The biggest package is a design and build contract for the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in El-Bureij with peak capacity of 135,400 cubic metres a day (cm/d). Nine international companies have prequalified to bid for the contract. They are understood to include: Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC); Germany's Ed Zueblin; Germany's PWT; Denmark's Pihl & Sons; Egypt's Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company); US-based Earth Tech; and Europe's ABB.

Three other packages are to be tendered: The design and build contract covering Wadi Gaza central pumping station (CPS) with capacity of 135,000 cm/d; the construction of a 3.7-kilometre pressure mainline from the CPS to the WWTP; and the construction of gravity pipelines.

Bids are expected to be submitted within two-three months. The project is designed to protect the region's groundwater resources and to reduce health risks for residents of Gaza City and five other communities. On another CMWU project, request for proposal (RFP) documents have been released for the contract to carry out financial consultancy work on the Gaza 2 scheme - the second emergency water project in Gaza. The bid deadline for the project, the management component of which is being financed by KfW, is 14 March. Three firms - one Finnish, one American and one from the UK - are understood to have prequalified. Austria-based Inframan is the project operator on the $20 million World Bank-funded project, which aims to co-ordinate and improve water and wastewater management and revenue collection (MEED 11:11:05).