A consortium of the local Hassan Allam Construction/Acciona (Spain)/Passavant (Germany) has been awarded the contract to build the Gabal el-Asfar Wastewater Treatment Plant in Cairo.

The Hassan Allam Construction-led consortium submitted the low bid for the contract in August 2012. The Cairo and Alexandria Construction Authority for Potable and Wastewater Agency (CAPW), the client, received bids from three groups to build the 500,000 cubic metres a day primary and secondary wastewater plant, and prequalified two of the three bidding consortiums on the technical proponents of their bids.

The other bidder, which was prequalified on its technical submission, was the consortium comprising France’s Degremont and the local Arab Contractors.

The Gabal El-Asfar project will have a catchment area covering the middle and lower parts of the Eastern part of Cairo, which currently houses about 8 million people. The project will take four years to complete.

Egypt is also planning to build a public private partnership (PPP) wastewater treatment plant at Abu Rawash. CAPW prequalified four groups for the contract to build the Abu Rawash plant in May 2013.

The client reopened prequalification in January after the PPP Central Unit had initially produced a list of prequalified companies allowed to bid to build the Abu Rawash plant in early 2011. That process was hit by delays resulting from the Egyptian revolution and changes in the specification of the project, leading the client decided to restart the process earlier in 2013.

The four consortiums which have been prequalified for the project are:

• Degremont Company (France)
• Hochtief consortium: Hochtief (Germany), Metito (UAE), PWT (US)
• Kharafi National Company (Kuwait)
• Orascom consortium: Orascom Construction (local), Aqualia (Spain), Veolia (France), Icat (local)

The winning bidder will sign a 20-year PPP agreement for the design, financing and construction of a secondary treatment stage, sludge management facilities and cogeneration unit.

Power from the cogeneration unit will feed into the wastewater treatment project. The costs associated with adding power generation to the project is to be reflected in higher bid prices.

CAPW is receiving technical assistance from the PPP Central Unit of the Finance Ministry. The UK’s Trowers & Hamlins and KPMG are the government’s legal and financial advisers respectively.