The French utility services group Veolia has won a contract worth 702 million euros (945 million dollars) to design and build a water desalination plant in Saudia Arabia, Veolia said Thursday. The facility will also produce its own electricity, and construction is to be handled by a consortium that includes General Electric of the United States, the Korean group Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Veolia WST-Sidem, a unit of Veolia Water.
The work is to be coordinated by Veolia Water, which the parent group says is the world's leading water services company.
With a completion date of 2010, the plant is expected to produce 800,000 cubic meters (28 million cubic feet) of fresh water per day for the city of Jubail and a nearby desert region of northeastern Saudi Arabia.
It is to use a process known as multiple effect distillation, in which heat produced by electrical generation evaporates water at low temperatures.
According to Veolia, the process consumes less electricity than rival systems.
The factory is one component of a water and electricity production project being managed by the Power and Water Utility Company for the ports of Jubail and Yanbu.
Source: Agence France-Presse
