Turkish contractor Mapa has been awarded a SR895m ($262m) contract to build the Arafat to Taif water transmission system pipeline.

The work will involve building a 45km pipeline from Arafat to Taif, in addition to pumping stations and 12.5km of tunnels. The client for the project is state desalination provider the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC).

The project is expected to take four years to complete, and is part of the kingdom’s ambitious programme to increase water desalination capacity and transmission supply across the kingdom to meet the rapidly growing demand. SWCC forecasts it needs to increase the current desalination capacity of 5.1 million cm/d to 7.3 million cm/d by 2020 to meet growing demand.