Saudi Arabia puts $53bn into water projects

A proposed Saudi desalination plant

Water  is an invaluable resource for every country and as such, Saudi Arabia is planning on investing $53 billion into a variety of water projects over the next 15 years.

According to the chief executive of the National Water Company, Loay Al Musallam, around 70 percent of the investment will be for sewage and waste water treatment projects in the kingdom. As with most countries, a large amount of water is wasted in ineffective sewage systems; Saudi Arabia aims to change that.

"We currently have a sewage project in Riyadh and Jeddah with an investment of 18 billion riyals and we are looking to expand these projects to the rest of the kingdom," Al Musallam said to Arabian Business at a MEED conference in Dubai.

"We rely on desalination which is very expensive and that's why we need to increase the utilization level of sewage water."

Reusing water

The reusing of sewage water will be key in Saudi plans, as currently it only contributes six to seven percent to the water used across the kingdom. In a region where water is an vital resource, it is no surprise to learn that Saudi Arabia will aim to extend their water treatment and sewage facilities, aiming to cover 60 percent of the population over the next two years.

This will mainly be done through the private sector with the remaining 40 percent being covered by government projects.

"We have no sewage flooding problems in Saudi, it's just that the private sector companies prefer to work in large cities compared to small villages, that's why these areas will be covered by state projects," Al Musallam added.

Saudi Arabia has come a long way over the years in terms of preserving its water. In 2008, Saudi Arabia set up the National Water Company to oversee privatisation of expensive sewerage services and efforts to save dwindling water resources. As such, the firm controls of all the kingdom's groundwater wells and sewage and desalination plants, which were previously in the hands of various government bodies in a convoluted system.

Now, it is hoped that water will be diverted towards development of the country, to be used for agriculture, generating electricity and to run power stations and homes.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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