In Egypt, the government is giving news of a project to build new seawater desalination plants, to be launched in 2023, in particular near Ras El Hikma, a coastal town 350 km north-west of Cairo. Following the pre-qualification of 14 consortia and three companies by The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) in May 2023, the first call for tenders will be launched in mid-July 2024.
Egypt wants to increase its supply of drinking water and irrigation water from seawater desalination by 2050. This justifies the acceleration of a project to build new desalination plants, presented in 2023 by The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), under the supervision of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. Following the pre-qualification of 14 consortia and three companies almost a year ago, the Egyptian government has set the date for the launch of the first call for tenders.
Mid-July 2024. This is the date set and announced recently by Atter Hanoura, head of the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Unit at the Egyptian Ministry of Finance. In accordance with the results of the notice of pre-qualifications of May 2023, the consortia (Sinohydro Hong Kong Holding, Qingdao Desalination, SEPCO III Electric Power) and (Desal Egypt, Emco Engineering, Amarenco Solarize Egypt, Redcon Construction) will be authorised to bid for the construction of the first four facilities, with capacities of between 300,000 and 400,000 m3 of water per day. They are respectively ranked in categories C and D of the pre-qualification results for this desalination project, which will supply 8.85 million m3 of desalinated water to the population of the country of the pharaohs by 2050.
Construction of the first four seawater desalination plants will require an investment of $350 million. The new plants will be located at various sites, notably in the Dabaa region and near Ras El Hikma, a coastal town 350 km north-west of Cairo, Egypt’s capital.
Solar-powered stations
Following the first phase, which will run until 2025 and supply 3.35 million m3 of desalinated water to the population, the second phase will increase the production capacity of all the plants in Egypt to 8.85 million m3 by 2050. Future plants will be powered by solar energy.
The other consortiums pre-qualified for this major project are (Amea Power, Safbon, ICAT), (Aqualia, Globaleq, Ignis, Samcrete), (Taqa Arabia, Al Ghanem International), (Beijing Enterprises Water Group, Asia-Africa Green Energy Investment), which are in category B of the notice of pre-qualifications and will provide Egypt with an additional 600,000 m3 of water per day from desalination.
Category A includes Acwa Power, Sumitomo Corporation and Sacyr Agua, as well as the consortiums (Enertech Holding Co, Utico FZC, SEPCO), (Concrete Plus, Abengoa, Cuasar), (Infinity Energy, GS Inima, China Energy Engineering Corporation), (AEW, Gama, Sogex, Wabag), (TAM Environmental Services, Desalia SL, Al Ahly Capital), (Orascom Construction, Scatec, Toyota Tsusho Corp, Acciona Agua, Metito Utilities), (Hassan Allam Holding, Engie) and (Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund II, Suez International, Elsewedy Electric), whose ultimate goal is to increase Egypt’s seawater desalination capacity by 1 million m3 per day.
Inès Magoum
