ACCIONA completes the construction of Shuqaiq 3 desalination plant in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Water Partnership Company’s (SWPC) Shuqaiq 3 IWP, designed and built by ACCIONA, will be one of the largest desalination plants in Saudi Arabia, serving 2,000,000 people

ACCIONA has completed the construction of the SWPC’s Shuqaiq 3 Independent Water Project (IWP) Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination in Saudi Arabia and it is working at full capacity.

The SWRO plant, of high-energy efficiency, is a key project in the modernization of the water sector that is currently being carried out by Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) of Saudi Arabia.

ACCIONA is the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contractor for Shuqaiq 3 IWP desalination plant, which will produce 450,000 cubic meters of potable water per day. The project also includes the EPC of a large Electrical Special Facility (ESF) to feed the plant with power and some other additional installations from the existing power plants in the vicinity.

This SWRO plant is going to provide water to the areas of Asir and Jizan covering a potential population of 2Mill inhabitants in this extremely dry region close to the border with Yemen.

ACCIONA Middle East EPC Director for the Water Division, Mazen Bachir, says: “This milestone is the result of exceptional collaborative teamwork between the owner, the client, the owner’s engineer and the project team”.

Javier Nieto, PPP Director, ACCIONA Water Business appoints that “We have completed this project to schedule, in challenging circumstances, and to contribute to supplying drinking water in the country in a sustainable and innovative way”.

Julio de la Rosa, ACCIONA Middle East Director for the Water Business says “We are very proud to contribute with the measures implemented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to rationalize water consumption as part of its Vision 2030 program with the aim of reducing consumption up to 43% by the end of the decade. Thanks to the reverse osmosis technology, this project will help also to reduce the CO2 footprint”.

A KEY PROJECT IN SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia, a country with a population of around 33.4 million, is the third biggest consumer of water per capita in the world, after the United States and Canada.

According to ACCIONA’s latest Sustainability Report, total production of desalinated water in the Middle East region will be 13 times higher in 2040 than in 2014. In a region with serious water shortages, the demand for desalinated water is growing in response to climate change and an increasing population.

ACCIONA is a world leader in desalination through reverse osmosis technology, which emits 6.5 times fewer greenhouse gases than conventional thermal desalination processes.