The plant will provide about 15 percent of the total household water in Israel when it's fully operational. The consortium comprises Israel's IDE Technologies and Elran Infrastructures, and France's Veolia Water. The total cost of the project is $250 million.
"The plant at Ashkelon is the largest of its type in the world and will boost Israel's position as world leader in the field of desalination," said Gustavo Kronenberg, chief executive of VID Desalination.
The expansion of the plant's operations will be gradual. Initially it will provide 50 mcm of drinking water. In December the plant will increase its annual production level to 100 mcm.
The Ashkelon, Israel, plant uses reverse osmosis technology to remove salt and provide high-quality drinking water. Mr. Kronenberg said that IDE's reverse osmosis technology has also been upgraded through the use of three pressure centers.
The price of water produced by the plant will be approximately $0.60 per cubic meter. The desalinated water is channeled to a nearby reservoir of Israel's Mekorot Water Company and then distributed through the national water distribution network.
Under the terms of the BOT (build-operate-transfer) agreement, VID will sell the water from the plant to the state at a predetermined price over a 25-year period. At the end of the period, the facility will be handed over to the state.
The Israeli government is planning additional desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast. The target is to produce 315 mcm of water by 2008.
The world's largest desalination plant, located along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast, started operation in the first week of August.
The water treatment plant will provide 100 million cubic meters (mcm) of desalinated water per year when it is fully operational by December 2005.