Egypt’s General Authority for New Urban Societies has tendered two contracts for wastewater projects in different locations.

In one of the deals, the work will involve building the first phase of a sanitary drainage water treatment plant, which will have a capacity of 5,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), in the New Tiba City area of Luxor. When completed, the total facility will have a capacity of 20,000 cm/d. The initial closing date for the tender is 3 November.

For the second scheme, the winning contractor will be required to implement the first phase of a 15,500-cm/d wastewater treatment plant for the New Qena City development in Qena. Firms have until 25 November to submit prices.

The projects are the latest in a number of wastewater schemes the government is pushing ahead with, as it attempts to upgrade the country’s ageing utilities infrastructure.

The Cairo and Alexandria Construction Authority for Potable and Wastewater Agency (CAPW) recently awarded a deal to a consortium of Hassan Allam Construction (local)/Acciona (Spain)/Passavant (Germany) to build the Gabal el-Asfar wastewater treatment plant in Cairo. The primary and secondary wastewater treatment facility will have a capacity of 500,000 cm/d.

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 scheme will take four years to complete.

Egypt is also planning to build a public private partnership (PPP) wastewater treatment plant at Abu Rawash. Four of the seven groups orignially prequalified by the CAPW for the Abu Rawash contract are still in the bidding.