The Medina Water Directorate has issued a tender for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in the city.

The deadline for bids for the engineering, procurement and construction contract is 4 April and the tender is only open to local contractors.

The plant will have capacity of 200,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

A 300,0000-cm/d plant is already operating in Medina. The National Water Company (NWC), which owns the plant, plans to privatise it in future.

NWC also plans to outsource the management of the city’s water and wastewater networks using the public-private partnership model. It expects to issue a request for proposals for the scheme in September, with bid submissions to follow by 1 November.