Business & Money | Thursday 11 February, 2016 7:35 am |

The Governor of Riyadh Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud) presented the Award for Water to Javier Díaz, manager of Aqualia in Saudi Arabia, during the Saudi Water Electricity Forum (SWEF) held in Riyadh this week.

The award pays recognition to the work carried out by Aqualia over the last five years, including the sectioning and leakage project in the city of Riyadh, as well as the operation and maintenance of the wastewater treatment plants in Makkah (Hadda and Arana Plants). With this activity the company has become the “Best Performer of the Year in the Kingdom”.

Endorsed and supported by the Ministry of Water and Electricity, the SWEF is the main calendar event in for the water and electricity industry in Saudi Arabia. Key players in the sector, such as the National Water Company and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (government agencies that manage supply, sewerage and desalination in the country), gathered to discuss the priorities in these sectors or how the low oil prices have an impact on current policies regarding water and electricity.

This award acknowledges the work carried out by Aqualia in the Middle East, where the company has been at the forefront in terms of managing major contracts. Aqualia became the first company to secure a water management contract in the Middle East with the implementation project of an innovative improvement plan for the drinking water supply network of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. In this sense, Aqualia has initiated a plan to search for and repair leakages in the city’s water network. Its efforts have helped to minimize the number of incidents and increase the efficiency ratio of the network that provides water to a population of 6 million people. As an example of the synergy, the company’s knowledge of the networks ensured that it was allocated works in 2014 and 2015 by other companies in the FAST Consortium, including the modification of the water network layout and the services affected by the construction of the corresponding metro sections.

The award also recognizes the role Aqualia played in the management of the Hadda and Arana wastewater treatment plants in Mecca. Since last year, the company has been managing both wastewater treatment plants which have a maximum flow capacity of 375,000 cubic meters. This project falls within the framework of the program carried out by Saudi Arabian authorities which aims to transform and modernize the country’s water cycle management.

In the United Arab Emirates, Aqualia manages the sewerage and purification system in the eastern area of Abu Dhabi. This commission was the first to be awarded to a Spanish company in the United Arab Emirates and includes the operation and maintenance of a wastewater sewerage network stretching more than 2,400 kilometers, with 68 wastewater pumping stations and 19 wastewater treatment plants in the city of Al Ain (in the western area of Abu Dhabi, at the border with Oman) and the surrounding areas.

In addition to these projects, Aqualia works in sewerage system management in the Qatari city of Al Dhakhira. The project, awarded at the end of 2014 for 300 million euros, entails the construction of a wastewater treatment plant that will manage an average flow of 56,200 m3 per day and will serve more than 205,000 people.

Aqualia is the water management company belonging to FCC Citizen Services Group. According to the latest ranking by the specialist publication Global Water Intelligence (GWI), the company is the leading Spanish company in its sector, the third private water company in Europe and the sixth worldwide. It provides a service to 22.5 million users in 1,100 municipal areas in 22 countries. In 2014, the company logged a turnover of €954 million and achieved a record business portfolio of more than €15,000.