State water offtaker Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) has named a developer consortium comprising companies from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE as the preferred bidder for a contract to develop the kingdom’s first independent strategic water reservoir (ISWR) project in Mecca.

The team comprising the local Vision International Investment Company, Kuwait's Gulf Investment Corporation and the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) proposed to develop the project for SRhals18.11 ($c4.83) a cubic metre.

The Juranah ISWR scheme is the first of several reservoir projects that SWPC intends to develop with private sector partners. It has a design capacity of 2.5 million cubic metres.

The state offtaker named a second team as a reserved bidder. It comprises the local Abdul Aziz al-Ajlan Sons Company for Commercial & Real Estate Investment and Egypt's Orascom Construction, which offered SRhals 24.07696 for the contract.

The reservoir project is expected to start commercial operations in 2027.

SWPC qualified 17 companies that could bid for the contract in May last year.

Project goals

Previously referred to as Mecca 1, the Juranah ISWR project will be implemented using a build, own, operate and transfer model. The scheme includes a water reservoir as well as associated infrastructure and facilities.

Juranah supports Saudi Arabia’s goal to increase municipal water storage capacity to an average of three days in 2022 and seven days by 2030.

In addition, the government aims to increase water storage capacity to an equivalent of 20 days of Hajj demand in Mecca and 40 days of Hajj demand in Medina by 2022.

Two other schemes are planned for Mecca under SWPC’s 2022 seven-year planning statement.

The Mecca 2 ISWR will have a storage capacity of 6 million cubic metres, while the Mecca 3 ISWR will have a capacity of 8 million cubic metres. 

A team of US/India-based Synergy Consulting, Canada’s WSP and the local Amer al-Amr are providing financial, technical and legal consultancy services to SWPC for the Mecca ISWR projects.

SWPC is planning to develop 11 other ISWR schemes. They are located in the Eastern Province, Medina, Qassim, Tabuk, Riyadh and Jizan, as well as in Al-Baha, Najran and Aseer.

Thumbnail image: Flickr