Cook confirms £618m Pakistan water deals

A SCOTTISH consultancy firm yesterday unveiled details of contracts worth a total of $960 million (£618m) for water and waste-treatment plants in the Pakistani city of Karachi, as revealed in last weekend’s Scotland on Sunday.

Glasgow-based Cook Consulting, run by former Scottish Conservative Party vice-chairman Richard Cook, signed four memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with agencies in the city, which is the country’s largest port and its financial heart.

Under the first deal, Port Qasim Authority will invest $775m to develop a drinking water plant, while the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board will commission an $85m desalination facility. US firm Aeromix Systems and Canadian company Sentinel Waste International also signed the MOUs.

Cook said: “These projects will be extremely significant in developing an infrastructure in Karachi that provides its population with significant environmental and health benefits.”

Through the other MOUs, Karachi Port Trust will work with Northamptonshire-based Point Green to construct a $100m waste water treatment plant, with Cook Consulting helping the Karachi Municipal Corporation to complete a “comprehensive waste study”.

The MOUs were signed during a visit by Ishrat ul-Ibad Khan, governor of Sindh province.