Assem El Gazzar, the Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, met with officials from ACWA Power to discuss ways of enhancing cooperation in seawater desalination and the localization of desalination technology and related industries, Invest-Gate reports.

The meeting focused mainly on membrane manufacturing; Sayed Ismail, Deputy Minister of Housing for Infrastructure Affairs, also attended the meeting.

El Gazzar emphasized the Egyptian government’s readiness to support and encourage private sector companies to localize the latest desalination technologies and related industries by providing the necessary land to establish factories and accommodate production volumes in local, Arab, and African markets.

The minister of housing authorized the Sovereign Fund of Egypt and the Ministry of Finance’s Private Sector Partnership Unit to manage the process of interested alliances in establishing and operating renewable energy seawater desalination plants, with priority given to those localizing desalination technology.

During the meeting, El Gazzar explained that the strategic plan for seawater desalination is divided into six five-year plans until 2050, with a total capacity of 8.85 mn m3/day in 11 coastal governorates throughout the country.

The first five-year plan, which is currently being implemented, includes establishing 29 desalination plants with a capacity of 3.5 mn m3/day, expandable to 6.6 mn m3/day, to be implemented and managed by the private sector.

Officials from ACWA Power indicated that their company was qualified to execute projects larger than one mn m3/day in the first five-year plan for desalination, in addition to their electricity projects in cooperation with the Egyptian government.