Despite the onset of the worst economic downturn in a decade, the outlook for the GCC wastewater sector remains bright with almost $10 billion of investment planned in new treatment capacity up to 2015. According to GCC Wastewater 2009, a new report published this week by MEED Insight, sewage treatment capacity will have to more than double over the next six years as utilities seek to meet robust demand and replace antiquated infrastructure. “The impact on the wastewater treatment sector outside Dubai is expected to be temporary. Given the high rates of indigenous population growth in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman, the demand for new wastewater facilities is likely to remain robust,” said the report published today by Saudi Gazette. “It is expected that an easing in the project finance market, which could take effect in the second half of 2009, would revive Saudi Arabia's and Bahrain's planned introduction of the private sector into the wastewater treatment sector for the first time.” --MORE
