The government of Israel and Mekorot Water Authority, Israel’s national water company have reached an agreement to sell and repair Ashdod Desalination Plant. The plant is currently owned by Mekorot, the selling procedure will be carried out by issuing a public tender. The plant was built by the IVM consortium (Minrav Holdings Ltd. and Spanish company Sadyt). 

The Ashdod desalination plant is located in the coastal city of Ashdod and has a design capacity of 100 million cubic meters. The construction of a plant was not successful due to engineering and other issues. Thus the plant is struggling to give output, causing financial losses to the authority.

The repairing of the plant will be financed by the Mekorot and IVM consortium and executed by the buyer of the plant. With this privatization, the Mekorot is expecting to end annual losses of US$ 20 million from the operation of the plant. The government has also proposed plans to add natural gas or solar power plant to generate profit sources.