TUNISIA – Groupe Chimique Tunisen (GCT) has selected eight companies from the first round of tenders for a desalination project in the Gabès area in the south-east of Tunisia. The names of the eight companies have not been disclosed but GCT has indicated that the selected companies are based in China, France, Spain and Switzerland. The final selection will be disclosed within a few weeks.

The winning company will be working within a public-private partnership (PPP) framework and will be in charge of designing, financing, building and...

KENYA – The nonprofit organization Bilal Muslim Mission of Kenya has launched a solar powered desalination plant in the outskirts of Mombasa in Mtongwe area. The plant cost $88,609 and was realized with the support of Borea Light GmbH and the Irene and Friedrich Vorwerk Foundation. The facility will produce 20 m³/d and will supply potable water and drip irrigation to the communities around Mtongwe.

There are plans underway to connect some households to the fresh water so they can access the water from their homes through taps. In the meantime...

SINGAPORE – inge GmbH recently revealed the biggest contract signing in the firm’s history. The company signed a deal to deliver their ultrafiltration technology for the pretreatment stage of the Tuas South desalination plant in Singapore. inge will provide 68 trains of their proprietary T-Rack 3.0 UFunits equipped with over 7,000 dizzer XL type modules, that will replace old ultrafiltration membranes from a different manufacturer at the Tuas South plant.

The Tuas 3 desalination plant was already using inge’s products, with excellent membrane...

ISRAEL – The Sorek A desalination plant has escaped criminal investigation, despite tricking the government over a period of 18 months that the water it produced met permitted levels of chloride.  As punishment, plant’s owners will have to supply the state with 30 million m³ of desalinated water without charge (equivalent in value to $17 million). A former chief scientist at the Environmental Protection Ministry suggested that the fine could have been nearly eight times higher, based on the plant’s contractual obligations to pay for...

INDIA – The minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, informed parliament last month that the Ministry of Earth Sciences possesses three functional Low-Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) plants with a capacity of 100 m³/d. They are operating in Minicoy, Agatti and in the Union territory of Lakshadweep islands at Kavaratti.

An additional six LTTD plants based on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversation at Kavaratti have also been approved. The government has also green lighted a scaled-up experimental plant which...

CHILE – Codelco has awarded the contract for the development, construction and operation of a desalination plant and its complementary infrastructure to a consortium led by Marubeni Corporation. The plant will supply water to the Chuquicamata with an initial capacity of 72,576 m³/d and can be expanded to 168,998 m³/d. The project also includes maritime works and a water supply system that will run over 160 km with pipes and electrical infrastructure to pump the water to above 3,000 meters high.

The Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOO) contract...

ISRAEL – In the near future, all of Israel’s tap water could come from desalination and nearly 100 percent of the country’s sewage could be recycled and reused. Israel’s Energy Minister Yuvail Steinitz revealed during a water technology conference last month that Israel is preparing for a future where the country can provide water for itself. 80 percent of Israel’s drinking water already comes from desalination, and 90 percent of its sewage is being treated, recycled and reused for farming or gardening.^[1]

ISRAEL – A Jerusalem court...

BRAZIL – A new resolution from the Collegiate Board at the Brazilian Public Health Agency (Anvisa), for the first time details the criteria for the bottling of desalinated water in the country. Resolution 316/2019 was published in the Official Gazette last month and divides bottled water in Brazil into four different types: natural mineral water, natural water, salt-added water and desalinated drinking water. In the past only freshwater sources were cleared for bottling.

The seawater for bottling must be registered with Anvisa and will be...

U.A.E. – Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power confirmed the successful financial closing of the Taweelah IWP, the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant. The new project will be located at the Taweelah power and water desalination complex in Abu Dhabi and is expected to be completed in 2022. It will produce 909,200 m³/d, meeting the water demands of 350,000 households and will cost $869 million. The plant’s production capacity will be 44 percent higher than the world’s current largest...

U.S.A. – The South Coast Water District is still pursuing the proposed Doheny desalination plant despite the project’s increased projected cost. The expected monthly bill increase for the average residential customer is now $10 rather than the $5-7 estimated in a 2017 report. The Doheny plant will have a production capacity of 18,927 m³/d. It will initially serve the 35,000 customers of the South Coast district but can be expanded if neighboring water districts decide to buy in. 

