His Excellency, the Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Water Partnership Company, Eng. Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen AlFadley, signed today the project agreements of Juranah Independent Strategic Water Reservoir Project. The project will be established in Makkah City, considered the first of its kind and The largest project implemented in one location under the BOOT model (Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer). The strategic storage capacity will be 2,000,000 m3, and the operational tank capacity will be 500,000 m3.
Eng. Al-Fadley explained that this agreement comes to achieve the goals and plans of the water sector to increase strategic water storage in all regions of the Kingdom and increase the private sector participation in the water sector, which reflects its strategic partnership with this sector to implement its projects. He indicated that the project comes as an extension of many similar projects that will be implemented by the private sector.
His Excellency Eng. Al-Fadley elaborated that the strategic storage project in Juranah will enhance the water supply chains, and it is intended to serve the residents and visitors of Makkah City and Hajj & Umrah pilgrims. Also, the project aims to develop this vital sector, improve the quality of services, raise the efficiency of spending, benefit from the expertise of the private sector in construction and operation, and increase its contribution to the development under Vision 2030.
Engineer Khalid Al-Quraishi, CEO of the Saudi Water Partnership Company, indicated that the project is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia with the participation with the private sector, which comes after the launch of the National Water Strategy. The project will operate under the
Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer(BOOT) system, and the commercial operation of the project will begin in the Second quarter of 2027. Also, SWPC CEO indicated that the concession of project will be 30 years and the project will achieve 100%of stored water availability , in addition to decreasing operating costs and supporting local content by increasing the percentage of localization in business and human resources.
It is noteworthy that the project received the interest of 34 companies, including 21 Saudi companies, and 8 applicants were qualified. Therefore, the consortia with the preferred bid was chosen after a competition that took place between 3 consortia, formed by 8 companies of which 3 local companies. Hence, the winning consortia for the project consists of comprising Vision International Investment Company, Gulf Investment Corporation G.S.C, and TAQA.
Therefore, this project comes as an extension of the privatization and partnership processes between the public and private sectors in the environment, water, and agriculture sectors, after signing many previous projects for independent water projects, Independent Water Transmission Pipeline and wastewater treatment.
