The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved up to US$ 200 million in financing for the Ionics’ 25-year build-own-operate (BOO) seawater desalination project in Algeria, subject to satisfactory completion of the final project and loan documents.
OPIC will provide the loan to Hamma Water Desalination SpA (HWD), a project company owned 70% by Ionics and 30% by the Algerian Energy Company (AEC). HWD will produce and sell water to Algerienne des Eaux (ADE), the national water service of Algeria, under a 25-year take-or-pay water supply contract that will be guaranteed by Sonatrach, the Algerian national energy company.
HWD will use the financing and equity from Ionics and AEC to construct and commission the reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant near Algiers.
The RO plant will produce 200,000 m3/day of potable water to supply the population of the capital city. Construction will take approximately two years. Ionics will design and supply the desalination system, and operate the facility over the 25-year water supply contract period. The HWD plant will be the first private RO potable water desalination facility in Algeria, the largest membrane desalination facility in Africa, and one of the largest in the world.
