Saudi Arabia - Saudi-based National Water Company (NWC) has awarded two long-term contracts worth more than SR714 million ($190 million) for the operation and maintenance of sewage treatment plants at Makkah city and Jeddah Governorate covering the Western and Northern clusters.

The agreements were signed with Saudi-French consortium of Al Awael Modern Contracting Company (Alawael) and Suez Group for the Western Cluster (Makkah Region and its governorates) worth SR365 million and Saudi-Spanish consortium of International Water Distribution Company (Tawzea), Haji Abdullah Alireza & Company, and FCC Aqualia for the Northern Cluster (Qassim, Hail, Al-Jouf, and Northern Borders regions) worth SR349 million.

Engineer Nemer bin Mohammed Al Shebel, the interim CEO of NWC, signed the deal with the representatives of both the Saudi-French consortium and Saudi-Spanish consortium in the presence of Engineer Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al Fadhli, the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture (Mewa) and Chairman of the NWC Board of Directors.

After signing the contracts, Al Shebel said: "One of the most important pillars of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 is the well-being of citizens and the quality of the services provided to them, from which the National Water Strategy 2030 emerged, through which it adopted the strategy of the NWC, which developed detailed plans to upgrade water services in the Kingdom, with participation of the private sector."

"With this signature, NWC has completed Phase I of the distribution sector as per the National Strategy of Water Sector approved by the Council of Ministers," he stated.

The strategy includes integrating water directorates under NWC and signature of the management contracts for the six clusters. Afterwards, NWC will prepare for the coming phase of private sector engagement i.e. concession contracts, he added.

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