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The Saline Water Conversion Corporation
has announced that, in 1419/1420 AH, there were 27 desalination
stations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, producing 775 million cubic
meters of desalinated water, providing more that 70 per cent of the
required drinking water.
Meanwhile, the electricity generation
capacity of the desalination stations reached 22.3 million megawatts
during the same period, which is approximately equivalent to 21 per
cent of all electricity generated in the Kingdom.
The report traced the beginning of
the desalination process in the Kingdom to 1348AH, during the era of
the late King Abdul Aziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud.
A Royal Decree in 1394AH established
the Corporation, which has continued to its development. During the
last two decades, production of desalinated water has increased more
than one hundred times, while electricity production has increased
more than eight times.
The desalination stations include:
the station at al-Jubail, considered the largest desalination station
in the world, Jeddah's station complex, and stations in Makkah, Taif,
Madinah, Yanbu, Shaqeeq and al-Khobar.
The Corporation has set up a pipeline
network, with a total length of more 2000 kilometers, for
transportation of desalinated water to various regions and has set up
108 reservoirs, with a capacity of more than 6 million cubic meters.
The reports issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water expected
that, in the next few years, following the completion of projects
currently under implementation, the productive capacity of desalinated
water would increase to more than 800 million gallons of water per
day, in addition to more than 5000 megawatts of electricity.
In recognition of its great
achievements, the International Desalination Association (IDA) awarded
the Corporation a prize in 1999.
Source: SPA
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