Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) is planning a capital expenditure of SR50bn ($13.3bn) on new projects from 2013 to 2017 to improve and expand the kingdom’s water and wastewater infrastructure.

Speaking at MEED’s Saudi Arabian Energy EPC Projects 2013 conference in Al-Khobar, Yahya al-Yousef, asset director at NWC, said the utility was planning to spend the money to expand its coverage of water services throughout the kingdom’s major cities. NWC currently manages 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 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

By the end of 2014, NWC is aiming to provide 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 cm/d.

As of April 2013, NWC had 243 projects under construction with a total value of SR19.8bn. The majority of these were in Riyadh and Jeddah, with SR8.7bn and SR8.3bn-worth of projects under way in each respectively. In Mecca, projects worth SR1.5bn are ongoing and SR1.3bn-worth of schemes were under way in Taif.

From 2013-17, NWC is planning to spend SR50bn on projects in the seven cities it is providing 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.

NWC is set to invest in several groundwater, water reuse and water storage projects. One of the largest groundwater projects planned is Riyadh, where the NWC is planning to develop a new 400,000 cm/d groundwater project. The new planned groundwater project will boost the water supply provided by the recently completed Riyadh Water Supply Project (RWSP). The RWSP, launched in June 2012, has increased the water supply to Riyadh by 200,000 cm/d. The project included digging 43 new wells, building 46 new wastewater treatment plants and building storage tanks with a total capacity of 180,000 square metres.

For water storage schemes, NWC is planning to build 8 million cubic metres of storage tanks in Riyadh and 6 million cubic metres of storage in Jeddah. Both water storage schemes are expected to be fast-tracked by the government. The water firm is also planning to build 1.2 million cubic metres of new sewage treatment capacity in Riyadh. The proposed project is part of Riyadh’s efforts to increase water reuse in the capital and reduce its dependence on the import of desalinated water from Jubail.

Saudi Arabia was the GCC’s largest market for new water awards in 2012, with the kingdom awarding $3bn of deals, almost 47 per cent of the total $6.4bn of awards made in the GCC.