ACCIONA, Spain announced in a statement that it has achieved a key milestone in the construction of the Shuqaiq 3 desalination plant, ramping up production during final testing to full capacity of 450,000 Cu.m of potable water per day, enough to meet the needs of two million people.
The new desalination plant, by the Red Sea, is one of the largest to be built in Saudi Arabia and is already supplying the water network of Abha and Jizan in the southwest of the country.
The plant is equipped with energy-efficient Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology and is a key project in the modernization of Saudi Arabia’s water sector.
ACCIONA is the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contractor for the Shuqaiq Three Company for Water (S3CW), owner of the Independent Water Project (IWP). The project company has a long-term water purchase agreement with the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).
The contract included the construction of a large Electrical Special Facility (ESF) to supply the plant with power.
Jesús García Prieto, ACCIONA Shuqaiq 3 IWP Project Director, said: “This milestone is the result of good teamwork between the client, our engineers and the construction teams. Now that we are entering the final testing and commissioning stages, we will undertake a number of tests to make sure everything works perfectly”.
Jesús Sancho, ACCIONA Middle East Managing Director, said: “We are proud to have reached this milestone at Shuqaiq 3. It proves ACCIONA’s commitment to delivering good work to our clients on time, and of our ability to meet the goals of our clients and of local authorities.”
ACCIONA has five very large desalination plants and three large sewage treatment plants under construction in Saudi Arabia. All the desalination plants use seawater reverse osmosis technology.
They include Al Khobar I & II, with production capacities of 200,000 cu.m and 630,000 cu.m per day respectively; Shuqaiq 3 & 4, with 450,000 Cu.m and 400,000 Cu.m per day; and Jubail 3B with a capacity of 570,000 Cu.m per day.
The recently awarded sewage treatment plants will serve the cities of Madinah3, Buraydah2 and Tabuk2.
