The unusual step highlights the lucrative nature of the deal for potential bidders, with 39 entities expressing interest in the plant so far. “This is the first strong PPP project in Egypt,” says Ibrahim Mahlab, chairman and chief executive officer of The Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company).

The private sector will now enter into a PPP for the construction, financing, operation, and maintenance of the new plant, which will be on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital.

The successful bidder will build a plant with an initial capacity of 250,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and a final capacity of up to 500,000 cm/d. This will later be expanded to 1.25 million cm/d. But even this will not be the end of the increase in wastewater treatment capacity for New Cairo.

The 1.25 million cm/d plant could represent only the first of four branches of a much larger wastewater treatment project.

Once the wastewater treatment complex is complete, it will treat 4 million cm/d of water a day.
The client is the Housing, Utilities & Urban Development Ministry, represented by the New Urban Communities Authority.

The invitation for prequalifications for the contract will be issued on 16 December.