Contractors are working on proposals for the planned Jeddah Airport phase 2 sewage treatment plant in Saudi Arabia.

The Jeddah Airport 2 STP has been in planning and prequalification stage for a number of years, but, due to a number of delays and changes to designs, little progress has been made.

However, the client, National Water Company (NWC) invited contractors to submit bids in the first quarter of the year with an initial submission date in May. This has now been extended to late July.

The proposed STP will have a capacity of treating up to 500,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), significantly higher than the originally planned 132,000-150,000 cm/d.

While NWC has invited bids for the EPC project, some in the kingdom’s water sector think that the client may switch the model to a public-private partnership (PPP) before any contracts awarded. This is similar to the planned Jeddah 4 desalination plant, being overseen by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWC), which has been tendered as an EPC project but could be switched to an independent water project (IWP) as part of the kingdom’s efforts to encourage private sector investment in the new lower-oil priced era.

MEED reported in May that SWCC’s governor, Abdulrahman al-Ibrahim, had been appointed as acting CEO of NWC. Al-Ibrahim replaced Loay al-Musallem, who had been CEO of NWC since the company was established in 2008.

The project is part of NWC’s programme to expand and upgrade the kingdom’s wastewater and water supply networks. In 2011, NWC set out plans to spend a total of SR249bn ($66.4bn) on the wastewater and water network sectors in the period 2011-20. However, the utility provider has struggled to make progress with a number of planned projects.

In July, NWC awarded a $22m contract to a consortium led by Spain’s FCC Aqualia to provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services for two wastewater treatment plants in Mecca.

The Spanish firm, in consortium with the local Al-Khorayef Water & Power Company, will provide O&M services for the Hadda and Arana treatment plants, which have a combined average flow of 250,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and a maximum treatment capacity of 375,000 cm/d. The three-year contract will have a total value of about $22m.