French companies Degrement and OTV have been awarded contracts worth Eur 39.7 million ($34 million) in total to design, build and operate for a limited period five wastewater treatment plants.

Degrement will build three plants in the north. It bid Eur 6.7 million ($5.8 million) for the Chekka complex, Eur 6.2 million ($5.4 million) for the Batroun unit and Eur 7.6 million ($6.6 million) for the Jbeil plant. Within the Chekka package is construction of a sludge incinerator, for Eur 3.1 million ($2.7 million), which will process output from all three of the northern plants. The southern Nabatieh plant and the Ras Naby Younes plant in the Chouf have been awarded to OTV for Eur 7.3 million ($6.3 million) and Eur 9 million ($7.8 million) respectively. Bids from the Bouygues subsidiary Stereau were turned down. The Council for Development & Reconstruction (CDR) is receiving financing for the project from the French government.

In line with the conditions of the French financing, detailed design of pipe networks for each of the plants must be executed before construction of the plants can begin. The CDR is expected to commission a local company to carry out the detailed design soon, and to issue tenders for construction by the end of 2000. It is estimated that primary pipeline networks a total of 450 kilometres in length will need to be built in addition to secondary and tertiary networks (MEED 2:6:00).

Construction of all five plants, each to take 28-30 months to complete, is to run in parallel.

The contracts also cover the operation of the plants for a three-year period.

The project forms part of a programme to build 35 wastewater treatment plants countrywide (MEED 7:7:00). France's Cabinet Merlin is the consultant for the French phase.