The project cost was originally estimated at $110 million,...

ISRAEL – 4A Desalination Group has petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to disqualify IDE Technologies and Hutchison Water from the tender for construction of the Sorek B desalination plant. The petition alleges that disqualification is necessary after the investigative committee of the Ministry of Energy found that Sorek A desalination plant operation was tainted with planned and systematic fraud. IDE and Hutchison are part owners of the Sorek A plant and the aforementioned bidders cited their experience in operating the Sorek A plant as...

AUSTRALIA – The New South Wales (NSW) government has decided to double the capacity of the Sydney Desalination Plant as the city’s reservoir levels approach its lower limit. A NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment official revealed that the government has decided to begin planning for the plant’s expansion.

There will also be other schemes in Sydney, as well as Hunter and other parts of NSW, according to the official. Sydney’s desalination plant is currently producing 250,000 m³/d—15% of Sydney’s water supply. The plan is to...

U.A.E. – Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) signed an $890 million deal with ACWA Power to build a reverse osmosis desalination plant at Taweelah with a capacity of 900,000 m³/d. According to Ewec the plant will be one of the largest energy efficient plants in the world. It will be developed on a build, own and operate basis and constructed by a joint venture of ABENGOA and PowerChina.

ACWA Power has a 40 percent stake in the company that will run the facility, Independent Water Producers. The remaining stakes are owned by Mubadala...

U.S.A. – The Corpus Christi City Council has approved a plan to assess the city’s need for an alternative water supply. The plan includes a proposal for the construction of a desalination plant. If everything goes according to schedule, the plant could be operational by the end of 2022, and located along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel or in San Patricio County’s La Quinta corridor.

Before construction can be initiated, the city first needs to receive permits for water rights and discharge from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality....

ISRAEL – Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz has revealed that findings of irregularities at the Sorek desalination plant (one of the largest in world) will be investigated by the police. A committee tasked with investigating water quality irregularities at the plant found systematic and continuous violations of chloride concentration limits in the water over a period of more than two years.

The investigation revealed that chloride concentration exceeded limits by 20% and on certain occasions the concentration was four times higher than maximum...

AUSTRALIA – The New South Wales government has initiated preliminary planning to increase the output of the Sydney Desalination Plant to safeguard the city’s water supplies as reservoir levels continue to fall. The desalination plant, located at Kurnell, has been operational since January this year, and reached full production two months ahead of schedule at the end of July.

The plant is now producing 250,000 m³/d, roughly 15 percent of Sydney’s water supply. Undertaking the planning work allows the city to act immediately to increase water...

SAUDI ARABIA – The Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) has released a request to qualified bidders for proposals (RFPs) for the development of a desalination plant in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The plant will be located on the Arabian Gulf coast, 18 kilometers south of Jubail Industrial City and next to the existing desaliantion units at the site (Jubail Phase 1&2 and RO plants).

SWPC initially invited expressions of interest for an integrated power and water desalination plant with a capacity of 1.17 million m³/d....

EGYPT –  Metito recently commenced the construction of a desalination plant in Al-Arish, a city in the North Sinai Governorate. The project is being developed as part of public-private partnership (PPP). According to Metito the plant will have a capacity of 100,000 m³/d and will be able to supply 750,000 people in Upper Egypt. The plant is being built in partnership with Orascom Construction. The cost of the project is estimated at $96 million, and the plant is expected to be operational by 2021.^[1]  

KUWAIT – Construction...

INDIA –  Last week Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced that a joint venture led by its water and effluent treatment business, L&T Construction, has won the contract for the 100,000 m³/d Dahej desalination plant in the state of Gujarat from Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. The joint venture consisting of L&T Construction and Tecton Engineering and Construction LLC will operate and maintain the plant for 10 years once it is completed. The exact cost of the project is not known, but L&T classified the...

INDIA –  The state of Odisha is developing its first desalination plant in Paradip. Last week, the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Chennai. The plant will have a capacity of 10,000 m³/d and be built at an estimated cost of $16.4 million. It is expected be operational by 2021.^[1] 

EGYPT – The government of Egypt is contemplating the construction of desalination projects with private sector participation. Each facility would have a capacity of...

