Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) announced on Monday the laying of the foundation stone for the 600,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day) Rabigh 4 Independent Water Plant (IWP).

The ceremony was attended by Khalid Al-Quraishi, the CEO of SWPC, and officials from the project’s developers and contractors, according to an announcement posed by SWPC on its X (formerly Twitter) account.

A consortium comprising of ACWA Power, Almoayyed Group, and Haji Abdullah Alireza Company (HAACO) was awarded the contract in February 2023 to build and operate the 2.55 billion Saudi riyals ($680 million) IWP project for a period of 25 years.

The sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant is scheduled to start commercial operations in the first quarter of 2026 and supply potable water to the Makkah and Madinah regions.

In July 2023, a consortium of Power China, SEPCOIII, and WETICO was awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the Rabigh 4 IWP.

(Writing by Senthil Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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