JEDDAH: The National Water Company is expediting completion of the SR8.7 billion sanitary drainage network system in Jeddah Governorate by speeding up execution of projects for the water and sanitary-drainage sectors and reducing the execution period from five to three years, said Loay Musallam, CEO of the National Water Company. These projects, which will provide service to 95 percent of the populated areas, include construction of sanitary-drainage plants, at a cost of more than SR2 billion, he said. The cost of sanitary-drainage projects being executed has reached SR253 million, he added. Musallam said that the 22 percent of populated area in Jeddah – 72,500 houses – are connected to sewage networks. By the end of 2012, he said, 46 percent of the populated area in Jeddah will be connected. He said the company plans to cover 70 percent of the populated area by the end of 2013 and populated districts will be fully covered by the end of 2015. Musallam said the NWC is signing contracts for 139,000 sanitary-drainage connections to clients' homes; that work will be done when subsidiary lines to which homes will be connected, are completed. Their length will reach about 837 km and 500 km of lines have been built, he said. About 330 km of the 350-km main lines have been constructed, he added. Those lines drain into tunnel lines with diameters ranging between 2 and 3.5 meters, which will carry wastewater via 19.7 km of tunnel lines; about 17 km of those lines have been completed, Musallam said. Those lines extend from Al-Andalus District on King Abdul Aziz Street to the northern wastewater pumping station, he added. Contracts have been awarded for a pumping station in southern Jeddah with a capacity of one million cubic meters per day, at a cost of SR418 million, Musallam said. The main sanitary-drainage tunnel leading to the treatment plant in northern Jeddah is 55 percent complete; the tunnel will cost SR200 million and serve the city's central and northern districts. The main wastewater pumping plant in northern Jeddah, which will serve the central and northern districts is 50-percent complete and its cost has reached SR900 million, said Musallam, who added that it will be fully operational in February. The northern wastewater pumping station in Jeddah is considered to be the biggest pumping station in the world in terms of the depth of shafts; three shafts, each with a 43-meter diameter, reach 80 meters below the ground, Musallam said.
