Saudi Arabia has announced more than 60 water projects worth $9.33bn (SAR 35bn), a top official said at the Mena Desalination Projects Forum 2022 in Abu Dhabi.
This positions the kingdom as the world’s largest water desalination market. Once completed, the projects will triple the kingdom’s desalination capacity to 7.5mn cu m of water a day, from the current 2.54mn cu m in 2021.
“Saudi Arabia has been increasing its investment in clean energy, power and water. We have integrated the water desalination and wastewater treatment in the water sector and have been expanding our capacities across the industry,” stated Khaled Al Qureshi, chief executive of Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).
Saudi Arabia’s National Water Strategy, which was published in 2018, adopted a sustainable approach to the water sector and is committed to safeguarding the kingdom’s natural resources and environment, Al Qureshi said during his keynote speech.
He added: “Saudi Arabia has been increasing its investment in clean energy, power and water. In the water sector, we have integrated the desalination and wastewater treatment and have been expanding our capacities across the industry.”
“We have been increasing the number of water projects over the last few years. In 2020, our organisation approved 11 Independent Water Projects (IWPs) and nine Independent Sewage Treatment Projects (ISTPs), while last year, we approved eight IWPPS, 14 Independent Strategic Water Reservoir (ISWR) projects and seven Small Sewerage Treatment Plant (SSTP) project clusters.”
“However, I am happy to announce that this year, we have approved more than 60 water and sewerage projects worth more than $9.3bn (SR35bn), that will increase water desalination capacity as well as increase strategic water reserves and the capacity to treat more wastewater in the coming years.”
Saudi Arabia
SWPC has successfully achieved financial close of projects worth US$2.5bn (SAR 9.4bn) during the last two years. Additionally, according to Al Qureshi, there are more than $5.5bn of water projects currently under construction in the kingdom.
“We are developing a network of 147 SSTPs with 14,925 kilometres of wastewater collection network that will recycle a large amount of wastewater across the country,” he said.
According to Ventures Onsite’s MENA Desalination Market report, investment in desalination projects in the Middle East and North Africa has increased substantially in recent years. It accounts for 48% of global desalination projects, with further investments expected to spur the market to $4.3bn by 2022.
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