Sfax Seawater Desalination
Seawater RO, 100,000 m3/day, expandable to 250,000 m3/day in Tunisia.
Operational
The record
- Country
- Tunisia
- Location
- Sfax
- Coordinates
- 34.740, 10.760
- Technology
- Seawater RO
- Capacity
- 100,000 m3/day, expandable to 250,000 m3/day
- Capital cost
- TND 1.18 bn updated estimated cost (2026), about US$394 m at TND 2.997 per US$ (World Bank official exchange rate, 2025 average)
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- SONEDE
- Contractor
- Metito-led consortium with Orascom Construction and Cobra (Tedagua)
- Operator
- Metito consortium (first two years O&M), then SONEDE
- Finance
- JICA loan of about 800 million dinars, with Tunisian state budget
- Award or start year
- 2021
- Commissioned
- 2024-07
Record last checked 2026-09-04.
History
- 2021-09
EPC contract to Metito, Orascom and Cobra consortium
- 2024-07
First 25,000 m3/day unit in service on 20 July 2024
- 2024-09
Fourth unit in service on 7 September 2024, bringing capacity to 100,000 m3/day
- 2024-10
Operation and maintenance phase starts on 4 October 2024
- 2026-06
Official inauguration at Gargour
Sources
9 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Smart Water Magazine, A consortium led by Metito will build the Sfax seawater desalination plant in Tunisia, 14 Sep 2021. smartwatermagazine.com.
- Webdo, Sfax: Gargour officiellement inauguree, 19 Jun 2026. webdo.tn.
- Kapitalis, Entree en service d'une usine de dessalement a Sfax, 20 Jun 2026. kapitalis.com.
- Orascom Construction, Sfax Seawater Desalination Plant.
- SONEDE, Station de dessalement d'eau de mer de Sfax. sonede.com.tn.
- Capacity of 100,000 m3/day expandable to 250,000 m3/day; first unit in service 20 July 2024, fourth unit 7 September 2024; operation and maintenance phase from 4 October 2024. African Manager, Tunisia: inauguration of major desalination plant in Sfax worth 1.2 billion dinars, 23 June 2026. en.africanmanager.com.
- Updated estimated cost of around 1.18 billion dinars.
- African Manager, Tedagua, Orascom and Metito to build Sfax desalination plant, 2021. en.africanmanager.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.
Contract worth 200 million euros. The earlier US$400 million had no source; the Budget is the 2026 cost converted at the World Bank official exchange rate for 2025 (TND 2.997 per US$), the latest full year. The 2021 capacity figure of 200,000 m3/day after expansion is superseded by SONEDE's 250,000.