Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company is inviting private sector participation in the building and running a series of new wastewater treatment plants across the country.
NWC is issuing tenders inviting private firms to participate in developing 114 sewage treatment plants with a total capacity of 5.1 million cubic meters per day, as part of its 2030 National Water Strategy.
NWC in its initial phase will procure contracts for 15 sewage treatment plants under five contracts, which account for 2.5 million cubic meters per day, or half of the treatment capacity in Saudi Arabia, the company said on its website.
The contracts will cover four plants in Riyadh, two in the Makkah region, two in the Jeddah governorate, two in Taif and one each in the Arar, Turaif, and Sakaka, Northern Borders and Al-Jouf regions.
A request for proposals for the first contract will be issued in the current quarter, with the others to follow, NWC said.
As well as operations and maintenance, the scope of the five contracts will cover rehabilitation, operational improvements and capacity increases, the company said.
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy, is planning to sell stakes in public entities in various sectors as part of broader plans to diversify the kingdom’s revenue base and bring more efficiency to state-owned organizations.
NWC was set up as a semi-private entity to manage the kingdom’s water assets in 2003 and has since agreed to series of deals with private sector consortiums, allowing them to build and run water assets in the kingdom through offtake agreements for their output.
Saudi Arabia has invited bid for sewage treatment plants privatization
