Spanish infrastructure company Acciona announced on Monday that its consortium with local companies Tawzea and Tamasuk has been awarded the contract to finance, construct and operate the Madinah-3, Buraydah-2 and Tabuk-2 Independent Sewage Treatment Plants (ISTP) in Saudi Arabia for 25 years.  

The consortium’s selection as the preferred bidder was reported by  Zawya Projects in August 2021. 

These Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contracts, awarded by the state-owned Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), are worth a combined €855 million ($1 billion), the company said in a press statement. 

It said these are the first BOOT/EPC (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer / Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts that it has signed in the area of wastewater treatment in the Middle East. 

The ISTPs represent a total capacity of 440,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day) that will serve a total population of 2.1 million inhabitants, according to the statement. 

The Madinah-3 ISTP would be located in Medina, the fourth most populated city in Saudi Arabia with more than 1.1 million inhabitants and will have a capacity of 200,000 m3/day, expandable to 375,000 m3/day, to treat urban wastewater.  

The consortium will also build 23 kilometres of recycled water collectors for irrigation, three storage tanks and the respective pumping stations. 

The 150,000 m3/day Buraydah-2 and 90,000 m3/day Tabuk-2  sewage treatment plants are located in the rural areas of central and northern regions of the country, respectively, and will serve one million inhabitants. 

The statement said the consortium will build 34 kilometres of recycled water collectors for Buraydah-2 and another 28 kilometres of collectors for Tabuk-2. 

The three plants will each have a collection well and pumping station, pretreatment installation, biological reactor, sludge line, and recycled water pumping station. 

Last year, Acciona was awarded the construction of the Al Khobar 2 desalination plant, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. In the same area, the group also completed the commissioning of the 210,000 m3/day Al Khobar 1 desalination plant last year, which can currently serve a population of 350,000 inhabitants.  

In the southwest of the country, on the Red Sea coast, Acciona is currently developing the Shuqaiq1 and Shuqaiq3 desalination plants, which will have a treatment capacity of 400,000 m3/day and 450,000 m3/day, respectively. 

At the beginning of this year, Acciona was appointed main turnkey contractor for the Jubail 3B desalination plant, a project to be developed and financed by a consortium formed by Engie, Nesma and Ajlan, which will have a capacity of 570,000 m3/day to supply two million people in the cities of Riyadh and Qassim.  

In the same region, Acciona designed and built the 100,000 m3/day Al Jubail RO4 seawater desalination plant for Marafiq, which serves both the city and the adjacent industrial complex in the east of the country. 

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com

This article is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Read our full disclaimer policy here.

© ZAWYA 2021