SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) and the Shuqaiq Three Company for Water (S3CW) have marked a milestone at Shuqaiq 3 IWP desalination plant in Shuqaiq in the Jizan region, clocking two million man-hours without Lost Time Injuries and 50% completion on the construction of the project. According to EPC contractor Acciona, the safety milestone was achieved due to risk prevention and correct implementation of health and safety measure for all workers. The Shuqaiq 3 IWP plant will produce 450,000 m³/d of water and will...

CHILE – Antofagasta Minerals’ Los Pelambres copper mine expansion project will be delayed six months due to the suspension of works caused by the pandemic. Originally, the $1.3 billion expansion project was scheduled for completion in 2021. Antofagasta Minerals CEO Ivan Arriagada announced that the company expects construction work to resume progressively under new health protocols to reduce contagion risks. The company is also constructing a seawater desalination project and in order to reduce the risk of future water shortages, the company...

MALDIVES –The Chinese government signed an $11.8 million agreement, the Implementation Contract for China-Aided Project on Micro-grid Seawater Desalination in Maldives, to build desalination plants in five islands across the Maldives. Under the agreement with the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, micro-grid seawater desalination facilities will be established on: Kaashidhoo in Kaafu Atoll, Olhuvelifushi in Lhaviyani Atoll, Kelaa in Haa Alif Atoll, Alifushi in Raa Atoll and Dhaandhoo in Gaafu Alif Atoll. (The Edition)...

U.S.A. – The Santa Barbara City Council has accepted a $10 million grant in exchange for agreeing to run the Charles E. Meyer desalination plant at full capacity for at least 36 out of the next 40 years. The city was awarded the grant in 2018 from the California Department of Water Resources for the reactivation of the plant. If the city does not comply with the terms of the funding agreement, it may be obligated to repay the grant funding – with interest – to the state. The city plans to create a reserve fund to pay back the grant in case...

IRAN – The Department of Environment (DOE) announced it is preparing a plan to install desalination plants on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. The deputy chief of the marine environment of the DOE, Ahmad Reza Lahijanzadeh, revealed that suitable areas that cause the least damage to the environment have been identified in Hormozgan province. He stated that the project, a collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, will supply water to 17 drought-ridden provinces. (Tehran Times)

U.S.A. – GivePower, a non-profit...

U.S.A. – The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board staff has recommended approval of the operating permit for the proposed Huntington Beach desalination project.  The Regional Board issued a staff report recommending approval of a tentative order making amendments to and renewing its operating permit first issued in 2006 for the proposed desalination project. The proposed permit finds that there is an identified need for the 189,270 m³/d desalinated water the Huntington Beach project will provide. The draft permit also...

SENEGAL – A groundwater desalination plant will soon commence operations in the town of Foundiougne in southwest Senegal. The project manager recently revealed that the project, commissioned by the national water company of Senegal (SONES), should be completed within a few months. The plant will have a capacity of 1,700 m³/d and cost 20 million euros ($22.83 million) to construct. Operation of the facility will be entrusted to Sen’eau, a new company operating and distributing drinking water in Senegal’s urban and peri-urban areas. (Afrik 21)...

SAUDI ARABIA – The Al-Shaqueeq desalination plant has launched operations and is supplying water to the regions of Asir and Jazan at a rate of 42,500 m³/d. The project developed by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) started construction in December last year and reached completion in six months, at one-third of the specified time line. The plant has an energy consumption of 3 KW/m³. (Saudi Gazette)

IRAN – A new reverse osmosis desalination facility is under construction in the village of Ziarat in Hormozgan Province. The...

ISRAEL – The European Investment Bank (EIB), last month announced that it had signed a $169 million finance contract with SMS IDE Ltd, in a bid to design, finance, construct and operate the Sorek 2 desalination plant. In a press release the EIB stated the decision to invest in the new desalination plant was based on the goal of improving water supply infrastructure in the region. The development of Sorek 2 is part of the Neighbouring Financing Facility (NFF) 2014-2020 project and EU/Israel Action Plan, which aims to raise greater...

SAUDI ARABIA – The Saline Water Desalination Corporation (SWCC) has fast-tracked plans to privatize the Ras Al-Khair water and power plant. The decision is part of a SWCC initiative to achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The plan also coincides with the Kingdom’s aspiration to attract domestic and foreign investment form the private sector. The Ras Al-Khair plant started operation in 2015, has a desalination capacity of 1.05 million m³/d and generates electricity with a capacity of 2,650 MW. The plant will be the first brownfield...

