The minister of water and electricity has said in the introduction to the Saline Water Conversion Corporation's yearly report that privatization plans are “on the right path” and that they would lead to considerable improvements in SWCC's operational capabilities. Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen, who also chairs the SWCC board, said that the second phase of privatization was already underway and reiterated the importance of water resources on which the government had spent “billions of riyals to construct 30 desalination plants along the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf”. The report showed that the Kingdom's desalinated water production increased in 2008 to more than 1,103 million cubic meters and that SWCC plants generated more than 20 million mega watts of energy per hour during the same year. The report also cites the government as having spent more than SR65 billion on corporation projects and SR29, 463,000,000 on the operation and maintenance of existing desalination plants, with six other desalination plants under construction at a cost of SR8,011 million in Al-Wajh, Rabigh, Al-Leeth, Al-Qunfudha, Farasan and Omlij, projected to produce a total of 63,000 cubic meters of potable water daily. The government has also given the go-ahead for two plants in Ras Al-Zour and Yanbu with output capacities of 1 million cubic meters and 400,000 cubic meters per day, respectively.
