The Saudi Arabian National Water Company (NWC) is attempting to tackle the challenges posed by water shortages across Saudi Arabia by launching a new treated sewage effluent (TSE) initiative
Loay Al-Musallam, CEO of the National Water Company, announced plans for the US$39mn project as he opened the ?Innovative Water Solutions for a Challenging Future? symposium at the fourth annual NWC Focus Day 2012.
Al-Musallam said, ?The TSE initiative is essentially designed to address the challenges of water shortages across Saudi Arabia, protect the natural groundwater resources, reduce wastewater discharge in the valleys, and develop new infrastructure.
?NWC, through its business development department, has been successful in improving the sale of the TSE and creating investment opportunities for the private sector in the field to construct new treatment plants with the purpose of increasing the overall capacity of treating domestic wastewater,? he added.
Projects have so far commenced in Makkah, Riyadh, Taif and Jeddah, with revenue generated by the TSE project estimated to peak at US$400mn by 2016. This will further increase to US$2.6bn by 2020, Al-Musallam claimed.
The initiative involves 14 agreements between NWC and local private companies, alongside further agreements with international companies.
