Saudi Arabia's National Water Company (NWC) has awarded three long-term contracts worth more than SAR3.56 billion ($948 million) for the rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of nine sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the kingdom's Eastern Province for a period of 15 years.

 

The contracts were inked with Alkhorayef Water and Power Company (AWPT) and a consortium of Civil Works Company (CWC) and Alawael Company, said NWC in a statement.

 

Under this deal, AWPT will rehabilitate, operate, and maintain STPs in Al Ahasa for 15 years, while CWC-Alawael consortium will take care of the STPs in Dammam and Al Khobar for a similar period.

 

NWC Chief Executive Officer Dr Fuad A. Alshikhmubarak signed the agreement with the representatives of Alkhorayef Water and Power Company and CWC-Awael consortium at a ceremony held ​in the presence of Engineer Abdulrahman Abdulmohsin Al Fadhli, Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, and Chairman of Board of Directors of the NWC.

 

These contracts are part of the kingdom's national water strategy to attract and engage the private sector to the investment opportunities in order to rehabilitate, maintain and operate the strategic assets of the existing companies in order to achieve environmental sustainability and increase investment in the water sector as part of an innovative model of investment agreements.

 

NWC said the value of the contract signed with AWPT for Al Ahsa STPs is more than SAR1.72 billion ($460 million), with a levelized tariff of SAR0.67/cu m, i.e. about $0.18/cu m, while the contract sealed with CWC consortium for Dammam STPs is worth SAR1.04 billion ($280 million), with a levelised tariff of SAR 0.57/cu m.

 

For the Khobar contract, it is set at more than SAR791 million ($210 million), with a levelized tariff of SAR 0.56/cu m ($0.15/cu m), it stated. 

 

The scope of work uinvolves rehabilitation, operation, and maintenance of nine STPs in the Eastern Province (Al Ahsa, Dammam, and Al Khobar) with a total treatment capacity of 1.1 million cu m/day, it added.-TradeArabia News Service