Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) announced on Sunday that it has signed the project agreements for the Juranah Independent Strategic Water Reservoir Project (ISWR-1) in the Makkah region.

In November, a consortium of UAE’s TAQA, Saudi’s Vision International Investment Company (Vision Invest) and Bahrain’s Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) was declared the preferred bidder for the public-private partnership (PPP) project, with a strategic storage capacity of 2,000,000 cubic metres (m3), and an operational tank capacity of 500,000 m3.

Saudi Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture & Chairman of the Board of Directors of SWPC, Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen AlFadley, signed the project agreements for the ISWR, which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom, SWPC said in a press statement. AlFadley said the strategic storage project is intended to serve the residents and visitors of Makkah City and Hajj & Umrah pilgrims.

Khalid Al-Quraishi, SWPC’s CEO said the project is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia with the participation with the private sector.

The ISWR, which has been procured under the BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) model underpinned by a 30-year concession period, will start operations in the second quarter of 2027, the statement noted.

It said the 34 companies, including 21 Saudi companies, had responded to the expression of interest (EOI) notice for the project, out of which eight consortiums were pre-qualified to bid with three consortiums making it to the proposal phase.

In a stock exchange statement dated 2 January 2024, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company

(TAQA) said the total project cost is estimated at 1.5 billion UAE dirhams ($408 million), with debt funding expected to account for approximately 80 percent. The statement said TAQA will be the lead member for the operations and maintenance (O&M) activities through a specialised standalone O&M company, which will be co-owned by Vision Invest. TAQA is taking a 35 percent share in the project company and a 50 percent stake in the O&M company.

The statement also noted that the operational tank capacity of 500,000 m3 will be developed under a DBT (Design, Built, Transfer) model to support the potable water distribution system. It indicated that will include solar energy units to reduce electricity consumption from the network and achieve the availability of stored water by 100 percent.

Read more: Saudi’s SWPC announces preferred bidder for Juranah Independent Strategic Water Reservoir project

(Writing by Dennis Daniel; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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