Saudi Arabia's National Water Company (NWC) has announced that work is currently under way on 12 major desalination projects worth more than SR 4.9 billion ($1.3 billion) covering key regions of Dammam, Al Khobar, Jubail, Al Ahsa and Qatif.
Unveiling the big infrastructure plan, NWC said the project scope includes construction of 40 water tanks with a total capacity of 1.6 million cu m in addition to pumping stations and laying of 493 km of strategic pipeline networks that will be gradually operated to serve beneficiaries in Dammam, Khobar, Jubail, Al Ahsa and Al Qatif with 24/7 supply.
The company pointed out that so far it has completed work on 11 tanks with a total capacity of 530,000 cu m in Dammam. Now eight more tanks with a total capacity of 323,000 cu m are being planned in the governorate of Al Khobar.
On Al Qatif, NWC said it is building eight reservoirs with a total capacity of 322,000 cu m. Additionally, six tanks, 158,000 m3 in total, and seven more (with 310,000 cu m capacity), are being built in Jubail and Al-Ahsa governorates respectively.
The projects underway in the Eastern Province, NWC noted, include 21 pumping stations, 5 of which are in Dammam, 3 in Khobar, 5 in Al-Qatif, 6 in Jubail and 2 in Al-Ahsa.
These involve installation of some 500,000 m of pipeline networks in total, 197,000 m of which will be executed in Dammam, 52,000 m in Khobar, 108,000 m in Jubail, 62,000 m in Al Qatif and 73,000 m in Al Ahsa governorate, it added.
In another development, NWC said it had recently completed the execution of a wastewater network project in parts of King Abdullah and Al Munsiyah districts in Riyadh, at a total cost of more than SR26 million.
The project comes as an integral part of NWC’s initiatives to increase coverage of the services it offers to its customers.
The scope of work includes the installation of more than 20 km of pipework, in addition to the establishment of a lift station with a daily capacity of 1,469 cu m, it added.
