Saudi Arabia awarded contracts valued at SR544 million ($145 million) to develop water and sanitation projects in the Kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing Abdullah Al-Hussayen, minister of water and electricity. The contracts include projects in Jazan in the south, the city of Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province and Riyadh. The water desalination capacity in Saudi Arabia will peak at 200,000 cubic meters by 2015 as the Kingdom rushes to meet the soaring demand. "Saudi has emerged as world's largest desalination market and is seen a priority area for global water and wastewater technology developers and service providers," said Khaled Daou, the project manager of Saudi Energy at Riyadh Exhibitions Company, recently. "Saudi's average water consumption per capita is at around 250 liters a day, making it one of the world's heaviest water users – next only to the US and Canada in per capita terms," he said, citing the Saudi Ministry of Water and Electricity reports. The government is therefore building up more financing for major water projects. National Water Company has already announced that it will fund $66 billion worth of water and wastewater developments through 2020, he added.
