COFIDES, the Spanish development finance institution, has supported Spanish water services developer Sacyr Agua with funding support for a major desalination plant being built by the latter in Suhar.
Sacyr Agua, a subsidiary of multinational infrastructure and services giant Sacyr SA, was awarded a tender for the construction, finance, operation and maintenance of a desalination plant with a capacity of 250,000 cubic metres/day at a total cost of around $205 million.
COFIDES has provided Sacyr with 16.1 million euros shouldered by the Fund for Foreign Investment (FIEX), a special fund managed by COFIDES, and its own resources via an investment loan. This amount contributes to co-financing the investment made by the company to build a highly efficient desalination plant based on inverse osmosis technology, which allows for energy to be recovered in order to optimise consumption.
“This is COFIDES’ first project in Oman. In recent years, the country has promoted the modernisation and extension of its transport infrastructure network, industrial development as well as its tourism, mining, logistics and fishing industries,” said the Spanish development finance agency in a press statement.
“The project contributes to SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and 13 (Climate action).
It is within of the Omani approach to the 2015 National Determined Contributions to fulfil the aims of the Paris Agreement. More specifically, this project involves an adaptation measure for climate change against the increased need for drinking water in the whole country, and it provides access for around 220,000 people to this basic commodity,” it further stated.
COFIDES’ chairman, José Luis Curbelo, noted: “It is very important to implement projects that will contribute to limiting the effects of climate change. It is essential to support the private sector which, with its technology, ideas and innovation, contribute to leading projects like this one in adapting to climate change.”
COFIDES is a state-owned company which has been offering financial support to Spanish companies investing abroad since 1988. It is accredited with the EU to manage Community budgets, allowing it to structure transactions with a high impact on development. It is also accredited with the UN’s Green Climate Fund and can structure operations on climate change mitigation and adaptation with the GCF.
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