Oman’s Public Authority for Water & Electricity (PAEW) has re-issued a design, build and operate tender for Wadi Dayqah Water Treatment Plant.

Bids for the 125,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) plant are due by 16 March 2015.

19 companies have collected documents for the project. They are:

• Larsen & Toubro (Oman)
• Acwa (Saudi Arabia)
• Target Engineering (UAE)
• Cadagua (Spain)
• Arabian Industries (local)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Degremont (France)
• STFA (Turkey)
• Abeima (Spain)
• National Buildings Construction Corporation (India)
• Galfar Engineering & Contracting (local)
• Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)
• Larsen & Toubro Limited (India)
• Acciona Agua (Spain)
• Towell Infrastructure Projects (local)
• Eagle Electromechanical (UAE)
• Global Chemicals & Maintenance Systems (Oman)
• Hyflux (Singapore)
• Metito (UAE)

The PAEW received bids from nine contractors in May 2013 for the project, but did not make a contract award.

The treatment plant will be located at Wadi Dayqah dam, in Quriyat, 50 kilometres south of Muscat. The dam, which was completed in 2009, has a storage capacity of about 100 million cubic metres and supplies 35 million cubic metres a year (cm/y) of water to Muscat, Qurayyat and Wadi Dayqah.

Water demand in Oman is set to grow at 6 per cent a year, from 782,000 cm/d in 2013 to 1.2 million cm/d in 2020. The PAEW is investing RO580m ($1.5bn) in new water supply schemes over the next five years, improving network coverage in rural areas.

Most this growing demand will be met by independent water projects (IWPs), such as Qurayyat and Suwayq desalination plants. Bids were submitted for the Qurayyat IWP, with a capacity of 200,000 cm/d, in October 2014. The tender for the 225,000 cm/d plant at Al-Suwayq is yet to be issued.