National Water Company (NWC), Saudi Arabia announced in a statement that it signed a contract with the private sector to operate water and environmental treatment services in the Southern Cluster, which was integrated under the umbrella of the company early July.
The total amount of the contract between NWC and the Saudi-Spanish Consortium is 399 million Saudi Riyals.
Eng. Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al Fadhli, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Water Company, sponsored the signing ceremony between Eng. Nemer bin Mohammed Al-Shebl, interim CEO of the National Water Company and together with the representative of The International Water Distribution Company Limited (Distribution), the representative of Haji Abdullah Alireza & Co. Ltd. (HAAISCO), the representative of FCC Aqualia, and the representative of Acciona Agua SA, to manage the operation and maintenance of the Southern Cluster (Assir, Al-Baha, Jazan and Najran regions).
Engineer Nemer bin Mohammed Al-Shebl, interim CEO of NWC said “One of the most important pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 is the well-being of the citizen and the quality of the services provided to them, from which the National Water Strategy 2030 emerged, through which it adopted the strategy of the National Water Company, which developed detailed plans to upgrade water services in the Kingdom, with the participation of the private sector.”
Al-Shebl indicated that company is now acting upon the awarding of management contracts to the remaining clusters, namely Western and Northern, which will be completed by the end of February for the Western Cluster, and by the end of March for the Northern Cluster this year, and NWC will announce the consortium that will win these contracts in due course.
He added that the contracts depend on achieving 14 key indicators that the consortium must achieve. The most important of which are: improving the customer experience and developing it, raising operational efficiency through cost rationalizing, reducing water loss, and improving network management. He pointed out that the duration of the contract is 7 years, and if the targets are achieved after the third year of it, and the readiness of the sector is increased, this will enable the national water company to move directly to the stage of concession contracts in which the private sector will take full responsibility for water services, without waiting for the seven years to end.
