Egypt will sign contracts to build 21 desalination plants next year, Sovereign Fund of Egypt CEO Ayman Soliman said at a Reuters conference last week. More than 200 developers from 35 countries have shown interest in bidding for the projects, Soliman said.

The projects will make up the first USD 3 bn phase of the government’s desalinationprogram. These plants are expected to process a combined 3.3 mn cubic meters of water per day. The program will later expand this to 8.8 mn cbm/d at a total cost of USD 8 bn.

Pre-qualification to bid for the plants opened late last month and was set to close at the end of last week, two government sources and a top private-sector CEO told us earlier.

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