Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC) has awarded the third management contract for water and environmental treatment services to a consortium made up of Saudi Arabia's Miahona, France's Saur Group, and Philippine’s Manila Water. The new management contract for the Eastern Region has a value of more than SAR 221 million (more than $58 million), for a period of seven years.
The CEO of the NWC, Eng. Mohamed bin Ahmed Al Mowkely, said in a statement: "We are working to achieve the objectives of The Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the National Water Strategy by restructuring water distribution services and engaging the private sector on the road to the privatization stage."
The National Water Strategy contemplates the award of contracts for the management, operations and maintenance (MOM) of six regional clusters that comprise the Kingdom’s 13 administrative divisions.
This is the third of such contracts. The first one was awarded in December 2020 also to the consortium of Miahona-Saur-Manila Water. It covers the management, operations and maintenance of water and wastewater facilities in the North West Region for seven years, for SAR 198 million (more than $52 million).
A second management contract was awarded last September to a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s AlKhorayef and France’s Veolia for the operation and maintenance of water services and environmental treatment in the Riyadh Region, with a value of more than SAR 358 million (more than $95 million), for seven years as well.
NWC CEO Eng. Al Mowkely said they intend to “complete the implementation program by awarding contracts for the three remaining clusters, namely Western Cluster, Southern Cluster and Northern Cluster by the end of December 2021.”
He also noted that the contracts depend on achieving 14 key indicators, the major ones being improving the customer experience, increasing operational efficiency through the rationalization of costs, reducing water loss, and improving network management. According to the NWC, “if targets are met after the third year of the contract, and the readiness of the sector increased, this will enable the National Water Company to move directly to the phase of concession contracts in which the private sector will take full responsibility for water services, and not to wait until the seven years are over”.
