The Ministry of Equipment and Transport of Morocco has announced that 6 consortiums have applied for the Desalination public-private partnership (PPP) project in Casablanca.

The companies that have applied are as follows: Spanish Abengoa, French Engie, Japanese Mitsui, Chinese CCCC, Moroccan Nareva (with Suez) and Spanish Acciona. The project will involve the development of a seawater desalination plant in Casablanca, Morocco. The estimated budget for the project is MAD9.5 billion (US$1.056 billion). The plant has a capacity of 548,000 m3 per day (200 million m3 per year) with the possibility of expanding up to 822,000 m3 per day of treated water (300 million m3 per year). The plant should provide desalination water for irrigation of a perimeter of 5,000 ha. The project involves offshore works for the intake and discharge of seawater, and its electricity supply is mainly from renewable energy sources. 

The winner will be chosen in the first half of 2023. Work on the project is planned to start in June 2023, and the commissioning of the first stage of the project is expected in June 2026 (from 2030 to the second stage).