Saudi Arabia seeks reservoir design consultants

25 January 2024

Saudi Arabia’s Water Transmission & Technologies Company (WTTCO) has invited companies to bid for contracts to undertake two phases of strategic reservoir studies in the kingdom.

The first phase will entail the development of procedures, regulations, best practices and the selection of the best locations for strategic reservoirs and pipes feeding the reservoir. The study will also aim to explore possible alternatives to strategic reservoirs.

Bids for this phase of the project are due on 11 February.

The second-phase study will also look into developing standards and specifications for WTTCO’s planned reservoir projects, as well as studying and investigating aquifers in the kingdom and the possibility of utilising the aquifers as strategic reservoirs.

Bids for the second phase are due on 13 February.

A team comprising the local Vision International Investment Company, Kuwait’s Gulf Investment Corporation and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) won a contract to develop the kingdom’s first independent strategic water reservoir (IWSR) project in December.

The Juranah ISWR scheme is the first of several reservoir projects that the kingdom’s water procuring authority, the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), intends to develop with private sector partners. It has a reservoir capacity of 2 million cubic metres and an operational tank capacity of 500,000 cubic metres.

As of 2022, the total reservoir capacity in Saudi Arabia sits at 23.3 million cubic metres. Mecca has the highest share of almost 44%, followed by Riyadh at 29%.

Saudi Arabia’s National Water Strategy set a strategic storage target for 2028 equivalent to seven days of municipal water demand. 

With municipal water demand expected to reach about 17 million cubic metres a day in 2028 at the national level, Saudi Arabia is looking to increase its strategic storage capacity to about 112 million cubic metres by 2028, SWPC’s latest Seven-Year Planning Statement reveals.

According to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, an estimated $3.1bn-worth of water storage projects are being planned in Saudi Arabia.

These include reservoirs, dams and water storage tanks.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo
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