Zuwara Desalination
Thermal MED, 40,000 m3/day in two units of 20,000 m3/day in Libya.
Out of service
The record
- Country
- Libya
- Location
- Zuwara
- Coordinates
- 32.891, 12.172
- Technology
- Thermal MED
- Capacity
- 40,000 m3/day in two units of 20,000 m3/day
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Out of service
- Owner or client
- General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL)
- Contractor
- ENKA, with Sidem (Veolia) supplying the MED evaporators, boilers and auxiliaries
- Operator
- General Desalination Company
- Finance
- —
- Award or start year
- 2007
- Commissioned
- 2014-07
Record last checked 2026-10-12.
History
- 2007-03
EPC contract period began
- 2010-11
ENKA contract period ended
- 2014-07
First unit started production on 9 July 2014, about three years behind the original schedule
- 2026-08
National Oil Corporation reports preparations to restart the plant after more than seven years of shutdown
Sources
8 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- ENKA, Zuara Desalination Plant Project. enka.com.
- Client GECOL; site within 10 km of Zuwara in western Libya, about 100 km from Tripoli; 2 x 20,000 m3/day plant burning heavy or light fuel oil, lump sum turnkey EPC with commissioning and start-up; contract period March 2007 to November 2010; main process equipment, MED evaporators, boilers and auxiliaries from Sidem (Veolia); 3,696 m of 600 mm piling required by weak coastal soil.
- Libya Herald, Zuwara desalination plant coming on-stream, Jul 2014. libyaherald.com.
- Capacity 40,000 m3/day from two units, built by Sidem; the first unit was to start production on 9 July 2014 and the second ten days later, three years later than originally scheduled; the plant serves Zuwara, Al-Jamil, Rigdaleen, Al-Asaha, Zultan, Ras Jedir and Ajilat, with plans to rehabilitate the older Zuwara plant and build plants at Misrata, Benghazi and Tripoli.
- National Oil Corporation, NOC drives effort to reopen Zuwara desalination plant after years of inactivity (31 Aug 2026). noc.ly.
- Preparations are underway to restart the plant after more than seven years of shutdown (as recorded by the fact-check, Oct 2026; the page refuses automated reading).
- Libya Observer, Zuwara Water Desalination Plant set for restart after more than seven years, Aug 2026. libyaobserver.ly.
- 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.
Gas now flowing from the Mellitah complex. Coordinates from the OpenStreetMap feature named محطة تحلية المياه-زوارة, Zuara Desalination Plant, on the coast east of Zuwara.