Spain’s Acciona Agua, in partnership with the local International Consultants for Agency & Trade, has been awarded a contract for the operation and maintenance of the water supply network in New Cairo.

The four-year contract will be worth an estimated $10m a year, amounting to a total of $40m over the period.

New Cairo is located about 30 kilometres east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, and contains residential and business areas and university campuses. With the first buildings completed in 2000, the area is expected to have a total population of 3 million when completed.

The water network captures water from the River Nile before transporting it 40km and treating it at a potable water plant with a capacity of 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d). The water system contains two 2.6-metre-diameter pipes, of a total length of 42km, and three pumping stations. The pipes can transport up to 1 million cm/d to the potable water plant.

This is the second major contract that Acciona has been awarded in Egypt in the past 12 months. In October, the Spanish firm, in part of a consortium with the local Hassan Allam Construction and Germany’s Passavant, was awarded the contract to build the Gabal el-Asfar wastewater treatment plant in Cairo.

The Gabal el-Asfar project will have a catchment area covering the middle and lower parts of the Eastern part of Cairo, which currently houses about 8 million people. The project will take four years to complete.