Environment & Energy | Wednesday 26 August, 2015 2:03 am |

Jeddah’s water shortage woes will be considerably over by the middle of next year, as the second phase of the project with a capacity of one million cubic meters (MCM) is nearing completion. 
“The second stage of the strategic project, worth over SR375 million, is already operating at 52 percent capacity and is expected to be completed by mid-2016,” Saleh Sadawi of the National Water Company (NWC) was quoted as saying by local media on Tuesday.
The third phase, in Jeddah’s Breman district, is one of NWC’s initiatives to speed up its plan to provide water storage facilities with a total capacity of 6 MCM, he said. 

“The project is the first of its kind in Jeddah and was executed to satisfy the increasing demand for water and find a lasting solution to the challenges facing the company’s wastewater operations,” Sadawi said.
“The objective of this project is to achieve the leadership’s vision for water security and to provide the best water and environmental services to citizens and residents. The second stage of the project comprises six tanks, each with a capacity of 166,700 cubic meters,” he added.
The NWC has already executed the first stage of the project, worth more than SR740 million, by installing 11 cylindrical water tanks each with a capacity of 188,000 cubic meters. Totally, they have a capacity of more than 2 MCM.

The NWC’s strategic drinking water storage facility in Jeddah is the biggest in the world, with a total capacity of 2.064 MCM. The achievement will be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, replacing the previous entry of 1.8 million cubic meters.
The first phase of project included 11 cylindrical reservoirs with a capacity of 188,000 cubic meters per tank, at a cost of more than SR740 million, while the third phase will be in the Faisaliah area, at a cost of SR824 million.