu*k! Why didn’t you say so earlier!]