New plant opens as Egypt launches plan to quadruple its desalination capacity
Several African countries are turning to desalination and other alternative water resources amid growing water scarcity compounded by climate change and increasing human pressure on natural resources. Water-scarce Egypt plans to quadruple its desalination capacity within the next four years.
As part of Egypt’s national strategy to improve accessibility to drinking water, a seawater desalination plant that will serve New Mansoura recently began operations.
New Mansoura is a development on the Mediterranean coastline launched by the Egyptian government in 2017. The development, which will accommodate 1.5 million people when completed, is located roughly 50 km north of the old town of Mansoura. The towns will be linked by a new electric railway system.
The reverse osmosis desalination plant was built by Hassan Allam Construction in collaboration with Fluence, a global leader in desalination solutions. The plant, which can treat 80,000 m3/d, is expected to provide at least 2 million people with drinking water.
Long-term Desalination Strategy
This desalination project is part of the first phase of Egypt’s strategy, which aims to build 21 seawater desalination plants to add to the 70 plants that currently have a production capacity of 1.3 million m3/d.
The proposed desalination plants will be able to provide the water-stressed nation with an additional 3.3 million m3/d of water that can be used to irrigate crops or for public water supply. These plants will reduce water extraction from the Nile, which currently supplies 97% of Egypt’s irrigation and drinking water.
Once the second phase is completed, the plants are expected to increase the country’s desalination capacity by 8.8 million m3/d at a total cost of $8 billion.
Fluence Desalination Solutions
Fluence has decades of experience in financing, designing, constructing, and operating desalination plants. Fluence solutions include NIROBOX™, a compact containerized plant and NIROFLEX, pre-engineered building blocks for creating custom seawater desalination systems.
Fluence’s seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants are fitted with state-of-the-art technology, allowing them to supply high-quality drinking water. They are also extremely energy-efficient, thereby significantly cutting costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plants are fully automated and can be controlled and monitored in real time with our innovative Smart Operations system.
From small-scale, decentralized solutions that can be shipped anywhere in the world to large-scale installations, Fluence’s reverse osmosis desalination plants offer the perfect solution for providing coastal and island communities with a safe, reliable, and cost-effective source of drinking water.
Contact Fluence’s team of experts to learn more about our desalination technologies and how our cost-effective solutions can improve water security for your community or business.