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Key facts
- Project
- Middle Area Desalination Plant Expansion – RO Al Basa (USAID Task Order AID-294-TO-16-00008)
- Client
- Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)
- Funded by
- USAID
- Capacity
- Expansion from 2,600 to 6,000 m³/day
- Value
- US$ 14,109,008
An international desalination industry report described the completion of the Deir Al Balah (Al Basa) desalination plant expansion, built by MACC for the Palestinian Water Authority with USAID funding, as something to celebrate.
An international desalination industry report, in an article titled "One step forward, two steps back", looked at the water crisis in the Gaza Strip: one of the most densely populated places in the world, with little rainfall, no major freshwater source and 97% of its coastal aquifer unfit to drink because of seawater intrusion and sewage contamination.
Against that background, the report noted that the completion on 31 January of the expansion of the Deir Al Balah seawater desalination plant, which until then produced 2,600 m³/day, was something to celebrate. MACC built the expansion of the Middle Area (Al Basa) plant for the Palestinian Water Authority under USAID's Infrastructure Needs Program II, with construction management by AECOM; final acceptance was in January 2019.
The works raised the plant from 2,600 to 6,000 m³/day with a two-pass reverse-osmosis process and calcite remineralisation, three new beach wells, a 1,548 m intake header, a brine line laid partly offshore, three new buildings, a 1,150 kVA standby generator and a solar PV system.