In 2002 Veolia Water and its 2 Israeli partners, Israel Desalination Engineering and Dankner, were awarded the B.O.T. (Build Operate Transfer) contract for the Ashkelon desalination plant, located to the south of Tel-Aviv. With a capacity of 320,000 m3 per day, the Ashkelon plant is one of the biggest projects in the world using reverse osmosis to desalinate seawater.
One of the biggest seawater desalination projects in the world
Providing water services for local authorities by desalinating seawater
The 25 year contract covers the financing, construction and operating of the Ashkelon desalination plant. By the end of 2005 the plant will deliver a capacity of 50 million m3 in each of its 2 successive phases. The plant will serve 1.4 million people using seawater which is provided by means of pipelines laid on the bottom of the sea.
The contract makes provision for significant economies of scale thanks to a better control of costs in producing water by desalination through using a reverse osmosis process developed by Veolia Water.
