O&M contract for two WWTPs in Mecca strengthens ACCIONA’s foothold in the Middle East

The combined daily capacity of the wastewater treatment plants comes to 375,000m3.

ACCIONA Agua has been awarded an O&M contract, initially for a two-year period (with a possible extension), for the Haddah-1 and Arana-1 wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), both located in Saudi Arabia's Mecca Province with a combined capacity of 375,000m3/day and which service both cities. The 14 million euro contract is ACCIONA's second in the country in recent months following the October 2012 Design-Build-Commission contract for a seawater desalination plant (capacity: 100,000m3/day) at Al Jubail on Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast.

An official program is currently under way in Saudi Arabia to transform and modernize the country's water sector. As part of this drive, the State water utility, National Water Company (NWC), is seeking to make considerable improvements to the sector's overall functioning and performance by introducing international players in the area of the operations and maintenance.

The Haddah-1 and Arana-1 project will be the first to be developed with this scheme and involves the O&M for the two WWTPs located where the cities of Jeddah and Mecca meet in Mecca province.
The Haddah-1 and Arana-1 WWTPs were built by Saudi construction companies Azziz and Bin Jarallah, respectively, and became operational in 2011. Initially the construction companies themselves handled O&M at the plants until, in July 2011, the NWC issued a call for tender. The winning bid came from a joint venture comprising a local company, Miahona (part of the ACWA holding), and ACCIONA Agua.  

In October 2012, the Saudi Marafiq Power & Water Utility Company for Jubail & Yanbu group awarded ACCIONA Agua (in consortium with Saudi Arabia's BinLaden group, a global leader in construction), a Design-Build-Commission contract for a seawater desalination plant in Al Jubail which will service the city itself and its industrial complex in the Eastern Province on Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast. Construction has commenced on the Al Jubail plant, known formally as "SWRO-4", and it is expected to become operational in late 2014. The facility's total capacity comes to 100,000m3/day, with amounts to twice the combined capacity of the city's five existing desalination plants.

ACCIONA Agua leads the world in reverse osmosis seawater desalination. The Company has built more than 70 desalination plants producing a total 1.9 million cubic meters of water a day for more than six million people across the globe. In recent weeks ACCIONA Agua has also won contracts for two WWTPs in Mexico ( Caracol) and Costa Rica ( Los Tajos).