Kindasa Water Services (KWS) has entered into a joint venture with Water & Environmental Services Company (Wesco) to build an 8,000 cu m water desalination plant for use by the airline Saudia, KWS general manager Fawzi Habhab has said.

Habhab said the project was being taken up under a BOT (build, own, transfer) arrangement. The unit, which will be completed by early next year, is being built on a location owned by Saudia in North Jeddah. A new limited liability company called Wesco Saudia is being established with Wesco holding 51 per cent of the shareholding and Kindasa 49 per cent. Wesco specialises in water consultancy.
Saudia will use the water that is produced for its various facilities. Habhab said the company would look at taking up other projects on the Saudi west coast in locations such as Jizan and Rabigh. The company would consider BOT projects either with the government or the private sector.
Kindasa, the first private Saudi company to specialise in the desalination of seawater and distribution of bulk potable water, recently inaugurated a new desalination plant with a capacity of 25,500 cu m per day in Jeddah to complement its existing plant and raise total capacity to 40,000 cu m per day.
We have the ability to increase capacity to 50,000 cu m whenever needed because we have the entire infrastructure laid down, said Habhab.
The new project, built at a cost of SR150 million ($40 million), includes the extension of the existing pipeline from Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) to Jeddah Industrial City (JIC) Phase 2. Kindasa will supply water to the JIC network through the pipeline.
Habhab said the pipeline was a major challenge to build because it went 11 km through the streets of Jeddah.
“Now one of our sister companies has been awarded the industrial city network. Once they finish the infrastructure in the industrial city, the pipeline will be utilised and Jeddah will be nice again with not many trucks in the south,” commented Habhab.
Weir Westgarth Ltd, now known as Veolia Water Systems Westgarth, designed the new plant, while Weir Techna built it. The pipeline was built by Saudi Landscape and Contracting Company.
Kindasa has built a reputation for producing quality desalinated potable water in compliance with World Health Organisation (WHO) and Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation (Saso) standards. It supplies water to industries, residential compounds and government institutions.
The name ‘Kindasa’ is derived from the first seawater desalination plant built in Jeddah in the early 19th century.
KWS is a limited liability company established in January 2000 by three leading Saudi business groups. One of them is Saudi Industrial Services Company (Sisco), one of the kingdom’s prominent companies with large investments in desalination plants, free zones, industrial estate development, information technology and other key projects in Saudi Arabia. The other two are Mohamed Abdulatif Jameel Company (MALJC), part of the Abdullatif Jameel Group (ALJG), and the Bushnak Group, a regional pioneer, which specialises in water desalination technology and offers support and services ranging from feasibility studies and development to operations and maintenance. 
Kindasa’s first production started in October 2002 with a plant capacity of 14,000 cu m of water daily. The plant supplies water to Jeddah Industrial City and the housing compounds around. The investment for the plant, including a 2 km pipeline leading up to water filling stations outside Jeddah Islamic Port gate No. 9, was SR41.5 million.
The first project involved the integration of a used desalination plant purchased from the City of Santa Barbara (US) (built by Ionics) with Jeddah Islamic Port’s existing desalination plant facilities and additional new plant equipment to make the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant complete.
Consultant for the desalination project was Dar Al Taqniya (Dat). Carrying out the installation was Wesco. Consultant for the pipeline and the water filling station was Associated Consulting Engineers and the contractor was Saad Trading & Contracting Company.
To ensure that it provides water of the best quality, Kindasa has installed a hybrid of conventional media filtration and ultra filtration after carrying out pilot studies for the expansion plant.
About Kindasa’s achievements, Habhab noted: “We are proud we are producing about six per cent of Jeddah city’s requirements…we have the capability to increase this to 10 per cent in the future.”
Kindasa’s vision was to be first of all the largest potable water producer and supplier in the region catering to clients’ needs at a very reasonable price, he said.
 “At the same time we are willing to expand on other downstream projects such as specialised water bottling for medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies. So there is a robust potential.”