KSA announces 60+ water projects worth $9.33bn
Projects make the Kingdom the world’s largest water desalination market
Saudi Arabia has announced more than 60 water projects worth a total of $9.33 billion, positioning the Kingdom as the world’s largest water desalination market, a top official has said.
Speaking at the 3rd MENA Desalination Projects Forum 2022 in Abu Dhabi, Engineer Khaled Al Qureshi, CEO of Saudi Water Partnership Company, said that once completed, these projects will increase the Kingdom’s desalination capacity to 7.5 million cu m of water per day by 2027, from 2.54 million cu m per day in 2021, nearly tripling the capacity within six years.
During his keynote address, Al Qureshi highlighted that Saudi Arabia’s National Water Strategy, which was published in 2018, adopted a sustainable approach to the water sector, and was committed to safeguarding the natural resources and the environment of the Kingdom and providing cost-effective supply and high-quality services.
“Saudi Arabia has been increasing its investment in clean energy, power and water. In the water sector, we have integrated the desalination and wastewater treatment and have been expanding our capacities across the industry,” he stated.
Al Qureshi also pointed out that SWPC has increased the number of water projects over the last few years. In 2020, it approved 11 Independent Water Projects (IWPs) and 9 Independent Sewage Treatment Projects (ISTPs), while last year it gave nod to 8 IWPPs, 14 Independent Strategic Water Reservoir (ISWR) projects and 7 Small Sewerage Treatment Plant (SSTP) project clusters, he stated.
“However, I am happy to announce that this year, we have approved more than 60 water and sewerage projects, worth more than $9.32 billion, that will increase water desalination capacity as well as increase strategic water reserves and the capacity to treat more wastewater in the coming years,” he added.
SWPC, one of the leaders in public-private partnership projects in the GCC, has successfully achieved financial close of $2.5 billion during the last two years.
Saudi Arabia’s population is expected to grow from 35 million in 2021 to around 40 million by 2026. This growth in the population will put pressure on basic infrastructure. Being an arid country, Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in its water infrastructure, stated the top official.
“We are developing strategic water reserves that should supply enough water to Saudi consumers in case of emergency. By 2029, we plan to raise the capacity to hold 45.7 million cubic metres of water – that will serve the entire country for a few days, if the water supply stops for some reason,” explained Al Qureshi.
According to him, there are more than $5.5 billion of water projects currently under construction. Saudi Arabia has adopted Public-Private-Partnerships as a procurement strategy, with 70 per cent of its water processing infrastructure projects procured on this basis.
“We are developing a network of 147 SSTPs with 14,925 km of wastewater collection network that will recycle a large amount of wastewater across the country,” he added.
SWPC has recently announced that commercial operations on the Jubail 3A independent water producer (IWP) project will commence in the last quarter of 2022.
