Prince Saud bin Nayef, Governor of the Eastern region, on Sunday inaugurated and laid the cornerstone of 32 water and environment projects, in the presence of Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, with a total cost of around 4.6 billion riyals to serve the governorates, cities and villages of the region.
These projects aim at enhancing water supplies and environment services to beneficiaries, increasing the production of desalinated water, meeting the increasing demand and securing water supplies, where these schemes will also contribute to supporting water and environment sustainability in the province according to the ambitious 2030 Saudi Vision.
The projects inaugurated by the governor included 24 schemes related to the environment and water aspects with a cost of more than 881 million riyals, which are expected to benefit more than 156,000 direct beneficiaries in all the cities and governorates of the province, seven projects to desalinate water with a cost of more than 3.5 billion riyals, in addition to laying the cornerstone of a project to develop the water conveyance plant, digging wells and replacing water pipelines in Hafar Al-Batin governorate with a total cost exceeding 39 million riyals.
The projects of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), which were inaugurated by the prince, included the second phase of construction works of a project to improve water networks in Al-Ahsa through increasing water pumping to Al-Hofuf to 200,000 cubic meters daily with a cost of 100 million riyals, construction of reservoirs stations at the University area in Al-Khobar with a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters and a total cost of 100 million riyals, works of strategic reserve with a capacity of one million cubic meters of water in Al-Jubail and reverse pumping for Al-Jubail desalination plant in emergency cases with a daily capacity of 300,000 cubic meters with a total cost of 1.450 billion riyals, and a project of Al-Khobar production system (first phase) that adopts the environment-friendly reverse osmosis mechanism with a production capacity of 210,000 cubic meter of desalinated water per day and a total cost of 928 million riyals to feed Al-Khobar city, Aramco Company project (Ajyal), King Salman Energy Park, and a pipeline project to feed the park with a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters of desalinated water per day and a cost of 329 million riyals, as well as a project of “Al-Tofaih Well Field Water Conveyance to Reservoirs of Al-Jubail Plant”, which will start operation during next July to enhance water supplies to the cities of the region, with an initial capacity of up to 700,000 cubic meters of desalinated water a day out of its total capacity of 110,000 cubic meters of daily desalinated water at a cost of 320 million riyals, and a pipeline project to feed King Khalid Military City in Hafar Al-Batin governorate and Al-Thebea governorate with an initial amount of 20,000 cubic meters of desalinated water a day, while the total capacity of 45,789 daily cubic meters of desalinated water will be supplied in October with a total cost of 375 million riyals.
SWCC is currently going on with implementing several under-construction projects in the region, with a total cost exceeding 5.984 billion riyals.
SWCC projects, whose total cost exceeds 9.5 billion riyals, are in accordance with goals to improve the quality of drinking water in the region and as part of the wise leadership’s initiatives to support the water sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and under the framework of the desalination strategy that aims at consolidating water resources and enhancing the basic infrastructure of the water system in all parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
