By John — Desalination News
Egypt’s public-private partnership (PPP) committee has formally cleared two of the country’s largest coastal desalination projects to move forward as PPP tenders: a 1 million cubic meter-a-day plant at Suez and a 900,000 cubic meter-a-day plant at Port Said. Combined, the two plants would add nearly 1.9 million cubic meters a day — about 693.5 million cubic meters a year — to Egypt’s desalination capacity once built, continuing a PPP pipeline this blog has tracked since September.
The decision, taken at a committee meeting on 25 October under Egypt’s PPP Law 67 of 2010, as amended, moves both plants from general pipeline status into active tender preparation. The Suez plant went a step further in the same meeting, receiving approval not just to join the PPP list but to proceed directly to tender. The committee did not disclose an equivalent tender-approval timeline for the Port Said plant, which for now has only been cleared for PPP procurement.
The Suez plant is designed to be built in two phases, reaching a combined 1 million cubic meters a day — roughly 365 million cubic meters a year — at full build-out. Its second phase is intended to also supply Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, the planned government and business hub east of Cairo, broadening the project’s significance beyond the Suez Canal Economic Zone it primarily serves. The Port Said plant, a central seawater desalination facility, would add 900,000 cubic meters a day, or about 328.5 million cubic meters a year, serving Port Said and parts of Ismailia governorate. The same committee meeting also cleared four industrial wastewater treatment plants, with a combined average capacity of roughly 90,000 cubic meters a day, for tender.
Neither project has a disclosed cost estimate, construction timeline or contract-award date yet — both remain at the tender-preparation stage, with no bidders, financing arrangements or EPC contractors named. The approvals fall under Egypt’s long-running strategic desalination plan for 2020-2050, which has driven a wave of PPP tenders for coastal plants over the past year as the government works to reduce reliance on Nile water for municipal and industrial use along the Suez Canal corridor and the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.
The Suez and Port Said clearances build on a pipeline Egypt’s Ministry of Finance first outlined in September, when it detailed 16 PPP projects worth a combined $3.08 billion spanning desalination, wastewater and power, and a narrower $2.68 billion, four-plant desalination tender pipeline detailed in early October. The Suez and Port Said plants mark a concrete procedural advance within that broader pipeline — moving from an announced intention to an approved, named tender — rather than new additions to it.
That distinction matters for an Egyptian market that has become one of the most active in the Middle East and North Africa this year, driven by a national strategy to diversify water supply away from the Nile. Clearing specific, large-capacity plants for tender, rather than simply restating pipeline totals, is the step that typically precedes prequalification and bidding, and it signals the government intends to keep up the pace of its PPP rollout through the rest of 2026.
Both projects now move into tender preparation. The Suez plant’s tender already has formal committee approval to proceed, while Port Said still needs that additional sign-off before bidding can begin. No prequalification lists, bid deadlines or financing partners have yet been announced for either plant.
(Source: Ahram Online, Smart Water Magazine)