ACCIONA, the Spanish multinational conglomerate has achieved a significant milestone in the construction of the Shuqaiq 3 desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.
The company has ramped up production during final testing to a full capacity of 450 million liters of potable water per day, enough to meet the needs of two million people. The plant uses energy-efficient Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology and is a key project in Saudi Arabia’s water sector development.
The new desalination plant, which is located near the Red Sea, is one of the largest to be built in Saudi Arabia and is already supplying the water network of Abha and Jizan in the southwest of the country, an extremely dry region.
ACCIONA is the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contractor for the Shuqaiq 3 Company for Water (S3CW), owner of the Independent Water Project (IWP). The project company has a long-term water purchase agreement with the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC). The contract includes the construction of a large Electrical Special Facility (ESF) to supply the plant with power.
Mr. Jesús García Prieto, ACCIONA Shuqaiq 3 IWP Project Director said, “This milestone is the result of good teamwork between the client, our engineers and the construction teams. Now that we are entering the final testing and commissioning stages, we will undertake a number of tests to make sure everything works perfectly”.
Climate change and population growth are driving demand for desalinated water in a dry region like Saudi Arabia where acute water scarcity is a serious issue. After the United States and Canada, the kingdom, with a population of 35 million, has the world’s third-largest per capita water consumption.
Last year, the Kingdom launched a national initiative to minimize water consumption, setting ambitious targets that include slashing usage by nearly 24 percent by 2022, and 43 percent by 2030. The targets are part of Saudi Arabia’s long-term social and economic development strategy, Vision 2030.
The company is building five large desalination plants and three sewage treatment plants in Saudi. Seawater reverse osmosis is used in all desalination plants. Al Khobar I and II, with capacities of 200 and 630 million liters per day, respectively, Shuqaiq 3 and 4, with capacities of 450 and 400 million liters per day; and Jubail 3B, with a capacity of 570 million liters per day.
The sewage treatment plants that were recently awarded to the company will serve the cities of Madinah3, Buraydah2, and Tabuk2.
