Edited for brevity.
Saudi Arabia is to build six new desalination plants at a cost of 20 billion riyals (5.3 billion dollars) to satisfy demand in the desert kingdom, a neswpaper reported Wednesday, quoting deputy minister for water and electricity Abdullah al-Hussain. The plants, which also produce electricity as well as drinking water from sea water, will push to 36 the total number of desalination facilities in the kingdom, the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, Arab News said. The desert kingdom has scarce fresh water resources and contributes 30 percent of global desalination output. The 30 desalination plants pump almost 600 million gallons (some 2.27 billion litres) of water daily through nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of pipeline, meeting 70 percent of Saudi needs for drinking water. The rest comes from underground water. Water is heavily subsidised by the state in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, where the a cubic meter of water costs about 1.30 dollars to produce and is sold for about four US cents.
That’s quite a return on investment... |