Bahr El Baqar Water Treatment Plant - Egypt

Water & Wastewater   ::  Completed Projects   ::  2021  ::  

Client: Department of Military Works - Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces.
Contractors: JV of JV of the Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Co.) and Orascom Construction.
Consultant: Khatib & Alami.
Contractual Value: 739 million USD.
The project recorded as the world's largest water treatment plant according to Guinness World Records.
The plant in numbers:
·  Total capacity of 5.6 million m3 / day.(i.e. 2 billion m3/year).
·  490,000 ton/year of dry sludge at drying level 24%.
·  165,000 ton/year of dry sludge at drying level 75%.
·  The total number of workers in the project is 6500 engineers, technicians and workers.
·  total working hours is 25 million hours.
·  6500 piles with an average depth of 45 m.
·  500,000m3 of reinforced concrete.
·  80000 tons of rebar in addition to 2000 tons of metal structures.
·  2.5 million m3 earthworking (cut & fill – soil replacement).
·  250,000m soil upgrading in vertical drainage.
·  200.000m sludge solar drying units.
·  1.5 million ML electric cables with different sectors.
·  125,000 ML pipes with varied diameter for the networks among the project units. 

Project Description:

It is the world's largest water treatment plant. It is located 10 km south of Port Said tunnels in Sinai. The plant is built over 155 feddans approximately. It is considered one of the most important projects that aim to develop the Sinai Peninsula to leverage its natural resources. The project will contribute to the reclamation of 400,000 feddans by recycling and using agricultural, industrial and sewage wastewater, which will be diverted from the western to the eastern bank under the Suez Canal. Upon treatment, all water will be dispensed in Sheikh Jaber’s Canal.
Agricultural and industrial wastewater and sewage are collected from three drains, the largest of which is Bahr El Baqar Drain 106 km, which flows into Manzala Lake. Therefore, this water is considered a source of pollution because of its negative environmental impacts on human health and fisheries.
The daily capacity of Bahr El-Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plant is estimated at 5.6 million m3 of irrigation water. It consists of 4 identical units for physical and chemical tertiary treatment phases, as well as 2 units for sludge treatment.
a)  Water treatment line: 2 intake canals and outlet canal, water intake pumping building, rapid/slow mixing basins, sedimentation basins, filters with discs, ozone basins and chloride tanks.
b)  Sludge treatment line: sludge thickening basins, mechanical drying buildings, solar units for sludge drying; the total capacity is 490,000ton/year at drying level 24%, which is converted to 165,000 tons/year at drying level 75%.
c)  Administrative and service buildings: management, smart control, communication and power in addition to internal road networks and landscape works.
d)  Water treatment line (physical and chemical treatment phase).

Phase 1-
Pre-Treatment Phase
Intake building, that consists of the refineries and intake pumps, where the coarse and fine refineries operate on removing all small and large planktons, where water will flow to the following phase of treatment;

Phase 2-
Water Treatment Phase:
Water treatment for initial sedimentation by adding materials that would adjust pH levels and help in the formation of flocculants and sedimentation in the bottom of sedimentation basins. Then moved into the lamella sedimentation tanks that cover 11, 600 m2, used in the sedimentation tanks and pipes technology for a more efficient process;
Triple disc filters, where 120 filters are used in the project, with a designed capacity of 1,992 cubic meters per hour per filter. The filtering surface amounts to 32, 800 square meters of fine polyester membrane and a filter size of 10 microns in order to achieve the highest quality and standards of purified irrigation water.

Phase 3- Post Treatment Phase:
Includes the water sterilization process by injecting ozone or chlorine. Then, produced water is exited to Sheikh Jaber Canal.

Sludge treatment line (treatment process)

First Phase: Sludge Collection
The sedimentary solids are transferred from sedimentation tanks to sludge thickening tanks.
Second Phase:  Sludge Thickening
The sludge moves to stabilization and thickening to obtain a thicker sludge, then the dewatering and mechanical drying phase to have a higher dry rate up to 24%.
Third Phase: Solar Drying
The dry sludge at a drying level of 24% is conveyed by belt conveyors to solar drying units to be distributed and stirred continuously to gain a final product (sludge) with a drying level of 75%, where the final product will be used in agricultural applications such as land reclamation or in construction such as cement bricks, backfill materials ... etc.