The scope of works for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract calls for the construction and connection to the water network of a 345,000-cubic-metre-a-day (cm/d) sewage treatment plant at Kabad.

The selected group 1 contractor will also be responsible for decommissioning the existing treatment plant at Jahra, converting it to a main pumping station and connecting it to the new plant at Kabad via a 1,400 millimetre-diameter ductile iron pipeline.

MPW is understood to have budgeted in the region of $120 million for the project, but the final value is likely to be considerably higher. The local Mushrif Trading & Contractingwas low bidder early last year for the original scheme to expand the Jahra plant by 60,000 cm/d to 140,000 cm/d, but the tender was cancelled after the government changed its wastewater strategy (MEED 12:9:03).

The Kabad project is part of government policy to move wastewater treatment plants away from populous areas in an effort to reduce pollution. Kuwait City has expanded rapidly in recent years and facilities that were once in outlying areas are now much closer to population centres.

International consultants have also been invited to submit proposals for the expansion of the Umm al-Hayman sewage treatment plant in the south. 'The intention is to increase capacity by 160,000 cm/d and then close down the Riqqa plant by 2020,' says one MPW source.

Utilities Development Company (UDC), which operates the Sulaibiya wastewater treatment plant, has been asked by the government to increase capacity by 75,000 cm/d to 500,000 cm/d. The government is also planning to tender soon a contract to create a wastewater reservoir at Umm al-Rehmam dry lake in the north, near the Iraqi border. The idea is to use the 14-square-kilometre natural lake to store treated wastewater in the winter for distribution in the summer.