The Az Zour South reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant was inaugurated this week in Kuwait that will boost the site’s water capacity by 25%.
Veolia was awarded the tender in 2011 by the country’s Ministry of Electricity and Water, in partnership with Al Ghanim International.
Under a DBO (Design-Build-Operate) scheme, the plant will be operated and maintained by Veolia over a five-year period, up to 2019.
Operating since July 2014, the Az Zour project, 100 km south of capital Kuwait City, produces 136,000 m3/day. The new capacity will boost the site’s water capacity by 25%, up to 659,700 cubic metres in total.
For the water intake, Veolia implemented a system to pumpcooling water from the discharge canal from an adjacent power station.
According to the firm, due to the increased temperature of the cooling water compared with normal seawater, this results in “CAPEX and energy savings during the whole life cycle of the plant”.
The plant was inaugurated by HE Abdulaziz Abdullatif Al-Ibrahim, Minister of Public Works and Minister of Electricity and Water in Kuwait, Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development; Antoine Frérot, Chairman of Veolia; and Christian Nakhlé, French Ambassador to Kuwait.
Earlier this month, Veolia signed an agreement to extend the Sharqiyah desalination project in Oman (see WWi article).
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