RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has over the years spent almost SR95 billion on the country's much-needed water desalination projects. Of this amount, SR65 billion was spent on projects of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) until the end of 2008, and about SR29.5 billion on the operation and maintenance of desalination plants. The Kingdom has produced more than 1,103 million cubic meters of desalinated water. The Kingdom has had water desalination plants for more than 80 years. The late King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud, the founder of the Kingdom, first ordered the construction of two condensing units for the distillation of sea water to supply Jeddah with more drinking water. The government of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has spent billions on the establishment of 30 desalination plants located at the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, including the Jubail plant which is considered the largest water desalination plant in the world. According to a report from the Saline Water Conversion Corporation in 2008, the corporation has implemented 14 systems for the transfer of desalinated water through pipelines 4,157 kilometers long and established 29 stations to pump water to 168 reservoirs with a capacity of up to 9.5 million cubic meters. In 2008, King Abdullah also approved the establishment of a unified project for water desalination and electricity production with a capacity of 550,000 cubic meters of water and 1,700 megawatts (MW) of electricity to meet the future needs of Madina, and other areas, at a cost of SR14 billion. The state's budget allocated to the corporation of more than SR13.4 billion for 2010 is an increase of 44 percent over last year.
