Kuwait’s Council of Ministers has approved the recommendation for the contract awards for the planned Umm al-Hayman wastewater and Kabd Solid waste public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

In December last year, the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP), the government body overseeing the country’s PPP programme, selected a consortium led by Germany’s Wassertechnik to develop the Umm al-Hayman wastewater project. In September, KAPP selected a consortium led by France’s Constructions Industrielles de La Mediterranee (CNIM) to develop the Kabd solid waste project.

Following the approval from the Council of Ministers, both projects are expected to move towards formal contract award imminently.

The planned Umm al-Hayman wastewater plant will have a wastewater treatment capacity of 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), and will be designed and developed so it can be expanded to a total capacity of 700,000 cm/d in the future.

The Kabd plant will have an initial capacity to treat up to 3,275 tonnes a day of municipal waste.

The approval of the Umm al-Hayman and Kabd projects will be welcomed by regional and international investors, with Kuwait’s PPP programme having suffered from a number of setbacks in 2017, culminating with the cancellation of the tender for the planned Al-Zour North 2 independent water and power project (IWPP) in August.