(REUTERS) INTERVIEW-WorldWater<WWAT.O>in Pakistan power deal
INTERVIEW-WorldWater<WWAT.O>in Pakistan power deal
By Scott McDonald
ISLAMABAD, June 7 (Reuters) - U.S.-based WorldWater Corp
<WWAT.O> said on Monday it had signed an agreement worth up to
$50 million with Pakistan to supply solar-powered water systems
which it said would transform parts of arid Baluchistan
province.
"We signed a memorandum of understanding and expect to
start studies for finding the water in the next few months,"
WorldWater chairman and chief executive officer Quentin Kelly
told Reuters.
He said that once the water sites were found, pumps run by
solar power would be installed to provide irrigation and
drinking water.
The systems could also be used to provide electricity to
villages not on a power grid or dependent on diesel-powered
generators.
"We'll improve the quality of life right away. Within a
year we can have people drinking water and irrigating fields
that didn't even exist before," Kelly said.
Water and power shortages are severe problems in Pakistan,
particularly in rural areas where some 60 percent of the people
do not have access to readily available drinking water.
The cost of running diesel-powered pumps for irrigation and
drinking water can also be prohibitive for some rural areas.
Kelly said WorldWater was used to tough conditions, adding
the Pennington, New Jersey-based company, which went public in
April 1997, had put its solar energy and water management
systems into 20 countries, mostly in the developing world.
"We're in Somalia, Ethopia, the Philippines, Uganda and
will be going into Sri Lanka soon," Kelly said.
The agreement signed with Pakistan's Board of Investment,
which Kelly said would be financed by Pakistan financial
institutions based in London, calls for satellite imagery and
air photo interpretation along with ground surveys to be used
to find possible well-drilling sites.
Kelly said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who visited
Baluchistan recently to see a demonstration of the
solar-powered pumps, was supportive of the project.
Baluchistan makes up 42 percent of Pakistan's total area
but has only about four million of the country's approximately
130 million people, and lags the rest of the country in health
and literacy levels and basic infrastructure.
REUTERS
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(PR NEWSWIRE) DJ: WorldWater Corp. Named Winner of the 1998 New Jersey Sma
DJ: WorldWater Corp. Named Winner of the 1998 New Jersey Small Business Award
PENNINGTON, N.J., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldWater Corp. (OTC Bulletin
Board: WWAT) has been named the winner of the 1998 New Jersey Small Business
Award by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.
Quentin T. Kelly, CEO of WorldWater Corp. will accept the award for the
Company at a Black Tie Dinner at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
(NJIT) Ballroom of the William Hazell Center in Newark, New Jersey on
Thursday evening, February 12, 1998.
The Awards Dinner honors the inventors of the year and will induct 6 members
into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
/CONTACT: Lucy Millerand of NJIT, 973-596-5625, or Adrienne Hew of
WorldWater, 609-818-0700/
10:28 EST
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