Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) is pressing ahead with a SR2.2bn ($586.6m) project to build water storage facilities in Jeddah.

The first phase water storage facilities will have a total capacity of 1.5 million cubic metres, and will cost an estimated SR540m to build. It involves the construction of eight cylindrical reservoirs of reinforced concrete, which will each hold 188,000 cubic metres of water.

The water storage facility is to be built in Jeddah’s Briman area and is expected to be operational by the second quarter of 2014.

NWC is also pushing ahead with an estimated SR2bn contract to build four steel reservoirs in Mecca with a combined capacity of 760,000 cubic metres.