Pipeline breakdown cuts water supply to half

The main pipeline that supplies seawater for cooling systems and power units of Jubail desalination plant phase II has been broken, cutting supplies from the Kingdom’s largest plant by 50 percent. The accident took place Saturday morning, said the Saline Water Conversion Corporation yesterday. “It will reduce supply of desalinated water from the plant by 50 percent,” it said. However, the SWCC said it would try to cut down the shortage of supply to 20 percent by pumping from emergency storage facilities, the plant’s tanks and other sources. The SWCC said the new arrangements would help the plant pump 800,000 cubic meters of water daily to Riyadh. Contract workers have been already called in to repair the pipeline to help the plant resume normal production. “Repair works on the broken pipe will be completed within three days and the plant will start operation gradually in two days to resume normal production within five days,” the SWCC statement said. The corporation had coordinated with Saudi Water Company to increase Riyadh supplies to 890,000 cubic meters daily before the accident. The Jubail plant is the main source of water for the Kingdom’s capital city. With its 2,745 megawatt power capacity and desalination output of 800,000 cubic meters per day, the IWPP in Jubail is the world’s largest integrated water and power facility. The plant is a joint venture between Marafiq, Saudi Electricity Company, the Public Investment Fund, and the international Suez Consortium comprising Suez Energy International of Belgium, Gulf Investment Corporation of Kuwait and ACWA Power Projects of Saudi Arabia. From arabnews