Ashkelon Desalination
Seawater RO, 119 million m3/year in Israel.
Landmark The 2005 concession whose record-low bid price set the template the Gulf's IWP programmes still follow.
The record
- Country
- Israel
- Location
- Ashkelon
- Coordinates
- 31.630, 34.520
- Technology
- Seawater RO
- Capacity
- 119 million m3/year
- Capital cost
- US$270 million
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- State of Israel (Water Desalination Administration)
- Contractor
- VID Desalination Company (IDE Technologies 50%, Veolia Water 25%, Elran Infrastructures 25%)
- Operator
- VID Desalination Company
- Finance
- Project finance under a 25-year BOT concession
- Award or start year
- 2005
- Commissioned
- 2005-08
Record last checked 2026-09-20.
History
- 2005-08
first water delivered
- 2005-12
full contracted output reached
- 2006
named Desalination Plant of the Year by Global Water Intelligence
- 2010
capacity expanded by about 20 per cent
Sources
6 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- World Bank, Water Management in Israel: Key Innovations and Lessons Learned (2017), Table 4.2 Major Seawater Desalination Plants in Israel. documents1.worldbank.org.
- Ashkelon listed as 2005, 25-year BOT, IDE 50% and Oaktree 50%, US$0.78/m3, 119 million m3/year, estimated capex US$0.27 billion.
- Legislative Council of Hong Kong Research Office, Fact Sheet: Seawater desalination in Israel, April 2017. legco.gov.hk.
- Gives 115 million m3/year, estimated cost US$212 million and a 2015 price of US$0.70/m3. Globes, Ashkelon desalination plant begins operations, 7 August 2005. en.globes.co.il.
- Consortium IDE Technologies 50%, Veolia Water 25%, Dankner Elran Infrastructures 25%, NIS 1 billion invested, first water August 2005 and full output by December 2005. IDE Technologies project page, Ashkelon Desalination Plant. ide-tech.com.
- 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.
396,000 m3/day nominal, 25-year BOT, client Israel Water Authority, expanded about 20% in 2010, GWI Desalination Plant of the Year 2006. Capacity in this row follows the World Bank figure; see notes on the conflict with daily-rate figures. Coordinates are the Ashkelon southern industrial zone beside the Rutenberg power station, taken from the OpenStreetMap way named Rutenberg Power Plant, the ground on which IDE Technologies and the desalination literature place the plant; they are given to two decimals because no plant boundary is mapped.