Egypt’s Construction Authority for Potable Water & Wastewater (CAPW) is still evaluating the technical proposals for the contract to develop the public private partnership (PPP) Abu Rawash Wastewater Treatment Plant project.

CAPW, which is being assisted by Egypt’s PPP body, the PPP Central Unit, had planned to award and sign the contract to develop the facility at the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm el-Sheikh in March. However, due to the technical evaluations taking longer than envisaged, the client has still not opened the commercial proposals.

According to sources close to the project, the client is expected to complete technical evaluations by the end of April and then open the commercial proposals before selecting a winning consortium and making a formal contract award.

The CAPW and PPP Central Unit received bids from three consortiums for the contract in late January. They were:

• DegremontCompany (France)
• 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 expansion of the existing Abu Rawash Wastewater Treatment Plant from 1.2 million cm/d  to 1.6 million cm/d and construction of an advance secondary treatment stage for the Abu Rawash facility. The project will also include the operation and maintenance of the whole plant with a capacity of 1.6 million cm/d.

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.

The project has faced a number of delays since it was first launched. 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 Abu Rawash project is regarded as an important part of Egypt’s development programme, with a number of major utility and infrastructure schemes set to follow after the wastewater scheme reaches financial close.