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Saudi’s $6.7bn water transmission plan accelerates

25 May 2023

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Water Transmission & Technologies Company (WTTCO) is planning an SR25bn ($6.7bn) new water transmission programme as part of plans to improve potable water delivery to meet future demand.

The recently formed utility has tendered three major projects, estimated to total SR13bn, covering installing more than 1,200 kilometres of wide-diameter transmission pipe from desalination complexes on the coast to interior towns and cities.

The first of the three schemes is the Al-Duwadimi to Afif water transmission system comprising a 450km-long pipeline, with a pumping capacity of 226,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), from three pumping stations and a total storage capacity of 600,000 cubic metres.

The second project is called the Riyadh Ring water transmission systems. It involves the installation in and around Riyadh of 235km of pipes with a pumping capacity of 3 million cm/d, two pumping stations and a total storage capacity of 16 million cubic metres.

The third contract involves the construction of the Shuqaiq-Jizan transmission pipeline. The pipes will have a length of 575km and serve Jizan and surrounding areas. It will have six pumping stations with a capacity of 100,000 cm/d each, and total storage of 6.2 million cubic metres.  

The pipeline projects are the first of nine that WTTCO intends to tender over the next 12 months.

In the second half of 2023, it plans to tender the Ras al-Khair-Riyadh phase two and the Ras al-Khair-Hafr al-Batin water transmission systems.

In the first half of 2024, it will launch new pipeline schemes from Tabuk to Al-Ula and from Rabigh to Jeddah, as well as the West Riyadh and Southern Riyadh transmission lines. The total estimated investment in the four projects is more than SR15bn.

The client is also planning several reservoir storage schemes requiring estimated capital investment in excess of SR10bn.

Scheduled to be released for bid before year-end are the Taif and Medina strategic reservoir systems, followed by the Abha and Riyadh reservoir projects in the first half of 2024. Longer term, the Tabuk strategic reservoir system is due to go to market in the early half of 2025.

WTTCO was drawn off from Saline Water Conversion Corporation in 2019 to manage and operate the kingdom’s existing potable water transmission and storage assets and take on responsibility for developing new ones.  

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Edward James

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