Three international consortia, the US/ Japanese Ionics/Mitsui & Companyand two Spanish groups - Barna Invst with Pridesa, and Cobra-Abensur-Codesawith Sadyt, are left in the race to construct the 200,000-cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) plant in the Algiers suburb. A fourth consortium, led by Spain's Inima, was disqualified following its failure to submit a bid bond in mid-March as part of its technical offer (MEED 28:3:03).

The selected contractor will form a project company with AEC and water offtaker Algerienne des Eaux (ADE)to design, finance, construct, operate, own and maintain the facility.

AEC plans to launch two further tenders for desalination plants in the country's urban areas before the end of the year. One tender will call for the construction of a second plant in Algiers, with the same capacity and technology as the Hamma plant, the second is for a 100,000-cm/d-capacity plant in Skikda.