Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) is planning to develop a Barka 5 desalination plant as part of its programme to keep up with rising demand for water.

The planned Barka 5 plant will have a capacity of 100,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d). As with all of OPWP’s utilities project, the desalination plant will be developed under the independent water producer (IWP) model.

The project will be the next phase of desalination capacity at the Barka site, with the Barka 4 desalination facility scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.

In 2016, OPWP awarded a contract to a consortium of Japan’s Itochu, France’s Suez, France’s Engie and the local WJ Towell to develop the Barka plant, which will have a capacity of 281,000 cm/d when fully commissioned.

The Barka 5 IWP is the second major IWP that OPWP is planning to move ahead with to meet the forecasted demand for water by 2022. MEED reported in February that OPWP had appointed advisers for the proposed Ghubrah 3 IWP, which will have a capacity of 300,000 cm/d. Developers submitted prequalification entries by 18 March for the Ghubrah 3 project.