SINGAPORE – Singaporean authorities recently announced that Hyflux and its directors are under investigation under suspicion of false and misleading statements, breaches of disclosure requirements and noncompliance with accounting standards. According to a statement by the Singapore Police Force, The Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the investigation will assess whether lapses occurred in Hyflux’s disclosures concerning its Tuaspring desalination plant project, and whether the company...

AUSTRALIA – The New South Wales government has decided to halt plans to expand the Sydney desalination plant. According to Government News the expansion plans have been paused while the government is considering their greater Sydney water policy, which will assess whether expanding the plant is the best option for Sydney. Last December, the government had asked the plant to prepare plans to see its capacity doubled.  The CEO of the Sydney desalination plant stated that detailed planning for the expansion had been put on hold by the...

ISRAEL – Israel’s IDE Technologies has won the PPP tender to build and operate the Sorek 2 desalination plant. A statement from the finance and energy ministries said that IDE technologies will build the Sorek 2 plant south of Tel Aviv, which by 2023 should be able to produce 547,945 m³/d. IDE has now won four of the five tenders to operate desalination plants in Israel. The bid proposed an extraordinary price of $0.413 per m³ water, $0.14 lower than the lowest price per m³ paid currently in Israel. The statement from the ministry of finance...

INDIA – The 60,000 m³/d SWRO plant at Kuthiraimozhi village in Ramanathapuram has been recommended for coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance. The Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage Board’s (TWAD) proposal was previously rejected by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Environment Ministry, owing to the location being within the eco-sensitive zone of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park.

The TWAD filed a modified proposal to the EAC for clearance in which the intake and brine disposal point was moved outside the eco-sensitive area. The...

ISRAEL – Israel will reassess the bid of the Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison Holdings for the construction of one of the world’s largest desalination plants. Hutchison Water International, owned by CK Hutchison Holdings, and IDE Technologies are the two companies that have reached the final stage of the tender to build the Sorek B plant. US officials questioned the China-tied company’s offer and expressed concerns over Chinese influence in Israel’s infrastructure projects, warning they are a security risk and could jeopardize ties with...

LIBYA – The Tripolitanian Society announced that it is considering building a desalination plant in Tripoli. The project would be financed by businessmen from the city and private sector investors. The authority revealed on its Facebook page that the plans are the result of city outlaw groups repeatedly committing acts of vandalism on the city’s water system. The Society stated that the executive committee assigned to supervise the project has agreed to setup an advisory committee to embark on the implementation of the project. (The Libya...

EGYPT – Construction of Metito and Orascom’s desalination project in El-Arich in North Sinai has started. A ceremony was held in the presence of local authorities including the governor of Sinai-North. The desalination plant will have a capacity of 100,000 m³/d and will be expanded to 300,000 m³/d with the construction of a new unit in a later phase of development. The project is being developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) and the first phase of development will cost $97 million. The water produced by the plant will be sold to...

U.S.A. – A 10-person crew is in the midst of a 21 day shelter-in-place shift at the Claude Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant to ensure the plant continues normal operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

According to Poseidon Water, on March 19 a first crew of 10 “mission-critical employees” was stationed at the plant to self-quarantine on site for 21 days, working 12-hour shifts each day and sleeping in RVs in the plant’s parking lot. Separate trailers were brought in for each one of the workers and groceries were delivered every few...

PHILIPPINES – Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) expects several new desalination plants to be operational in 2021. MCWD’s chairperson stated that the plants are expected to be functional six months after starting construction and will be completed in two years. The plants will add a total of 150,000 m³/d to the districts water supply. One of the desalination plants would be located in Lapu-Lapu City and two plants will be built in Barangay Marigondon and Barangay Punta Engaño. A private firm, CitiCore Summa Water, will be responsible...

AUSTRALIA – The Utilities Trust of Australia (UTA) and Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan Board raised their holdings in the Sydney Desalination Plant (SDP) to 40% and 60% respectively. The two organizations increased their ownership with their acquisition of The Infrastructure Fund’s (TIF) ownership stake in the plant. Financial details were not disclosed. (IPE Real Assets)

KENYA – Boreal Light, Atmosfair, WaterKiosk and Bilal Sustainable Development Programme are collaborating to build 40 solar powered 1,000 m³/d  desalination...

