The Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) has awarded contracts worth $1bn for the financing, construction and 25-year operation of the Madinah-3, Buraydah-2 and Tabuk-2 sewage treatment plants in the kingdom to Acciona and its local partners Tawzea and Tamasuk.

These new contracts awarded by the state-owned agency are the first BOOT/EPC (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer / Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts that Acciona has signed in the area of wastewater treatment in the Middle East.

The Madinah-3 wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) will be located in Medina, the fourth most populated city in Saudi Arabia with more than 1.1 million inhabitants, and will have a capacity of 200,000m³/day (expandable to 375,000m³/day) to treat urban wastewater, said Acciona, adding that it will be responsible for the facility’s development, design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance for 25 years.

The group will also build 23km of recycled water collectors for irrigation, three storage tanks and the respective pumping stations.

The Buraydah-2 (150,000m³/day) and Tabuk-2 (90,000m³/day) sewage treatment plants are located in rural areas in the central and northern regions of the country, respectively, and will serve one million inhabitants.

Acciona said it will develop, design, finance, construct and operate these two facilities for 25 years and will also build 34km of recycled water collectors for Buraydah-2 and another 28km of collectors for Tabuk-2. The three plants will each have a collection well and pumping station, pre-treatment installation, biological reactor, sludge line and recycled water pumping station.

“With these new contracts, Acciona strengthens its position as a key company in Saudi Arabia’s water sector, where the group has developed important desalination projects. Last year, Acciona was awarded the construction of the Al Khobar 2 desalination plant, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, 400km from Riyadh. In the same area, the group also completed the commissioning of the 210,000m³/day Al Khobar 1 desalination plant last year, which can currently serve a population of 350,000,” the company said in a statement.

The statement added that Acciona is also developing the Shuqaiq1 and Shuqaiq3 desalination plants on the Red Sea coast in the southwest of the country. The plants will have treatment capacities of 400,000 m³/day and 450,000m³/day, respectively.

Other projects that Acciona is involved with in Saudi Arabia include the Jubail 3B desalination plant, , which will have a capacity of 570,000m³/day to supply two million people in the cities of Riyadh and Qassim, as well as the 100,000m³/day Al Jubail RO4 seawater desalination plant for Marafiq in the east of the country.