JEDDAH, 24 March 2007 — Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen has said that Jeddah’s water problem would be solved within two years with the supply of 1.3 million cubic meters of water from desalination plants in Shuaiba on the Red Sea.
“The new desalination plant in Shuaiba (Shuaiba-3) will supply about 550,000 cubic meters of water to Jeddah when it is ready by the end of next year,” he said, adding that the per capita water share in the city would increase to 350 liters daily.
The Kingdom signed an SR9.1-billion contract in November 2005 with a consortium of Saudi and Malaysian companies to set up Shuaiba-3 desal plant, the first independent water and power project (IWPP) in the country.
Al-Hussayen, who supervised the signing of IWPP agreements in Riyadh, then said Shuaiba-3 would supply 194 million gallons of water daily as well as 900 megawatts of electricity. Work on the project started on Jan. 21, 2006 and its first unit will begin production Oct. 13, 2008.
He said the Supreme Economic Council, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, has approved four IWPPs (Shuaiba-3, Shuqaiq-2, Ras Al-Zour, and Jubail-3), adding that they would be carried out by the private sector on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.
The minister estimated the total cost of the four projects at SR30 billion. The private sector will contribute 60 percent of the cost while the state-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) will have 32 percent stake and Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) 8 percent.
The combined production capacity of the four projects will reach 492 million gallons daily and 4,500 megawatt of power. “These projects will boost the total desalination capacity of the Kingdom by 80 percent,” Al-Hussayen pointed out.
Water & Electricity Company (WEC) will sell 100 percent of the water produced by these plants to Saline Water Conversion Corp. (SWCC) and 100 percent of their power supply to the Saudi Electricity Company. A group of local and international banks are financing Shuaiba-3.
Al-Hussayen said the Kingdom would require nearly SR350 billion in investment for water and sewage projects and SR340 billion for electricity projects during the next 20 years. He said the water and electricity sectors in the Kingdom were growing at the rate of seven percent.
The Shuaiba-3, located 110 km south of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, is the Kingdom’s first privatized IWPP. Saudi-Malaysia Water & Electricity Company holds 60 percent of the project, PIF 32 percent and SEC eight percent.
Al-Hussayen also spoke about plans to establish a new desal plant in Jeddah with a daily capacity of 200,000 cubic meters. He estimated the amount of recycled water in the city at 350,000 cubic meters daily. “Three treatment plants are being built with a capacity of 240,000 cubic meters of purified water each daily,” he added.
