ACCIONA to construct desalination plant in Saudi Arabia

The Marafiq Power and Water Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, has selected ACCIONA Agua and BinLaden Group for the construction of a desalination plant in the country.

The value of the contract has not not been disclosed.

Under the contract, the two consortium partners will design, build, and bring into service the Al Jubail desalination plant, SWRO-4, wihich will have a capacity of 100,000m³ per day.

SWRO-4 will be constructed to serve the city of Al Jubail and its associated industrial complex, located in the Eastern Province of the Saudi coast of the Persian Gulf.

The total capacity of SWRO-4 will be twice the combined capacity of the city of Al Jubail’s existing five desalination plants, which are used to desalinate the Arabian Sea water and produce potable water for the residents.

The Al Jubail industrial city has two multistage flash desalination (MSF) plants, and three reverse osmosis (RO) facilities that have a combined capacity of 84,000m³ per day.

The city’s MSF plants are used to process water from the Arabian sea into drinkable water, while the RO facilities are employed to feed 12 wells in the industrial area.

Together all the desalination plants in the area are working towards addressing the water needs of Jubail and other parts of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

The contract is ACCIONA’s first project in Saudi Arabia.

The construction work on the plant is expected to begin in a few weeks, and it is scheduled to begin operation by the end of 2014.