The US’ Dow Chemical Company has won a contract for a water nanofiltration plant in Saudi Arabia.

The Electricity & Water Ministry is the client.

Dow will supply nanofiltration technology, which will filter radioactive agents in water from underground wells in the Hail area in the northwest of the kingdom. The plant will have capacity of 33 million gallons a day of water, enough to supply 500,000 to 750,000 people.

The plant will come on line in the second half of 2010.

Dow is already working on a 5.5-million-g/d nanofiltration plant in the area. It will be operational by the end of 2009.

The plants will help address the problem of the diminishing quality of groundwater in Hail, where wells have been contaminated with naturally-occurring heavy metals and minerals, such as radium.