Saudi Arabia’s Water & Electricity (WEC) has received prequalification entries from 15 companies for its planned independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) at Dammam.

WEC received the statements of qualification (SOQ) from 15 groups by 18 January for the planned ISTP, which will have a capacity of 330,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).

MEED reported in November that WEC had invited companies to submit expressions of interest for the Dammam scheme, which will be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model. WEC received 64 expressions of interest for the planned sewage treatment plant.

The project will be developed under a 25-year sewage treatment agreement (STA), under which the sewage capacity will be provided by the National Water Company (NWC). WEC’s obligations under the STA will be guaranteed by a credit support agreement from the Saudi government.

WEC is also planning to develop the planned Jeddah 2 Airport sewage treatment plant (STP) under a PPP model, which will have a total treatment capacity of 500,000 cm/d. The new ITSP will be located adjacent to the existing 350,000 cm/d Jeddah Airport STP.

The advisory team working on the Dammam and Jeddah Airport 2 ISTP projects will be led by Japan’s Mizuho Bank, financial adviser, and will also include UK-based Atkins, owned by Canada’s SNC Lavalin, technical adviser, and US-based law firm White & Case as legal adviser. MEED reported in September that the advisory team had been selected for a handful of planned PPP sewage treatment plants and related projects.