Market brief
Egypt
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Egypt, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for EgyptMarket snapshot
The commercial picture in Egypt: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Percentile among all countries; higher is more stable.
Investment climate
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (Build-Operate-Transfer desalination programme)
- Tracked pipelineUS$ 5.8 bn in our projects register
- Active fundersAfDB, World Bank
- Climate adaptation planAdopted (2022)
Opportunities
- National 2050 desalination build-out (BOT pipeline)
- Agricultural drainage reuse at scale
- Smart metering & non-revenue-water reduction
- Delta wastewater treatment expansion
Key challenges
- Near-total dependence on the Nile (>90% of supply)
- Upstream GERD flow uncertainty
- Rapid population growth above 105 million
- Coastal aquifer salinity in the Delta
Sources: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports (latest available); World Bank 2023–24. Figures approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2024).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Egypt. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; regulators set the tariff and the service standard.
- Ministry of Agriculture & Land ReclamationMinistry
- Ministry of Housing, Utilities & Urban CommunitiesMinistry
- Ministry of Water Resources & Irrigation (MWRI)Ministry
- Egyptian Water & Wastewater Regulatory Agency (EWRA)Regulator
- Holding Company for Water & Wastewater (HCWW)Utility
- Egyptian Public Authority for Drainage Projects (EPADP)Irrigation & drainage
- National Water Research Center (NWRC)Research
- Orascom ConstructionEPC & technology
How deals are structured
The framework in Egypt is Active (Build-Operate-Transfer desalination programme), the schemes we track carry US$ 5.8 bn of disclosed value, and the funders most active in the sector are AfDB, World Bank, Green Climate Fund.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 22 tracked schemes in Egypt, 2 name a concession structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Two things changed in Egypt in the last year and neither is on most tender lists. Law 172 of 2025, gazetted on 1 September 2025 and in force six months later, reconstitutes the water regulator as an independent authority reporting to the prime minister and creates operating licences of up to fifteen years, obliging the ministry to activate private participation.34 And in August 2026 the state replaced sovereign guarantees on the desalination programme with free land, take-or-pay offtake and performance-linked pricing.5 The first desalination tender has slipped from December 2025 and had still not been launched.56
| Procuring body | The contracting authority tenders; the Supreme Committee for public-private partnership, chaired by the prime minister, approves the annual list, the projects and the pricing, and the partnership central unit at the Ministry of Finance reviews the documents and monitors execution.1 |
|---|---|
| Route | Public tender in two stages with pre-bid clarifications; private tender for specialised projects; or direct contracting for urgent state need, a well-performing incumbent, or a private-sector initiative supported by feasibility studies.1 |
| Foreign bidder | May bid directly and price in foreign currency, converted at the central bank rate on the date of technical opening; in practice a branch or local entity performs the work.2 |
| Project company | Must be majority private: public shareholding is capped at 20%.1 |
| Contract form and term | Design-finance-build-operate-maintain-transfer against a long-term water purchase agreement. Minimum five years and maximum thirty from completion, longer only by cabinet decree; the desalination programme uses usufruct of twenty to thirty years.175 |
| Payment security | Sovereign guarantees have been withdrawn and replaced by free land, take-or-pay offtake and performance-linked pricing. Currency and energy prices are the named residual risks.5 |
| Governing law | Egyptian law is mandatory. Arbitration or other dispute resolution needs Supreme Committee approval.1 |
| Challenge window | Pre-contract complaints go to a finance-ministry committee within 15 days and are decided within 30.1 |
The current bidder pool is the seventeen consortia the Sovereign Fund of Egypt pre-qualified, still in place in September 2025.6 Five treatment plants were in preparation in May 2026, including Abu Rawash at 400,000 cubic metres a day rising to 520,000 at peak, on a design-build-operate-maintain basis at about US$157 million.7 What could not be established: withholding tax and VAT treatment, and whether the holding company signs the water purchase agreements, which no fetched source states.
