The board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has recently approved up to $200 million in financing for a desalination project in Algeria that will supply urgently needed potable water to 25 percent of its capital city’s population.
OPIC will provide a loan to Hamma Water Desalination SpA, sponsored by Ionics Incorporated of Watertown, MA, for the construction and operation of a reverse osmosis seawater desalination facility that will deliver 200,000 cubic meters of potable water daily to Algiers through a joint venture with the state-owned Algerian Energy Company. The project will establish the first private reverse osmosis potable water desalination plant in Algeria.
OPIC President and CEO Dr. Peter Watson said the project would help Algiers meet an urgent need for potable water – household consumption in the city is approximately 15 gallons per day, about one-seventh that of average U.S. consumption, and half of the city receives water only one out of every three days – and support the Algerian government’s effort to attract private capital to water infrastructure projects.
