Seven international contractor groups submitted bids for the 200,000-cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) Cap Blanc plant. They are: a Spanish grouping of Befesa, with Cobra Instalaciones & Servicios; Spain's Acciona Infraestructuras; Inimna, with Aqualia, also of Spain; Singapore's Hyflux; Ionics, part of the US' General Electric; the UK's Biwater; and a Canadian/French consortium of SNC Lavalin and Degremont. The same groups, with the exception of Biwater, also submitted technical bids for the 200,000-cm/d Tenes facility.

For the smaller 50,000-cm/d El-Tarf project, four bids were received from Inima, Acciona, Hyflux and a Turkish/Korean joint venture of Baytur and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. All three plants will utilise reverse osmosis (RO) technology. They will be built on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis and include 25-year operation and maintenance agreements.

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