MEXICO – Conagua, the Mexican water authority, will prioritize two of the 10 water infrastructure projects it announced in 2019 to improve supply regions with a history of water shortage.

Construction of a new desalination plant in Baja California State’s Playas de Rosarito municipality is expected to commence on March 23 and will be constructed in two stages. In 2016 the state government awarded the project in to the Aguas de Rosarito consortium, comprising Degrémont, NSC Agua and Nu Water. The first stage will consist of desalination...

INDIA – Water from the future 30,000 m³/d desalination plant in the Gir Somnath district of Gujarat will sell at the rate of $0.59 for the first two years. After the first two years, there will be an annual rise of 3% in the cost of water. A joint venture consisting of Shapoorji Pallonji And Company Private Limited and Aquatech System Asia Pvt. Ltd. will be constructing the plant in Vadodara Zala village of Surtrapada county of Gir Somnath district. (The Indian Express)

U.A.E. – Veolia Water Technologies recently secured a contract...

U.A.E. – The Taweelah Independent Water Project (IWP) secured the first-ever “sustainable loan” qualification for a water desalination project globally. The $758 million loan was closed in September 2019 with a contractual tenor of 32.4 years. According to a joint statement released by ACWA Power and Natixis,  – French rating firm Vigeo Eiris provided an independent second party opinion on the sustainability credentials of the project finance loan. Vigeo Eiris confirmed that the project is aligned with the Green Loan Principles and the...

AUSTRALIA – The New South Wales government is still considering the possibility of a desalination plant in the Illawara, despite heavy rainfall last month. In January a plan was suggested for the construction of a desalination plant in the Illawara, contingent on the drought continuing and if dam levels kept falling. The heavy rains in February and dam water levels rising left the future of the plant in limbo. However Water Minister Melinda Pavey revealed that the possibility of an Illawara plant is still on the agenda. WaterNSW is currently...

SAUDI ARABIA – Gradient, in partnership with SAWACO, has successfully demonstrated its Counter Flow Reverse Osmosis (CFRO) technology, extracting 50% more fresh water from an existing seawater RO plant’s reject brine. The project has been in operation since November 2019 and has succeeded in meeting goals of water quality, cost and energy consumption.

The two companies are now scaling up the project to 5000 m³/d at the same site in Jeddah. The eventual CFRO capacity could potentially be expanded to a total of 15,000 m³/d. The CFRO process...

SINGAPORE – Hyflux received another two-month extension for its debt moratorium. The extension was granted by the Singapore High Court last week and means that the court-sanctioned moratorium will now end on April 30. This is the company’s ninth extension of its debt moratorium since applying for court protection in May 2018 to reorganize its business and liabilities.

Hyflux is in the process of concluding a $400 million restructuring deal with UAE utility firm Utico. The rescue plan needs to get the approval from a majority of the...

U.S.A. – This quarter, GivePower is launching containerized, solar-powered desalination plants in Mombasa, Kenya and La Gonava, Haiti. GivePower, a non-profit organization founded by Tesla subsidiary SolarCity, previously built a solar-powered microgrid desalination plant in Kiunga, Kenya in 2018. Like the Kiunga plant, the new projects will utilize Tesla’s powerwall battery storage technology.

The new plants each will have a maximum production capacity of 75 m³/d and operate with a 50-kW solar system with 120 kW-hrs of Tesla batteries. The...

SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia has revealed that it will be using a new solar desalination technology at Neom, the mega-city under development on the country’s northern Red Sea coast. Neom will be home to the world’s first “solar dome” desalination plant, which is designed to be carbon neutral and to produce less brine than conventional reverse osmosis technologies.  Neom signed an agreement with U.K.-based Solar Water Plc to build the plants.

Construction will begin in February, and the facility is expected to be completed this year....

ISRAEL – Last week, Israel’s tender committees for desalination and power plants released the pre-qualification forms for the construction and operation of a desalination plant in the Western Galilee and a large power plant near Dimona. The desalination facility will have a capacity of at least 273,972 m³/d. The solar power plant will be the country’s largest to date and construction of the 300 mega-watt solar farm is expected to begin next year and finish in 2023. The tender is expected to demand the use of battery-based energy storage...