Egypt’s Construction Authority for Potable Water and Wastewater (CAPW) has prequalified four groups for the contract to build the Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant.

CAPW reopened prequalification in January for the wastewater treatment plant, which is planned to be procured using the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The PPP Central Unit initially produced a list of prequalified companies allowed to bid to build the Abu Rawash plant in early 2011, but due to delays resulting from the political uprisings and changes in specifications, the client decided to restart the process earlier this year.

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 absorbed by the bidders 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.

CAPW is currently evaluating proposals it received from groups in August last year for the contract to build the 500,000-cubic-metre primary and secondary wastewater plant. The water agency prequalified two of the three bidding consortiums on the technical proponents of their bids and is currently assessing the proposals from both groups.

The low bidder is the consortium of the local Hassan Allam Construction, Spain’s Acciona and Gemany’s Passavant. The other bidder, which was prequalified on its technical submission, is 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.