INDIA –  NITI Aayog, The National Institution for Transforming India, is planning to build desalination facilities along India’s 7,800 km coastline. The company is considering two options: setting up either floating desalination plants, or facilities located along the coast.  In both cases, the plants would run on solar energy or ocean-drawn power in order to reduce energy expenses and the plant’s carbon footprint. A network of pipes would transmit the desalinated seawater to population centers. NITI Aayog is expected to...

MOROCCO –   Abengoa is building the largest desalination plant in Africa in the southern city of  Agadir.  Company officials plan to have the plant running by 2021. The plant will initially have a capacity of 275,000 m³/d. Civil works at the site will be designed to accommodate an eventual maximal capacity of 450,000 m³/d. The project will supply drinking water to 2.3 million people in the Souss-Massa region, as well as a 15,000 hectare farming-area in the Chtouka Ait Baha region. 

The project will cost $417.7 million...

INDIA –   Last week the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu laid the foundation stone for Chennai’s third desalination plant. The project will produce 150,000 m³ of water per day.

Towards the total cost of $183.926 million, the German agency KFW will provide a loan of $102.2 million via the Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT). The new plant will be located near the existing Nemmeli facility on East Coast Road. It is expected to serve 900,000 residents once it begins operations in 2021.^[1]

ISRAEL – Israel is...

U.S.A. – City offiials of Corpus Christi, Texas are investigating sites along the city's port and La Quinta Channel as possible locations for a new desalination plant. The exact locations will be presented to the city council by August. Corpus Christi officials are also looking at other potential alternative water sources, including groundwater, aquifer storage, and recovery and water reuse. The next major steps in the desalination project will consist of determining funding sources, preparing formal requests for proposals, and the...

AUSTRALIA – Water from the Victoria Desalination Plant replenishing Melbourne’s water supply. Earlier this year, an order for 125 million m³ of water was placed, and earlier this month, it began to reach the Cardinia Reservoir. Delivery is set to continue through the following year. This water will contribute 6.9 percent to Melbourne’s water storages, which currently is at 49.8 percent and close to the lowest level since 2011.^[1]

PHILLIPINES – The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) has approved the proposal of the Metro Pacific...

MOROCCO – The Moroccan government has revealed that it is investing $33.9 million in the construction of the Sidi Ifni water desalination plant in southwest Morocco. The German development agency, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), is granting a loan that will cover the full cost of the plant. The production capacity of the plant will initially be 8,640 m³/d, but the country’s electricity and drinking water utility ONEE has plans to double this capacity in the near future.^[1]  

INDIA – Chennai authorities have announced plans to...

SOUTH AFRICA – Quality Filtration Systems (QFS), the company contracted last year to build the temporary V&A Waterfront desalination plant, is suing the City of Cape Town for breach of contract and damages. QFS submitted and won its tender based on pollution estimates that the city had provided. The company stated that it subsequently discovered that the water was more polluted by raw sewage than the city had indicated and had to install extra equipment to address the problem.

QFS also indicated that it had to spend large sums of money on...

SINGAPORE – After officially taking over the Tuaspring IWPP from Hyflux last week, the Public Utilities Board  (PUB) has started the process of replacing poorly performing membranes to ensure that the plant operates reliably. There are membranes in need of replacement in 72 of the plant’s ultra-filtration trains or racks, 17 high-pressure reverse osmosis trains, and 9 low-pressure reverse osmosis trains.

Following the completion of this work, the plant can return to operating at the contractual capacity of 318,226 m³/d. Since early 2017,...

AUSTRALIA – The restart of Sydney’s desalination plant at  Kurnell is progressing faster than anticipated. The $2.3 billion plant resumed operations in January and has been supplying water to Sydney for six weeks. The plant’s current production rate ranges between 42,857 m³/d and 57,143 m³/d. In accordance with the operating license, the plant has until September to reach its maximum capacity of 250,000 m³/d. However, plant operators expect to reach this capacity by August.^[1]

SOUTH AFRICA – A five-star hotel in Cape...

QATAR – The General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) and Umm Al Houl Power Company have signed an amendment to their contract to increase the water desalination capacity by 280,000 m³/d. Under the agreement, Umm Al Houl will build and operate an expansion to the existing plant Umm Al Houl Plant  and increase its capacity to 900,125 m³/d by 2021.

The expansion will use reverse osmosis technology. Umm Al Houl Power will act as the project’s developer, Samsung will be the main contractor, and Acciona the desalination technology...