The Comisión Estatal del Agua (CEA) in the state of Baja California, Mexico, is expecting between five and eight firm offers when tenders close on 22 July 2011 for the El Salitral seawater desalination plant in Ensenada.
According to the authority’s director, Efrain Muñoz Martin, quoted in BNamericas, the CEA has been carrying out meetings with a number of the 25 firms registered to bid, the last of which was held in May. One of these is Consolidated Water Co, which announced that it was bidding last month.
“Many [of the companies] register separately but they are grouping together, forming consortiums so we think between five and eight is the number of offers we will receive,” the director added.
With a capacity of 21,600 m³/d, the desalination plant is intended to provide supply for 96,000 people at an estimated cost of Peso 500 million (US$ 42 million). The reverse-osmosis plant will be fed from beach wells with Ranney-type infiltration galleries.