Kuwait goes big on clean-up with $3.3bn China-backed sewage plant

Kuwait has approved a contract worth KD999.85m ($3.3bn) with a Chinese state-owned company to build the country’s largest sewage treatment plant, the official gazette reported on Sunday.

The Central Agency for Public Tenders approved moving ahead with a “direct contract” between the Ministry of Public Works and China State Construction Engineering Corp 601668.SS to build the North Kabd sewage plant.

The project is part of a broader set of China-backed developments in Kuwait, including the $4bn Mubarak Al-Kabeer port project signed in December with China Communications Construction Co 601800.SS.

The sewage facility will process up to 1 million cubic metres of waste water a day.

The Chinese company will design, build, operate and maintain the plant over a 10-year period.

Oil-rich Kuwait struggles to reuse treated wastewater, much of which is discharged into the sea due to limited storage capacity and infrastructure problems, said Reuters.

Quality constraints confine reuse to irrigation only.