YANBU: The country's two giant floating desalination plants here are helping to meet demand for water in Yanbu and Madina, according to Fehaid Al-Shareef, Governor of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC). Al-Shareef paid a visit Thursday to the barge project, which has a daily production of 50,000 cubic meters of desalinated water that feeds Madina and Yanbu if there are shortages. At a press conference later, Al-Shareef said the barges were moved to Yanbu to meet the demand expected with the advent of the summer season and the upcoming Eid holidays. Muhammad Abu Nayan, chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Barges Company for Water Desalination, stressed that the company is determined to meet the demand for desalinated water in the Kingdom and has a strategic plan to do so. He said the success of the two-barge experiment has led the SWCC to contribute to the governorates of Madina and Yanbu. “We are proud in our country to have the two biggest floating desalination plants in the world,” he said. “I express my thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the Crown Prince and the Second Deputy Premier for their continuous support for this mega project.” Engineer Abdullah Bajunaid, Executive Director of the company, said work has progressed smoothly and efficiently. “This project has succeeded in achieving its basic goal to meet the increasing demand for desalinated water in coastal areas,” he said. “The barges have been shifted from two locations on the east coast within the specified period. The company looks forward to increasing the production capacity for the operating barges and setting up new barges to meet the increasing demand for desalinated water in the Kingdom.” Engineer Mousa Al-Malik said the worldwide demand for projects of this nature has increased and “we have received several orders from Japan, Cyprus and several other countries”. The company plans to expand globally in manufacturing the giant barges, he added. Al-Malik said the company is increasing the number of desalination barges to three or four to meet increasing demand. He added that the company has a project to nearly double production. The project has been studied and will be referred to the officials involved in seawater desalination. Al-Shareef was accompanied by Ali Al-Ayid, Director General of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund; Engineer Nabeel Bin Ahmad Izmirli, director general of the Directorate General of Water in Madina Region; and Engineer Marwan Al-Sayyid, director of the Ministry of Water branch in Yanbu. Al-Shareef said the idea of co-building the world's largest multi-effect distillation unit, by Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction and the SWCC will provide a large quantity of desalinated water. ?The $124 million agreement for the Phase 2 plant at Yanbu, 350 kilometers north of Jeddah, was announced on Feb. 7 and is due to be completed in August. The unit will have a capacity of 15 Million Gallons a Day (MGD), or 68,190 m³/d, almost twice as large as the 8.5 MGD, 38,000 m³/d, Fujairah unit in the United Arab Emirates. Under the agreement, SWCC and Doosan will collaborate to develop advanced technology through the exchange of know-how and technology, officials said. This project makes use of some technical and operational facilities available at Yanbu-Madina desalination plant using multi-effect distillation (MED). Al-Shareef said that the SWCC intends to expand its plants in the Southern Region and that it has signed a number of agreements with companies in the field of training so it can benefit commercially from the Desalination Research Center. The SWCC is about to complete the restructuring of six sectors within three months, he added. A training center bearing the name of Al-Gosaibi would be launched next year in Rabigh with more than 100 students.
