Ghana’s government says it is close to a deal to buy the shuttered Teshie-Nungua seawater desalination plant from its Spanish-controlled owner at a price well below the US$235 million an international tribunal has just ordered the state water utility to pay.
In a statement issued on 23 September, the Office of the Attorney-General said negotiations with Befesa Desalination Developments Ghana Ltd (BDDG) had started before the International Chamber of Commerce tribunal handed down its final awards, and that the proposed purchase price was much lower than the amounts claimed in arbitration. The government said it wanted to conclude the talks as quickly as possible so the plant could return to full operation. No price, terms or signed agreement were disclosed.
The move follows the ruling we reported earlier this week, in which two ICC awards ordered Ghana Water to pay Cox $235 million over the terminated Accra desalination contract, with the Republic of Ghana liable under a state guarantee.
What the tribunal actually decided
The awards, issued on 17 September and disclosed by Cox Infrastructure Group to the Spanish securities market on 21 September, found that BDDG had validly terminated the water purchase agreement (WPA) under which Ghana Water bought treated seawater from the plant. The $235 million, net of taxes, represents termination payments, with interest running from 1 April 2026 until paid.
The outcome could have been worse for Ghana. According to reporting by YEN.com.gh, the tribunal threw out a separate BDDG claim of roughly $402 million in alleged unpaid water charges, ruling that it could not be recovered on top of the termination payment. Ghana Water’s own counterclaims, including one for $144.5 million, were largely rejected, and the utility was ordered to cover part of BDDG’s legal costs. A parallel arbitration under the state guarantee held the Republic principally liable for the utility’s obligations, although Cox has said the project company cannot collect the same money twice.
Cox, which owns 95 percent of BDDG after acquiring Abengoa’s assets in 2023, said in its market notice that the parties were still negotiating an amicable settlement, without prejudice to its rights under the awards.
A 16-year road to a judgment debt
The Teshie-Nungua scheme began as an unsolicited proposal from Befesa in April 2010, after an earlier contract with Aqualyng Ghana was cancelled for non-performance. Parliament considered the deal in 2012, and the roughly $126 million plant was commissioned in 2015 under a build-own-operate-transfer arrangement, designed to produce about 60,000 cubic metres of potable water a day for the eastern Accra coastal belt.
The relationship soured over the WPA’s take-or-pay terms and maintenance. BDDG took the dispute to arbitration in October 2024, and in October 2025, while proceedings were still running, Ghana Water shut the plant down. In February 2026 President John Mahama directed the Finance Minister, Attorney-General and Ghana Water to negotiate with the shareholders and get the plant running again, but no settlement was reached before the tribunal ruled.
Local reporting by Adom Online notes that restarting the facility will not be straightforward even with a purchase agreement: the plant has now been idle for close to a year, and an earlier condition survey by the operator described parts of it as structurally defective.
Communities still without supply
The human cost of the stand-off continues. Teshie, Nungua, Spintex and parts of Sakumono and La, together home to close to a million people, have faced rationing since the shutdown, with many households relying on tankers and boreholes.
The government is framing full state ownership as a way both to cap its financial exposure and to restore supply, echoing a wider trend we have tracked of governments taking direct ownership of desalination assets rather than relying on private concessions. Ghana’s case also joins a growing list of large plants left idle by contractual or political disputes, from Accra to the long-dormant Yuma Desalting Plant in Arizona.
For investors in African water PPPs, the episode is a double-edged signal: the state guarantee held up in arbitration, but it took two years of proceedings, a year-long shutdown and a nine-figure award to get there.