Saudi Arabia?s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has announced plans to build the world?s largest desalination plant in Rabigh, northwest of Jeddah
According to SWCC, the facility will have a daily output capacity of 600,000 cubic metres (cu m).
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."
The new facility will supply water to northern areas of Jeddah, Makkah and Taif.
SWCC currently produces around 20.7 per cent of the total world production of desalinated water and is the largest procurer of desalination infrastructure in the world. The company anticipates a gap of about 1.5mn cu m between water demand and supply from current facilities by 2025.
New plants are also under construction in Ras Al-Khair and Jeddah, which will provide an extra 1.3mn cu m. SWCC has identified capacity expansions at Shuqaiq, Shuaiba and Jubail and two new plants at Alkhobar and Yanbu, which will add a further two million cu m to its capacity.
