Desal plant with huge capacity opened to slake Jeddah’s thirst
A new desalination plant, opened last night by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, will resolve Jeddah’s water problem by supplying 240,000 cubic meters of water daily to its residential districts.
Addressing the ceremony, Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen said the desalinated water capacity of public and private sectors has reached more than five million cubic meters daily.
“We produce more than 18 percent of world’s total desalinated water supply,” the minister said, adding that the government has spent more than SR 100 billion on construction of 27 desalination plants on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. The Saline Water Conversion Corporation constructed the new Jeddah plant while the National Water Company built the 10-km pipeline. The project, which took 44 months to complete, was implemented at a cost of SR 1.5 billion. The station, which applies a reverse osmosis system, will boost the water supply that reaches Jeddah from desalination plants in Shuaiba on the Red Sea. “The new station does not work on fuel and it is environment friendly,” said SWCC Gov. Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim. “This station will raise the capacity of water desalination at SWCC to 1.3 million cubic meters daily,” the governor said. It will meet more than 25 percent of the water requirements of the city’s residents.