JEDDAH – The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) will be building the world's biggest reverse osmosis desalination plant in Rabigh, Saudi Press Agency reported Monday. The plant, which has been approved by SWCC Governor Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Ibrahim, will have a capacity of 600,000 cubic meters per day of desalinated water and is in the state utility's budget for this year. The construction of the plant will begin next year, and it will be finished in 2018. Director-General of SWCC in the Western Coast Muhammad Ayidh Al-Thubaiti said that the production of the existing Rabigh desalination plant will be raised to 20,000 cubic meters per day so as to supply Khulaiss and Rabigh governorates. But the new plant will meet the needs of northern Jeddah, Makkah and Taif. SWCC has said that it plans to nearly double energy-intensive desalinated water production to almost 6 million cubic meters per day by the end of 2015 as water consumption in the Kingdom is increasing rapidly. Saudi Arabia is considered the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, supplying 3.3 million cubic meters daily. SWCC runs more than 30 desalination plants on the Red Sea and the Gulf. Last December contracts were signed for building the third phase of the Yanbu-Madinah desalination and electricity generation project. – SG
