Egypt in talks with seven companies to set up desalination plants

The Housing Ministry is in talks with seven unnamed companies to build seawater desalination plants as part of the government’s recently-announced 30-year plan to increase potable water capacity, Deputy Housing Minister Sayed Ismail said, according to a cabinet statement. The contenders include international and local firms, four of whom have submitted technical and financial studies for plants that could be built under a PPP framework, Ismail added. Housing Minister Assem El Gazzar said last month that Egypt is investing EGP 134.2 bn through 2050 to increase its potable water capacity by 6.4 mn cbm/d over six, five-year phases. This comes as water is high on the Sisi administration’s agenda to tackle potential water shortages as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam comes online in coming years.