A joint venture of the local Hassan Allam Construction and the UAE’s Metito has emerged as the low bidder for the contract to expand the Abu Oweiqal water treatment plant in Egypt.

MEED reported in May that at least seven groups had submitted proposals for the project. After evaluating technical criteria, Egypt’s Construction Authority for Potable Water and Wastewater (CAPW) qualified four bidding groups from the technical stage. The commercial proposals were opened on 27 September, and the Hassan Allam/Metito group was the low bidder.

The other three bidders that qualified for the commercial opening were:

• Orascom Construction Industries (local) / Wabag (Austria)
• Alexandria Construction Company (local) / Veolia Environnement (France)
• Emit (Italy) / Misr Cement Company (local)

The work will involve expanding the Abu Oweiqal plant by 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and building an associated discharge pipeline.

The facility is one of several major water treatment plants Cairo is pushing ahead with. In October 2015, CAPW awarded the local Societe Egyptienne D Entreprises a deal worth about $10m to expand the capacity of the Al-Toukh water supply facility by 69,000 cm/d. The scheme is due to be completed in July 2017.

Cairo is also seeking to develop several water treatment facilities under its public-private partnership (PPP) model.