France’s Saint-Gobain PAM has been awarded an estimated €200m ($268m) contract to supply pipes for Qatar’s Water Security Mega Reservoirs project.

The company was awarded the deal by the local Aljaber Engineering, which is installing the pipelines for package C of the scheme. The client for the mega reservoirs project is Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa).

For package C, Aljaber will install pipelines and fibre-optic cable ducts for the corridor between primary reservoir and pumping station (PRPS) 3 at Rawdat Rashed and PRPS 4 at Abu Nakhla. Aljaber won a $436.7m contract in late June for the package.

The UAE/Australian Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) was awarded a $300m deal for the installation of pipelines for packages A and B of the mega reservoirs project.

HLG, operating as Leighton Contracting (Qatar), will supply, install, test and commission 120 kilometres of 1,600-millimetre diameter iron pipes and fittings. The work will also include trench excavation, backfilling and construction of all valve chambers. Work on the scheme will begin in June, and is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2016.

China Harbour Engineering Company was awarded the contract to install pipelines for package B.

The Water Security Mega Reservoirs scheme has been designed to provide seven days of strategic water storage within its network, which will shore up the country’s reserve water supplies to protect against any future disruptions in supply.

Each reservoir site will contain up to 10 reservoir modules, which could be the largest of their type in the world. The reservoirs and pipeline network, with associated pumping stations, are planned to store up to 15 million cubic metres of potable water.

The scheme will connect the desalination plants at Ras Laffan and Ras Abu Fontas, which will skirt the western side of Doha. The pipeline will also connect to five reservoirs on the outskirts of the capital, which will be linked by about 200km of large-diameter pipeline.

The concept design for the reservoirs project was completed in early 2011 by French project manager Sogreah, now part of the Artelia Group. In February 2012, Kahramaa appointed the UK’s Hyder to provide engineering and environmental consultancy services for the scheme. The scope of Hyder’s work includes pre-design studies, preliminary design, detailed design, tender procurement and construction supervision.