The Kuwaiti-American joint venture Utilities Development Company (UDC) is set to begin work on the world’s largest wastewater reclamation plant. The facility will process some 375,000 cubic meters of sewage each day, converting them into potable-quality treated water for agricultural use.
UDC signed a 114.25 million Kuwaiti dinar ($377 million) loan with three Kuwaiti banks to finance the sewage treatment plant on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. The 25-year loan is equally shared by the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), Gulf Bank (GB) and the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME), Reuters reported.
UDC will commence the facility’s construction in July 2002 and expects to complete the project by year-end 2004. The BOT project is forecasted to bring in some $2.2 billion in revenues to UDC over the 27.5-year term of its operation.
A joint venture between Kharafi and the German Philipp Holzman will construct the facility, while an Italian subsidiary of Ionics will carry out a sub-contract to supply the facility’s reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration membrane technology. Kharafi and Britain's united utilities will operate the plant.
UDC is a project development partnership formed by Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons of Kuwait (75 percent) and the US-based Ionics (25 percent), a water separations technology company. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
