EGYPT has started construction on the Ain Sokhna plant, which will have a capacity of 164, 000 cubic metres per day.^[1] Kamal El Wazir, head of the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority, confirmed last week that construction had commenced on the plant, which will support three other large desalination projects currently under construction in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.^[2]

The country’s contracted desalination capacity has increased tenfold in the past two years to a total of 700,000 cubic metres per day.  Egyptian officials plan to further develop the nation’s water systems to improve its water security. 

Egypt’s population is set to double within the next fifty years, with the country projected to enter “a state of serious country-wide fresh water and energy shortage” by 2025.^[3]  

Nearly a quarter of billion people in the world rely on the river Nile for their water supply, including the majority of Egypt’s population.  For millennia, the river has been the country's main source of freshwater, but its supply is now threatened by both climate change and excessive use.  Officials fear that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project — located upstream and now nearly complete — will reduce the already precarious supply of water flowing into Egypt.^[4]  Whether these fears become a reality remains to be seen, but the development of desalination infrastructure in the country may serve as a vital buffer against grim projections of water scarcity.

^{Credit: Desalination.biz}

The Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance Project, a partnership between JORDAN and ISRAEL intended to stabilise the shrinking of the Dead Sea, is currently embroiled in conflict.^[5] Tensions between the countries have been mounting since July, when two Jordanians were killed in a shooting at Israel’s embassy in Jordan.^[6]  

Israel has reported that discussions on the project have stalled after its ambassador, Einat Schlein, was prevented from returning to the embassy in Amman. Jordan, meanwhile, has indicated that it may progress on the project without further cooperation from Israel. The country’s Water and Irrigation Ministry had planned to put out an international call for tenders on the project in the near future, having already selected five consortia for pre-qualification.^[7]

SRI LANKAN officials have requested proposals for a new seawater desalination plant in the country’s Southern Province.  The country’s Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade has envisioned the project as a public-private partnership contract with the Board of Investment, which operates under its authority.^[8]   

The request calls for bids for investment, construction, operation, and maintenance for a 20,000 cubic metre per day facility with a fifty-year concession period.^[9]  The plant is projected to cost $20-25 million.  The deadline for proposals is mid-January 2018.