Kuwait signs final agreements for $1.6bn Umm al-Hayman wastewater PPP

The 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) Umm al-Hayman wastewater treatment plant will be developed by a consortium led by Germany’s Wassertechnik and the local Kuwait International Financial Advisors. The project will be developed so it can be expanded up to 700,000 cm/d in the future.

Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has signed the final project agreements for the planned $1.6bn Umm al-Hayman wastewater public-private partnership (PPP) project in Kuwait.

The PPP agreement was signed on 23 January between Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works and Umm al-Hayman Company for Wastewater Treatment, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to develop and operate and maintain the wastewater plant.

A consortium of six banks led by Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) and Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) has signed a $650m 26-year loan to finance the construction and operation of the Umm al-Hayman wastewater plant.

The 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) plant is being developed by a consortium led by Germany’s Wassertechnik and the local Kuwait International Financial Advisors. The project will be developed so it can be expanded up to 700,000 cm/d in the future.

The signing of the contracts for the Umm al-Hayman project will be welcomed by regional and international investors, with Kuwait’s PPP programme having suffered from a number of setbacks since it awarded the contract for its first PPP project, the Al-Zour North 1 independent water and power project (IWPP), in 2013.

In August 2017, KAPP cancelled the tender for the second planned IWPP at Al-Zour had been cancelled, 14 months after developers had submitted proposals. Following the announcement that it had cancelled the tender for the Al-Zour North 2 IWPP, KAPP revealed it would be integrating plans for the previously planned Al-Zour North 2 and Al-Zour North 3 IWPPS into one project.

In July 2018, KAPP restarted the procurement process for its next planned IWPP projects, inviting developers to submit expression of interest (EOI) for both the Al-Zour North 2&3 and Al-Khiran 1 IWPP schemes.

In December 2018, the client invited consultants to submit proposals for the advisory roles on the Al-Zour North project. KAPP received proposals from three consortiums for the advisory roles on the planned project in April 2019. However, in October 2019 the advisory tender was cancelled.