Saudi desalination technology wins global recognition

Saudi Arabia's King Salman received at Al-Yamama Palace on Sunday two awards won by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) at Global Water Summit held in Greece recently.

The awards were presented to the King by Minister of Water and Electricity and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation Abdullah Al-Hussayen and the accompanying delegation.

SWCC won the first award as the Desalination Company of the Year for adopting many development instruments.

The second award, Desalination Plant of the Year, was won by Ras Al-Khair for modern and pioneering technologies and unprecedented operational levels in the efficiency of the plant design.

Each year, the coveted Global Water Awards are presented at the Global Water Summit, the major business conference for the water industry worldwide.

The awards acknowledge the most important achievements in the international water industry within several categories.

SWCC is the bulk water supply agency for the Kingdom and the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, generating 4.6 million m3/d of water and 7,400MW of power across 27 production centers. It celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015.

The year 2014 saw the commissioning of the 309,128m3/d Ras Al-Khair reverse osmosis plant, which is specially designed to treat the difficult waters of the Gulf.

With nearly 50 years of experience of every kind of desalination challenge behind it, SWCC effortlessly rose to the challenge.

The speedy completion of the membrane element of the Ras Al-Khair project, along with dedicated features like the installation of a dedicated wastewater treatment plant to deal with DAF sludge, proved that even the most complex and extensive of projects can be delivered effectively in the Kingdom.

The fact that the project notched up 24 million hours of accident-free construction activity in 2014 is testament to the fact that a project’s size can easily be matched by its commitment to health and safety, and earned it a special commendation from SWCC, said the Global Water Awards jury.

This article was first publish in the Saudi Gazette on Oct. 26, 2015.