Environment & Energy | Tuesday 15 March, 2016 8:46 am |

The government plans to spend SR2 billion to enhance water security in Makkah region.

This is according to Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who made the announcement at a meeting recently of the Holy Sites Development Authority, according to a report in a local publication on Monday.
Prince Khaled will attend Sunday the launch of the project that is being run under the auspices of the National Water Company (NWC) in Makkah. The project covers Makkah, Jeddah and Taif and will increase capacity by 5.4 million cubic meters.
Abdullah Al-Hussayen, water and electricity minister and chairman of the NWC board, said the project would be carried out in three phases, with Jeddah getting an additional capacity of 4 million cubic meters at a cost of SR1.5 billion.
Taif would get eight extra water tanks with a capacity of 175,000 cubic meters. “The goal is to increase the operational efficiency of the water sector and keep up with the demand from other neighborhoods. The cost of this phase will be more than SR219 million,” he said.
He said the company would also upgrade nine sewage treatment plants serving the three cities from 540,000 to 1.5 million cubic meters a day, and to boost its quality with triple treatment.
“We completed the building of the environmental services system in Jeddah for the southern region through the implementation and operation of the Khumrah station, with an increase of 250,000 cubic meters a day.”
He said there has also been an upgrade of the Khumrah 3 station by 140,000 cubic meters, and the industrial Khumrah station by 50,000 cubic meters a day. This means that the treatment for Jeddah will be 2.5 million cubic meters, he said. 
Al-Hussayen said the company has also doubled the capacity of the treatment stations in Makkah. “The capacity of Hada station was increased by 125,000 cubic meters to 250,000 cubic meters a day, in addition to the implementation and operation of the Arnah station by 250,000 cubic meters.”
In Taif, the company completed the triple treatment station in Wadi Alarraj after increasing its capacity by 80,000 cubic meters to 147,000 cubic meters, the minister said.
Prince Khaled had earlier at the meeting outlined plans to ensure that businesspeople invest in Makkah, and set out procedures to protect the rights of all parties. He said all projects would have to conform to the city’s Islamic identity.