The state-run North Sinai Drinking Water and Sewage Company shut down the Kilometre 17 desalination plant earlier this month after a sharp rise in Mediterranean water turbidity, cutting drinking water supply to hundreds of thousands of residents in Egypt's north-eastern territory, The New Arab reported on 11 September 2026.
Key takeaways
- Phase I of the Kilometre 17 plant, rated at 100,000 m³/day, was forced offline by rising Mediterranean turbidity, The New Arab reported.
- Once both phases are complete the facility is designed to deliver 300,000 m³/day of desalinated water, The New Arab reported.
- Egypt now operates 125 desalination plants nationwide, including 27 in Sinai, The New Arab reported.
- North Sinai hosts nine desalination plants producing tens of thousands of cubic metres of water per day, The New Arab reported.
- The retail price of a 2,000-litre water tank in Arish roughly doubled to 400 Egyptian pounds (about $7.8) after the shutdown, The New Arab reported.
What happened
Mediterranean water contamination has begun threatening drinking water supply to hundreds of thousands of people in North Sinai, after the closure of the largest desalination plant in Egypt's north-eastern territory, The New Arab reported on 11 September 2026. The state-run North Sinai Drinking Water and Sewage Company was forced to shut down the Kilometre 17 desalination plant earlier in the month, citing a rise in Mediterranean water turbidity, and said it would take the necessary measures to compensate province residents for the disruption, The New Arab reported.
Located west of Arish, the plant also serves the North Sinai cities of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah on the border with Gaza, The New Arab reported. Phase I, which has been shut down, produces 100,000 m³ of water per day; once both phases are complete the facility is designed to produce 300,000 m³/day, The New Arab reported. North Sinai is home to nine desalination plants that together produce tens of thousands of cubic metres of water each day, meeting the basic needs of hundreds of thousands of people in the province, The New Arab reported.
Impact on residents
Arish resident Mohamed Nasr told The New Arab: "We've been without water from the plant for over two weeks now. My daughters and I have to walk a long distance to get the water." He said the price of a 2,000-litre water tank has roughly doubled to 400 Egyptian pounds (about $7.8) from 200 pounds earlier, with the tank meeting his family's needs for only two or three days, The New Arab reported. The North Sinai Drinking Water and Sewage Company said it would distribute drinking water for free across the province's cities, although Nasr said the company water trucks are nowhere to be found, The New Arab reported.
Cause under investigation
A technical and environmental team toured the Kilometre 17 plant on 5 September to investigate the turbidity rise and the technical measures needed to re-operate it, The New Arab reported. North Sinai authorities have not yet determined the reasons for the rise in Mediterranean turbidity, and nobody has provided a scientifically proven cause, The New Arab reported. Some observers have linked the contamination, including microalgae blooms, to material originating near Egypt's Nile Delta, while the recent closure of several desalination plants in Israel has prompted debate over a possible common cause, The New Arab reported. Egyptian water and environment academic al-Raqab said: "I am confident that the pollution flowing into the sea from Gaza will negatively affect neighbouring countries," The New Arab reported.
Specification read
Phase I of the Kilometre 17 plant delivers 100,000 m³/day, with the full two-phase build-out designed for 300,000 m³/day, The New Arab reported. At an assumed per-capita demand of roughly 150 L/day (general industry range, not from the sources), Phase I alone serves on the order of 650,000 people, and the two-phase design would serve close to 2 million. Seawater desalination at this scale is normally built around an intake and pretreatment train (coarse and fine screening, dissolved air flotation or Lamella clarification for algal and turbidity spikes, dual-media filtration, cartridge polishing) feeding either reverse osmosis or, in older Egyptian units, multi-stage flash with post-treatment remineralisation and chlorination, which is exactly the stage this event bears on. Tertiary polishing steps such as activated carbon and ultraviolet disinfection are typically added when feed-water quality is variable, as the reported turbidity rise shows it now is. If your plant runs seawater or brackish intake with frequent turbidity or microalgae events, expected daily flow above 50,000 m³/day, and a compliance driver that forces shutdown when feed quality deteriorates, the procurement priorities move to high-rate clarification and robust pre-filtration upstream of the membranes, and to mobile or trucked water distribution that can backfill production gaps of 50,000–100,000 m³/day. For municipal procurement teams weighing similar coastal assets, our Municipal treatment overview and the Water Purification product line show where pretreatment upgrades slot into an existing train, while the Integrated Sewage Treatment range covers the inland side of the same water-reuse challenge. Comparative clarification guidance for high-solids feeds is laid out in our DAF vs Clarifier for Fabricated Metals Wastewater in Fyffe, AL (2026) brief and the DAF vs Clarifier for Mining/Metals Wastewater in Zahl, ND: 2026 Factory Buyer's Guide.
FAQ
How large is the Kilometre 17 plant and how much output is offline?
Phase I of the Kilometre 17 plant produces 100,000 m³/day; once both phases are complete the facility is designed for 300,000 m³/day, The New Arab reported. Phase I is the section currently offline, meaning roughly 100,000 m³/day of supply is missing from the North Sinai network.
What triggered the shutdown?
A rise in Mediterranean water turbidity, with microalgae blooms among the observed symptoms, The New Arab reported. A technical and environmental team toured the plant on 5 September to investigate causes and the measures needed to restart it, and no scientifically proven cause had been published as of 11 September 2026.
What is the typical treatment train for a 100,000 m³/day seawater desalination plant?
Intake and coarse screening, followed by high-rate clarification (DAF or Lamella) for algal and turbidity events, dual-media filtration, cartridge polishing, reverse osmosis (or thermal distillation in older units), and post-treatment remineralisation plus chlorination, with activated carbon and ultraviolet disinfection where feed quality is variable (general industry range, not from the sources). The reported turbidity-driven shutdown sits squarely at the pretreatment stage, ahead of the membranes.
What is the indicative cost impact for end users during a desalination shutdown?
In Arish, the retail price of a 2,000-litre water tank reportedly rose from about 200 Egyptian pounds to 400 Egyptian pounds (around $7.8) after the Kilometre 17 shutdown, The New Arab reported. Trucked-water supply chains typically cost 2–5 times piped supply in coastal utilities (general industry range, not from the sources), so a 50,000–100,000 m³/day production gap quickly translates into a multi-million-dollar weekly logistics bill.
