Govt to spend $ 66 bn on water projects over 10 years

The European inventor, writer and painter Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Water is the driving force of all nature.” This statement is all the more relevant in Saudi Arabia with its limited supply and arid environment.
The Saudi government has recognized the importance of water for the country's fast growing population and industries and plans to spend $ 66 billion over 10 years to provide adequate supplies. The state-owned National Water Company (NWC) will oversee the 10-year water project.
The Kingdom has allocated $ 6.4 billion for water and sanitation projects in 2013 and is building power stations to cope with growing demand.
The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia recently announced a plan to establish the world’s largest desalination plant in Rabigh, northwest of Jeddah, which will produce 600,000 cubic meters of water a day.
Muhammad Al-Thubaity, director general of SWCC in the Western Region, said: “Work on the project will start in the first quarter of 2014 and will be completed in 2018.” He added that an allocation for the multi-billion riyal project has been made in this year’s budget.
The new reverse osmosis plant will supply water to north Jeddah, Makkah and Taif. The capacity of the present desalination plant in Rabigh has been increased to 20,000 cubic meters of drinking water a day to Khalees and Rabigh.
The SWCC currently produces around 20.7 percent of the total world production of desalinated water. The company wants to add 4 million cubic meters' capacity to its desalination portfolio over the next 15 years. The SWCC anticipates a gap of about 1.5 million cubic meters between water demand and supply from current facilities by 2025.
The SWCC is responsible for desalinating seawater to augment the supply of potable water to coastal and inland cities in the Kingdom, and it is also the second largest electric power producer in the Kingdom.
The SWCC’s 30 plants produce 3.5 million cubic meters of water daily, and about 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The SWCC plants are located at 17 sites, including 14 locations on the west coast and three on the east coast.
In addition to these sites, ACWA Power International, a private sector company, has seven plants at four sites and on two barges that also contribute to the production of desalinated water. ACWA Power is a developer, investor, co-owner and operator of plants with a generation portfolio of 15,731 MW of power and 2.4 million cubic meters a day of desalinated water, an investment value in excess of $ 23 billion and more than 2,300 employees.
ACWA's president and chief executive officer Paddy Padmanathan told Arab News that his company maintains two desalination plants in Shuaibah, one each in Shuqaiq, Rabigh and Jubail, in addition to the barges.
The Shuaibah Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) facility is owned by the Shuaibah Water and Electricity Co. (SWEC) with ACWA its major shareholder. This IWPP project was the first transaction of the Water and Electricity Company (WEC) and is worth $ 2.45 billion. Shuaibah IWPP is one of the largest combined power and water plants in the world. Arabian heavy crude oil is used to produce steam for power generation and desalinated water production using multi-stage flash technology.
Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Co. (RAWEC) owns Rabigh Independent Water Steam Power Producer (IWSPP). This $ 1.3 billion transaction that provides water, power and steam to Petro Rabigh Co. (a joint venture of Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Corporation), is the largest petrochemical complex in the Gulf region. The plant utilizes heavy fuel oil to generate the electrical power and desalination needed for reverse osmosis.
Shuaibah Expansion Project Co. (SEPCO) controls the Shuaibah Independent Water Producer (IWP). The expansion includes a desalination plant utilizing reverse osmosis technology that was delivered on a fast track basis to augment water supply in parts of the Kingdom’s western region.
The Marafiq (Jubail) IWPP is owned by the Jubail Water and Electricity Company (JWAP). This $ 3.36 billion project supplies water and power to Jubail Industrial City and partially to the Eastern Province. The plant is recognized as the largest power and water desalination facility in the world. With natural gas as a fuel, the plant utilizes combined cycle power plant technology with multi-effect distillation.
ACWA Power developed the world’s first barges that are mounted, self-contained desalination plants with onboard power generators and staff accommodation. Both barges are fitted with a capacity to produce 25,000 cubic meters of desalination water a day.
The barges were initially anchored adjacent to the Shuaibah IWPP to augment its desalinated water output and thereafter relocated to Shuqaiq to alleviate water shortages in the southern region. In June 2011, the barges moved to their current location in Yanbu to support the local water infrastructure.
The largest solar-powered water desalination plant in the world is being built in the city of Al-Khafji on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
He said the use of renewable energy in the production of desalinated water would be cost effective. He explained that the pure mix used in the production of desalinated water is a ratio of 65 percent oil and 35 percent gas. He said that could be viably changed to 40 percent renewable energy, 15 percent nuclear energy and the balance from oil and gas.
Padmanathan said that his company's aim is to provide electricity and desalinated water in a sustainable manner at the lowest possible cost in the Kingdom.
Recalling the private sector partnership with the Kingdom in its saline water conversion scheme, Padmanathan explained that back in 2004, Saudi Arabia turned to the private sector to share the responsibility for generating electricity and producing desalinated water by using private public partnerships.
“Our founding shareholders saw an opportunity to use this domestic platform to create a world class developer of high-performing assets that competes with peers from the developed world. By 2009, we had amassed a powerful portfolio and took our first step outside Saudi Arabia with the strategic acquisition of a 58 percent share of Barka 1 IWPP, an operational plant in the Sultanate of Oman.
“We have established five international offices, in Dubai, Beijing, Istanbul, Johannesburg and Rabat and we have on the ground operations in Jordan and Oman. Our employee base has grown substantially to over 2,300 people. We are able to hire the best talent in the sector to fuel our growth strategy,” Padmanathan said.