"Sino French Water is a company created in 1992 between Suez Environnement of France and NWS Holdings Limited of Hong Kong. Sino French Water invests and establishes joint-ventures (JVs) with local water authorities and companies in China to improve the management and operation of water, waste water, industrial water services and sludge treatment. Today there are more than 25 JVs spread all over China and each one with unique characteristics. With such diverse conditions, systematic methodologies are put in place but applied in a pragmatic manner depending on the condition and maturity of the local company. This paper will explain the various actions taken by Sino French Water in five different phases over 15 years to reduce the non-revenue water (NRW) from 35% to 6% at its JV in Tanzhou, China.
Zhongshan Tanzhou Water Supply Company Limited (Tanzhou Water) is the first joint-venture of Sino French Water in mainland China and it is also the first Chinese-Western joint-venture in the water business in China.
Tanzhou is located in Guangdong province approximately 45 minutes from the border with Macao, a Portuguese colony for more than 400 years and handed over back to China in 1999. It is important to note that the supply of water in Macao is managed since 1985 by the Macao Water Supply Company (Macao Water) another subsidiary of Suez Environnement and NWS Holding. Its proximity to Macao has allowed the people of Tanzhou Water to closely witness the improvements made in Macao Water with the introduction of Suez Environnement methods and techniques and to quickly adopt the effective experiences and thus benefit significantly from being part of an international group."