Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised BMCE Bank, as lender to the Société d’Eau Dessalée d’Agadir and Aman El Baraka Company on the financing, design, construction and operation of a mutualized desalination plant to provide drinking and irrigation water to the Souss Massa region in Morocco.

Established under the 54-05 Moroccan law related to delegated contract management, it is the biggest mutualized desalination project in the world for the production of drinking and irrigation water. It will be able to produce 150,000 m3 of drinking water per day, which could be extended to 200,000 m3, and 200,000 m3 of irrigation water per day. Initially built to produce only drinking water, the mutualized plant will also be used to produce water to irrigate 15,600 hectares of farmland located in the region.

The sponsors’ consortium on this project includes Abengoa, a Spain-based international company specialized in the infrastructure, energy and water sectors, and InfraMaroc, a Moroccan investment funds managed by CDG Capital Infrastructures.

White & Case also advised BMCE Bank in 2014 on the financing of the initial project.

The White & Case team in Paris which advised on the transaction was led by partners Paule Biensan and François-Guilhem Vaissier, with support from counsel Marianna Sédéfian, and associates Olivier Le Bars and Charlène Ntsiba.