JEDDAH, 6 December 2004 — The desalination plant in Jeddah will be shifted to another site away from residential districts as part of efforts to reduce environment pollution in the Corniche, a top government official has said.
“The plant will be shifted from its present location on the Corniche to a place away from residential areas to reduce its impact on environment,” said Prince Turki ibn Nasser, head of the Presidency for Meteorology and Environmental Protection (PMEP).
Prince Turki did not say when or where the plant would be shifted. However, he pointed out that Minister of Water and Electricity Abdullah Al-Hossaiyn had promised to shift the plant as quickly as possible because gases emitting from the facility were causing pollution on the Corniche, a major rendezvous site for both Saudis and expatriates. “The minister has also promised to use clean energy in desalination plants to reduce their impact on environment,” he said.
Jeddah Mayor Abdullah Al-Muallimi announced on Saturday that efforts to substantially reduce pollution from the desalination plants in the city have got under way. “A project to remove sulfur and other pollutants from the emissions will be complete in about two years, and bring the contents of effluents well within international standards,” he told a seminar in Jeddah.
Al-Hossaiyn, who is also chairman of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), signed two contracts in June this year for overhaul work in Phase-4 of the Jeddah plant and extension of its life. Arabian-Sasakura Company won the SR209.6 million contracts.
Prince Turki also said that SR7 billion had been allocated to solve Jeddah’s environment pollution problems caused by the lack of a sewage system. “Pollution in Jeddah has become an uncomfortable phenomenon,” Okaz Arabic daily quoted him as saying.
The PMEP chief emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation between the private and public sectors to solve environmental problems. He said the Education Ministry has contracted with a specialized company to prepare a program to enhance environmental awareness among school students.
Referring to the issue of dumping waste in Red Sea waters in south Corniche, Prince Turki said his organization had reached an understanding with the municipality to stop this practice by industries in the area. “A meeting with the Industrial Cities Commission will also be held to solve this problem,” he added. He said stiff punishment including closure of the firm for five years would be imposed on industries violating environment rules.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest supplier of desalinated water. Currently, SWCC runs 30 desalination plants on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf with a capacity to produce more than 2.9 million cubic meters of water and generate more than 3,400 megawatt of electricity daily.
Fehaid Al-Sharief, governor of SWCC, has said that desalination would remain a strategic option to meet the Kingdom’s potable water requirement. “We have so far spent nearly SR54 billion on desalination projects, which cater for 60 percent of water needs in the main cities,” he added.
Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from water. The two leading desalination technologies are thermal and membrane technologies. A thermal process involves the heating of saline water to produce water vapor that is, in turn, condensed to form fresh water. Membrane processes rely on permeable membranes to separate salts from water. Membrane processes can either be pressure-driven (reverse osmosis) which is now the most common method, or it could be voltage-driven (electro-dialysis).
