Saudi’s National Water to Spend $66.4 Billion on Projects

National Water Co., Saudi Arabia’s state-owned utility, plans to spend $66.4 billion on plants and repairs over the next 10 years, said Osama Dardeer, senior manager for corporate projects.

The spending plan includes wastewater facilities, an airport water-treatment plant at the Red Sea port of Jeddah and repairs to leaking pipes, he said today in a speech at a conference in the eastern city of Khobar.

The company has a project in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to generate 5 megawatts of electricity turning wastewater into methane gas, Dardeer said. National Water plans to build a similar plant in Jeddah to produce about 7.5 megawatts of power, he said. It will announce bids soon for this plant and Dardeer said the facility may be ready in two to three years.

The state-run utility has repaired leaks in Saudi Arabia’s water transmission network, saving 67 million cubic meters of water since 2008, Dardeer said. The value of water saved is about 402 million riyals ($107 million), he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wael Mahdi in Khobar, Saudi Arabia at wmahdi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net