A consortium comprising the local Khorafi group, US firms Bachtel and Ionics, and United Utilities of Britain on Monday won a $400-million water treatment project in the emirate, sources said.
The decision to award the first major build-operate-transfer (BOT) project was taken by the emirate's Central Tenders Committee (CTC), the body that awards all government contracts that exceed $325,000in value, CTC sources said.
The winning companies defeated bids from two other consortia comprising Kuwaiti and French companies specialized in sewage water treatment.
The winning consortium will build a sewage treatment plant in Sulaibiya, some 30 km (19 miles) west of Kuwait City, and sell its output of treated water to the state for irrigation use.
Kuwaiti MPs last July called for the government to freeze the process of awarding the lucrative contract until detailed scientific and environmental studies on the project were made. The government rejected the non-binding recommendation.
The Khorafi group is headed by businessman Nasser Al-Khorafi, the younger brother of parliamentary speaker and former finance minister Jassem.
Kuwait, a desert state, obtains more than 90 percent of its drinking water needs from five major water desalination and power plants, and the rest comes from underground brackish water. — (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
