Ensenada Desalination Plant

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In August 2011, the South Korean company GS Inima was awarded the contract to build and operate a reverse osmosis desalination plant at Ensenada, Baja Califórnia (capacity of 250 liters per second or 5.7 gallons a day). Besides GS Inima, nine other companies took part in the bidding process: Aqualia Infraestructura, S.A.; Abengoa México, S.A. de C.V.; Promotora del Desarrollo de América Latina S.A. de C.V.; Sistemas y Equipos Hidráulicos S. R.L. Atlatec S.A. de C.V.; Cobra Instalaciones México S.A. de C.V.; Proactiva Medio Ambiente México S.A. de C.V.; Rust Servicios Ambientales e Ingeniería S.A. de C.V.; Tecnología Intercontinental S.A. de C.V. The bidding criteria was the lowest payment to be received from the state government. The contract was signed in December 2011, with the duration of 20 years of operation. The sponsors created the special purpose company Aguas de Ensenada to lead the project. The investment was estimated at US$ 48 million, of which one third would be government funded, and two-thirds funded by the private sponsor. In January 2015, the Nadbank approved a US$ 22 million to the project. Commercial operations were expected to commence in 2016.