Spanish infrastructure major Acciona has announced that its consortium with Egyptian company DHCU has secured the contract to provide operation and maintenance services for Phase Two of the Gabal El Asfar wastewater treatment complex.

The contract was awarded by Cairo-based Construction Authority for Potable Water and Wastewater (CAPW) for an eight-year period. The project scope includes rehabilitation works and upgrades on two plants of the complex, each with a capacity of 500,000 cu m per day.

Gabal El Asfar is the largest wastewater treatment facility in Africa and the Middle East (MEA), and the third largest in the world in terms of treatment capacity, at 2.5 million cu m per day. It serves the eastern part of Cairo which has a population of eight million people.

Acciona said it has extensive experience in water treatment in Egypt. In 2013, it was awarded the contract for the design, construction and commissioning of an expansion of Gabal El Asfar, increasing its daily treatment capacity by 500,000 cu m.

The company has also been involved in the construction of five other drinking water treatment plants in the country  with a total treatment capacity of more than 600,000 cu m per day that can serve an estimated population of more than six million, it added.