Kuwait’s Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB) has prequalified six groups to bid for the contract to build the Umm al-Hayman wastewater public-private partnership (PPP) project.

The PTB, together with the Public Works Ministry, will invite the six consortiums to bid for wastewater project when the tender documents have been prepared.

The Umm al-Hayman project will increase the capacity of the southern region of Kuwait for dealing with waste by 20 times compared with current capabilities.

The plant will have an initial capacity of 500,000 cubic metres per day, which is planned to be increased to 700,000 m3 by 2020.

The six groups that have prequalified are:

• Besix (Belgium/Orascom Construction Industries (Egypt)/ Aqualia (Spain)
• Kharafi National (local)/ Sumitomo Corporation (Japan)
• Marbubeni Corporation (Japan)/Al-Ghanim & Sons (local)/K Water (South Korea)
• Mitsui (Japan)/GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/Ahmadiah (local)/Fouad Alghanim &Sons (local)
• Veolia Water (France)/ Samsung Engineering (South Korea)/ Itochu (Japan)/ Al Sager & Bros (local)/ Degremont (France)
• WTE (Germany)

The initial phase of the plant is scheduled to be operational by 2015.

The Umm al-Hayman plant is one of a number of projects Kuwait is planning to boost its utilities infrastructure. In July, Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) awarded a KD88m ($313m) contract to the local Kharafi National to operate and maintain a co-generation power and water plant at Shuaiba North.