Financing for the New Cairo wastewater project in Egypt will be completed by the end of 2009, according to sources close to the project.

The project will cost about $470m to develop. A consortium of Egypt’s Orascom Construction and Spain’s Aqualia was awarded the contract in May.

“The deal is on track to be completed by the end of the year,” says a banker close to the scheme.

The project is Cairo’s first public-private-partnership in the wastewater sector and is being led by the Housing, Utilities & Urban Development Ministry.

The New Cairo wastewater plant, to be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis, will have capacity of 250,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of wastewater and a 20-year concession. The development of the project will take 2 years and should also begin before the end of 2009.

The IFC is acting as an adviser to the Egyptian government.