Treated wastewater reuse in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

KEY FACTS

Services:
• Study, Preliminary and final design

Location:
Cities of Yanbu, Maedinah, Rafhà, Al Baha, Hail, Jazan and Dammam

Country:
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Client:
Ministry of Water and Electricity (MoWE)

Completion Date:
December 2015

Characteristics:
• 323 km of pipe lines with diameters from 500 mm up to 1400 mm
• 44 reservoirs for a total capacity of 260.000,00 m3
• 13 pump stations for a total installed electric power of 3,5 MW.
• 670.000,00 m3/day delivered

An aware use of water resources is extremely important nowadays, especially in an area like the Middle East, where the climate is hot and dry. Whenever Saudi Arabia has scarce natural water sources, the Ministry of Water and Electricity (MoWE) works for the development and improvement of the existing sources by searching for non-traditional and new water sources with the latest tools and technologies. MoWE invests in sea water desalination, purification and treatment of water well, re-use of treated wastewater in irrigation, industry, landscape and other fields, to achieve the expected development.

For this reason, MoWE signed a contract with our Saudi Arabia Branch to investigate the actual possibility of reuse systems. This contract, “Planning and cost survey report, investigation and engineering design for treated waste water reuse in KSA,” was completed in March 2016 and it includes the final design of seven reuse systems for a total cost of about $254 Mln.

The performed study has identified 15 potential reuse schemes. In each of these systems, there is an existing waste water treatment plant (WWTP) including a treated effluent (in quality, quantity and geodesic position) in compliance with the given scope of work.

In the next future, the Ministry will tender seven designed works and it is likely to proceed with some more detailed designs for the eight remaining studied systems.