By Akanimo Sampson
A French civil engineering construction company, Eiffage S.A. in partnership with TEDAGUA (Técnicas de Desalinisación de Aguas, S.A), a Spanish firm, has constructed a water treatment plant to improve the supply of potable water in Djibouti that faces repeated water stress.
The wind-powered plant is one of the few wind-powered water treatment plants in the African continent and the first seawater desalination plant in the East African country has been inaugurated by President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh.
The Spanish firm engages in the design, construction, and operation of desalination plants, systems for producing drinking water from brackish feed water, and plants for recycling water from sewerage feed water.
The newly commissioned wind-powered water treatment plant in Djibouti has a capacity of 22,500 m3 of water per day which is capable of serving approximately 250,000 citizens.
Eiffage and Tedagua, who will operate the desalination plant for the next five years, built a 5,000 m3 control reservoir and laid 8.5 km of 700 mm diameter pipes as part of the project, connecting the plant to the drinking water distribution network of the town of Doraleh.
The local authorities have also announced that they wish to boost the capacity of the facility to about 45,000 m3 per day once the Peper project (Production of drinking water by renewable energy), whose implementation started back in 2017, is completed.
With the latter development additional 250 000 Djiboutians will be served.
The Peper project is an essential course for Djibouti as it will help the country in the horn of Africa to embark on the development of non-conventional water resources, a necessity in a drought-stricken part of Africa.
