(Reuters) -Kuwait will sign a contract with China in mid-October to build its largest wastewater treatment plant by capacity, the North Kabd plant, the state news agency reported on Thursday.
The facility will process up to 1 million cubic metres of wastewater a day, using advanced technologies.
Oil-rich Kuwait struggles to reuse treated wastewater. Much of it is discharged to the sea due to limited storage capacity and infrastructure problems, and quality constraints confine reuse to irrigation only.
The project is among several mega-developments Kuwait is pursuing with Chinese support, including the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, power and water plants, renewable energy and waste recycling projects and new residential cities.
Kuwait signed several memorandums of understanding with China in 2023 during a visit to Beijing by then-Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to cooperate on a range of projects. Sheikh Meshal became emir of Kuwait in December 2023.
The agency cited the assistant foreign minister for Asian affairs as saying that Kuwait is working with China to sign contracts for other major projects once Beijing completes its studies for each project.
Ambassador Sameeh Johar Hayat, who spoke to the state news agency after the 28th meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Oversight of Chinese Projects, chaired by the prime minister, did not disclose the project’s value or the name of the Chinese state-owned company that will carry it out.
Kuwait has “formally informed” Beijing that it is starting contracting procedures with the Chinese state-owned company assigned to implement two major renewable energy projects, Ambassador Hayat said.
He did not name the company, but local media suggested it is likely to be State Power Investment Corp.
Kuwait-China relations are “at their best in history,” Ambassador Hayat told reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of a reception marking China’s National Day.
(Reporting By Ahmed Hagagy; Editing by Mark Porter)
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