Middle East – Desalination
The
new Az Zour South desalination plant was inaugurated on January 27,
2015 in the presence of 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.
In
2011, Veolia had been selected to build the Az Zour South desalination
plant through an international tender organized by the Ministry of
Electricity and Water.
The technology to be used was reverse osmosis membrane.
With
a daily capacity of 136,000 cubic meters of water, this plant is
operating since July 2014, and reinforces the total daily capacity of
water treatment at Az
Zour site by 25%, up to 659,700 cubic meters.
This
project located 100 kilometers south of the Kuwaiti capital had been
won in partnership with Al Ghanim International under a DBO (Design,
Build Operate) scheme.
The plant will be operated and maintained by Veolia for duration of 5
years up to 2019.
The
technical originality of the project lies in the configuration of its
water intake. Veolia implemented a pumping system on the discharge canal
coming from the cooling system of the adjacent power station. The
properties of water taken differ from those of raw seawater, to the
extent that the same will be chlorinated and its temperature will be
above usual standards. It results in CAPEX and energy
savings during the whole life cycle of the plant.
“This
new desalination plant reflects our global expertise in the
desalination sector. It demonstrates that the innovative solutions, with
high added value, that
we offer in the area of water services, as in sanitation, waste
management and energy, enable us to meet the most varied technological
challenges (and particularly that of the scarcity of water resources)
and to satisfy the highest requirements of the public
authorities and the constantly evolving needs of cities”, says Antoine
Frérot, Chairman and CEO of Veolia. “It reinforces our commitment to
foster large infrastructure projects in Kuwait and to support the
country in its challenge to respond to increasing
water demand and to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants.”
