Praia with approximately 140,000 inhabitants is Cape Verde’s capital, largest city and a commercial center.

The development of the urban infrastructure of Praia has made a big progress in the last years. It concerns the extension of the street network, construction of new residential buildings, renovation of old housing as well as construction of a new airport and extension of academic institutions including a university.

However, this progress is hindered by the scarcity of

high-quality water. The city features an arid climate with a long, very pronounced dry season. In fact, outside of the months of August, September and October, little precipitation falls on Praia and Cape Verde. The city has about 260 mm of rainfall per annum. The further development of the city depends on the constant and sufficient supply of clean and safe drinking water.

Only this way, it is possible to create new chances for the young population of Praia, to reduce emigration and to boost the nation’s economy sustainably.

UNIHA Desalination plant

In order to improve the supply of safe water to the urban community of Praia in the long term, the government of Cape Verde decided to employ UNIHA Wasser Technologie for the design and supply of a new state-of-the-art water treatment plant.

This EPC+F project included not only the design & supply of the entire water treatment plant but also civil works, the well intake, piping, tanks and pumping stations including supply for a nearby located power plant. The seawater desalination system itself is conceptually designed to deliver 10,000 m³/day of drinking water per day to Praia.

The end client for the project in Praia Palmarejo is ELECTRA, the public entity responsible for water and electricity in the Republic of Cape Verde.

10,000 m³/d SWRO plant in Praia