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Egypt names groups that can bid for desalination contracts

1 May 2023

The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) has disclosed the 17 teams and companies qualified to bid for the contracts to develop up to 8.85 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) of renewable energy-powered desalination capacity in Egypt.

Of the total, 11 are qualified as category A consortiums or developers, which can bid for schemes with a capacity of up to 1 million cm/d. 

Four are qualified as category B bidders, which implies they can only bid for projects with a maximum design capacity of 600,000 cm/d.

Of the remaining two, one is qualified as a category C bidder, and the other as category D.

A consortium comprising Sinohydro (Hong Kong), Qingdao Desalination and Sepco 3 can bid for projects with a maximum capacity of 400,000 cm/d.

Source: TSFE

A final team, comprising Desal Egypt, Emco Engineering, Amarenco and Redcon Construction, has been qualified for category D projects, or those with a maximum capacity of 200,000 cm/d.

TSFE has been mandated to undertake the prequalification process on behalf of the New Urban Communities Authority, Holding Company for Water & Wastewater and the Suez Canal Authority.

Desalination strategy

Egypt's long-term water strategy envisages the procurement of up to 100 water desalination plants over 30 years, ending in 2050.     

It entails the launch of several projects covering a total planned capacity of 8.85 million cm/d by 2050, of which 3.35 million cm/d is planned by 2025 as the project's first phase.

A high-level committee has been formed and will recommend the date on which the requests for proposals (RFPs) for the first plants will be issued, Atter Ezzat Hannoura, public-private partnership (PPP) central unit director at Egypt's Finance Ministry, told MEED in June last year.

The committee will also decide which schemes will be tendered in the initial phase.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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