Bahrain’s Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs & Urban Planning is seeking to develop a new sewage treatment plant (STP) in the southwest area of Bahrain.

The ministry has invited consultants to submit proposals for the contract to provide pre-consultancy services for designing the Southwest STP. They have until 20 February to make their submissions.

The consultant will be tasked with determining the capacity of the new STP, and assessing the potential for expansion to accommodate the future trunk sewer and primary treated sewage effluent (TSE).

The project is part of Bahrain’s efforts to expand and upgrade its sewage network, which often struggles to deal with flow levels.

In September last year, the ministry awarded an estimated $364m contract to a group of contractors for the expansion of the Tubli wastewater plant.

The consortium appointed for the work includes Saudi Arabia’s Azmeel, UAE-based Tecton and Germany’s WTE Water Technology.

The expansion will double the capacity of the Tubli plant from 200,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) to 400,000 cm/d. Tubli is currently processing more than 300,000 cm/d of wastewater, leading to raw sewage discharges into the sea.