Israel Desalination Engineering and the Hutchison Group were reported by IsraelNN.com on 15 December 2009 to have been awarded a Shekel 1.8 billion (US$ 475 million) contract to build the Soreq desalination plant near Ashdod.
The price per cubic meter of desalinated water in the winning bid was reported to be Shekel 2.19 (US$ 0.58), but, with the linkage mechanism requested by the winner, the price was Shekel 2.01 (US$ 0.53), significantly lower than previous desalination bids.