Bahrain’s Works Ministry is planning to issue tender documents for the contract to expand the Tubli sewage treatment plant (STP) by the end of October.

Speaking at MEED’s Mena Water Conference in Abu Dhabi on 29 September, Khalifa Ebrahim al-Mansoor, assistant undersecretary of the Works Ministry, said the prequalification process was complete and that the ministry expected to issue tender documents by the end of October.

The expansion will double the Tubli STP’s capacity from the existing 200,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) to 400,000 cm/d. The ministry received prequalification proposals from 25 companies in January. The expansion is scheduled to be carried out between 2015 and 2018.

The scheme is being funded by the governments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, so prequalification was restricted to the following groups:

• Kuwaiti contractors;
• Kuwaiti/Bahraini joint ventures;
• Kuwaiti/foreign joint ventures or consortiums;
• Saudi contractors;
• Saudi/Bahraini joint ventures;
• Saudi/foreign joint ventures or consortiums.

The Tubli expansion project was originally scheduled to follow the example of the Muharraq wastewater treatment plant, being developed by a consortium led by South Korea’s Samsung Engineering, which has been procured using a public-private partnership (PPP) model. However, the Works Ministry has re-evaluated the Tubli plans and will now develop the scheme using a more traditional procurement method.

German firm P2m Berlin is the consultant for the expansion scheme. P2m Berlin, together with fellow German companies Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and Dornier Consulting, has provided consulting services for the development of a sewerage masterplan for the whole country.

Expansion of the Tubli plant has been a key priority for the Bahraini government for several years. Tubli is the largest wastewater treatment plant on the island and covers sewage treatment for Bahrain’s capital city, Manama.