Regulatory intelligence
The rules shaping investment:
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Resources & Irrigation Law | In force | 2021 | Consolidated water law: licensing, protection zones, penalties. |
| PPP Law (amended) | In force | 2021 | Framework used for desalination and treatment concessions. |
| Reuse code ECP 501 | In force | 2015 | Treated-wastewater reuse classes by crop and treatment level. |
| Desalination PPP programme (SFE) | Active | 2022– | Phased tenders toward multi-BCM coastal capacity. |
| Law 172 of 2025 on the water and sanitation facility | In force | 2025 | Reconstitutes the regulator as an independent authority and creates operating licences of up to 15 years. |
| Tariff reform | In progress | – | Stepwise municipal tariff increases under fiscal reform; the holding company denied in August 2026 that any increase had been approved. |
Principal instruments; primary references are the irrigation ministry and the regulator reconstituted under Law 172 of 2025.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Egypt, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
22 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
What has actually been signed in Egypt, from the awards log and the major projects register.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Egypt carrying a published value
9 further awards in this sector carry no published value and are not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 on line | Gabal El-Asfar Wastewater Plant | Orascom Construction, Arab Contractors | n/a |
| 2022 on line | New Administrative Capital Wastewater Plant | Hassan Allam Construction | n/a |
| 2021 on line | Bahr El-Baqar Wastewater Treatment | Orascom Construction, Arab Contractors | 740 |
| 2021 on line | East Port Said Desalination | Metito and Orascom Construction joint venture | 130 |
| 2021 on line | New Delta (El-Hammam) Treatment | Hassan Allam Construction, Orascom Construction, Arab Contractors and Metito joint venture | 3,000 |
| 2020 on line | Al Arish Desalination | Metito | 97 |
| 2020 on line | Al Galala Desalination | Metito and Orascom Construction joint venture | n/a |
| 2020 on line | Al-Mahsama Agricultural Drainage Treatment and Reuse | Metito and Hassan Allam Construction joint venture | 100 |
| 2019 on line | New Administrative Capital Nile Water Transmission | Arab Contractors, Orascom Construction, Concord for Engineering and Contracting and Ebna Elaam | n/a |
| 2017 on line | Abu Rawash Wastewater Plant | Orascom Construction and FCC Aqualia joint venture | 430 |
| 2017 on line | East Alexandria Sludge Treatment Unit | SUEZ and The Arab Contractors (consortium); design by AAW Consulting Engineers | n/a |
| 2016 on line | New Alamein Desalination | Aqualia Infrastructure and FCC Construccion | n/a |
| 2014 on line | Al Yosr (Hurghada) Desalination | Metito | n/a |
| 2009 on line | New Cairo Wastewater Plant | Orasqualia | n/a |
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. 15 rows in total for Egypt.
Repeat winners
- Arab Contractors2 tracked awards
- Metito2 tracked awards
- Metito and Orascom Construction joint venture2 tracked awards
- Orascom Construction2 tracked awards
Firms or consortia appearing on two or more tracked awards in Egypt.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Egypt, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.013 – 0.065 | not published | 2018 | Prime ministerial decree of 31 May 2018, as reported; HCWW statement of 2 August 2026 |
EGP 0.65/m³ for the first 10 m³ a month rising to EGP 3.15 above 40 m³, with sanitation billed at 75% of the water charge. This is the schedule set by the prime ministerial decree of 31 May 2018 and applied from the June 2018 bill; the holding company denied on 2 August 2026 that any increase had been approved since. Among the lowest tariffs in the region in dollar terms, below Algeria and above Iraq, and falling in real terms as the pound depreciates against a schedule fixed in 2018.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Egypt, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- 2026-05The five-plant PPP bundle, led by the SCZone desalination plant, had still not been tendered when last reported.August 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
12 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Shand & Partners, guide to PPP investment under Egyptian law. A practitioner guide.
- Shand & Partners, government procurement in Egypt, 2025.
- Law No. 172 of 2025 on the organisation of the drinking water and sanitation facility, text and commentary, gazetted 1 September 2025.
- The Water Diplomat, “Egypt’s water sector opens avenues for public-private partnerships”, 14 July 2026.
- Enterprise, “Egypt swaps sovereign guarantees for land and long-term contracts”, 12 August 2026.
- Enterprise, “Government to relaunch stalled desalination PPPs in December”, 21 September 2025.
- MEED, “Egypt prepares to tender five water treatment plants”, 25 May 2026.
- FAO, AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: country water resources, withdrawals by sector and dam register. fao.org/aquastat. Latest country values as compiled at build.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators and country water-sector reporting. data.worldbank.org.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2024 update — political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- World Resources Institute, Aqueduct 4.0 Water Risk Atlas (2023) — the sub-basin risk, stress and groundwater-decline layers on the interactive maps. wri.org/aqueduct.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.