Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) has confirmed plans to initiate first water supply services in the cities of Medina, Dammam and Al-Khobar within the next 6 to 12 months, MEED’s Mena Water conference in Abu Dhabi was told on 6 November.

The expansion of services into the three cities will mean that NWC will supply 64 per cent of the kingdom’s potable water supply.

Speaking at the MEED event, Nasser al-Amri, head of the TSE business unit at NWC, said that significant strides in management and operational improvement had allowed the company to approach 2014 targets in timely manner.

By the end of 2014, NWC aims to begin providing water and wastewater services for Medina, Dammam and Al-Khobar, which will involve servicing a total population of 2.2 million and a daily potable water supply of 809,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

NWC has already begun managing water services in Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca and Taif, which have a combined population of 10.6 million people and a daily potable water supply of 2.7 million cm/d.

From 2013-17, NWC is spending SR50bn on projects in the seven cities to provide water and wastewater services. The majority, SR18bn will be spent in Riyadh, SR15.7bn will be spent on water schemes in Jeddah, and SR10.7bn will be invested in Mecca and Taif. Approximately SR2.8bn has been allocated for Medina and SR2.8bn will be spent in the cities of Dammam and Al-Khobar in the eastern province.