Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/983801
6 The Quarterly june 2018 Water. desalination + reuse Oman OPWP developing new desalination capacity Project in Dhofar awarded, and 11 submit for Al Ghubrah III Saudi Arabia Details emerge of privatisation scheme Delivery Plan 2020 fills out picture of national push to privatise Tunisia Ribbon is cut on country's first desalination plant FCC Aqualia and Inima complete the project which was awarded in 2014 Egypt South Sinai developments move forward Egypt's minister of international cooperation Sahar Nasr secures funds What happened? Who covered it? Why does it matter? Times of Oman reported that Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) awarded a contract for Salalah Desalination Plant to ACWA Power, Veolia Middle East, and Dhofar International Development and Investment. The build, own, and operate contract is worth OMR 60 million ($156 million) and covers design, construction, ownership, and operations and maintenance of a 113,650 m3/d SWRO plant. Reuters picked up on the Delivery Plan 2020 document published by the official Saudi Press Agency in April. The plan provides more detail on Saudi Arabia's strategy to reduce its reliance on oil revenues. The strategy focuses on 14 public-private partnership (PPP) investments worth SAR 24 to 28 billion ($6.4 to $7.5 billion), including privatising Saudi Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) and the Ras Al Khair desalination plant. Regional news network ANSAmed, which covers the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf region, and is a media parter of the European Commission, ran the story of the official inauguration of Djerba desalination plant, Tunisia, whose ribbon was cut by national prime minister Youssef Chahed. The plant has been four years in the making, and is a significant project for the state. Enterprise, the daily news round-up for corporate Egypt, reported that Egypt's minister of investment and international cooperation Sahar Nasr signed a $100 million loan agreement with Kuwait Fund For Arab Economic Development (KFAED), completing the funding for five desalination plants in South Sinai Governorate. The loan was finalised at the annual meeting of Arab financial institutions, held in Jordan in April 2018. Earlier loan agreements for the projects were signed during 2016. The new water source is designed to meet the demand for water in Oman's Dhofar region, which is expect to increase at a rate of six per cent a year over the next seven years. The plant will be the first independent reverse osmosis desalination plant in Dhofar. The joint venture partnership is owned 50.1 per cent by ACWA Power, 35 per cent by Veolia Middle East, and 14.9 per cent by Dhofar International Development and Investment. Saudi's overhaul of the economy will have a big impact on the water sector, with the strategy to include privatising its portfolio of existing plants and investing in new, large scale PPP desalination projects. Already this year, two major desalination schemes took a step forward. In February, the Water and Electricity Company (WEC) pre-qualified 15 bidders for Shuqiaq 3 desalination plant, and in March it requested EoIs for Jubail 3, a power and water project to produce 1.17 million m3/d, of which 60 per cent will be reverse osmosis and 40 per cent thermal. As the first desalination plant in Tunisia, it represents a milestone in the country's expertise in procuring desalination capacity. The design, build, commission, and operate contract was awarded by national water utility Société National de'Exploitation et de Distribution des Eaux (SONEDE). Two more desalination plants, one at Gabes, costing TND 200 million ($82 million), and another at Sfax, a 100,000 m3/d project with a price tag of TND 900 million ($371 million), are currently in development with SONEDE. The government of Egypt aims to develop the peninsular of South Sinai, including by providing new sources of high quality drinking water, to support consumers and business in the region, including tourism. The plans are in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, through which agreement the bank will establish a branch office in Egypt that will also serve neighbouring countries Jordan, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. The Quarterly