JEDDAH, 25 May 2008 — A ceremony was held over the weekend to mark the signing of a management contract with an international consortium, aimed at improving Jeddah’s water and wastewater services.
The short-term management contract will result in the formation of a self-sufficient, commercially robust organization able to provide internationally acceptable standards of service for water supply, sewerage and customer services.
Abdullah Al-Hussayen, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC), honored Hyder Consulting on the occasion for providing technical transaction advice for a strategic transformation project designed to improve water and wastewater services in Jeddah.
Hyder Consulting was appointed as a consultant in January 2007 to help determine the most appropriate international public-private partnership (PPP) model for the project. The project will increase the capacity and the operating efficiency of the water supply networks and expand coverage of the sewerage network in Jeddah to meet the projected demand from its 3.5 million population.
“Our focus was on finding the most suitable model that will address capacity constraints, improve service delivery and maintain environmental protection standards,” said Roger Ford, senior management advisory consultant at Hyder Consulting Middle East. “Our growing track record of successful PPP projects in the Middle East coupled with our international expertise gained through working with major infrastructure expansion projects across the region has been extremely valuable in designing the model for this PPP for Jeddah.”
Hyder Consulting’s mandate also included the development of the scope of services, performance regime and payment mechanism for a long-term wastewater treatment concession, which NWC will procure. The concession will progressively replace the existing ageing facilities with modern plants capable of meeting the latest environmental standards for sludge and effluent re-use.
Media sponsors of the event were Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat and Al-Eqtisadiah.