Saudi Arabia is implementing water and wastewater projects worth 8.7 billion Saudi riyals ($2.3 billion) in partnership with the private sector, a Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) official said. 

A total of six projects, evenly divided between desalination and wastewater projects, will start operations from the end of 2021 up to the fourth quarter of 2023, SWPC’s Water Infrastructure Planning Lead Majed Al-Rumaih said while speaking at the Future Projects Forum this week. 

He said SWPC has drawn up an ambitious plan to implement 5 million cubic metres per day (m3/day) of desalination capacity and 1.2 million m3/day of wastewater treatment capacity from 2022 to 2030. 

He added that in SWPC will commission in the coming months two million m3 of strategic storage and 4,000 kilometres of water transmission pipelines. 

Al-Rumaih said SWPC will announce the first phase of its Small-scale Sewage Treatment Plant (Small STP) programme with sizes ranging from 1,000 m3/day to 25,000 m3/day in 2021.  

Small scale STP plan 

His colleague Raed Akhlaf, Environment Treatment Systems Expert said the programe will be implemented from 2022 to 2027 in partnership with the private sector. 

He said a study by SWPC had concluded that Saudi Arabia needed 147 Small Scale STPs adding up to 490,000 m3/day of treatment capacity and 14,000 metres of sewage collection networks.  

Akhlaf said the first phase will start in Jazan with 21 small STPs followed by rest of the Kingdom.  

“We are planning 14 plants in Asir, 8 in Najran, 20 in Makkah, 21 in Riyadh, 10 in the eastern region,  5 in Jouf, 5 in the Northern Borders, 1 in Tabuk, 17 in Madinah, 3 in Baha, 14 in Qassim, and 8 in Hail,” he said. 

(Reporting by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com) 

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