Manila Water, partners bag Saudi contract

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Water Co. Inc., together with French water distributor Saur Group and Saudi’s Miahona Co., has been awarded a seven-year water contract in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Manila Water said the National Water Co., Saudi Arabia’s state-run water agency, awarded a management, operations and maintenance contract (MOMC) to the consortium to undertake the operation of the water and environmental treatment services in the eastern cluster of the country.

The Eastern Cluster has a population of 5.27 million and a supply demand of about 1.8 billion liters of water per day.   It includes the cities of Dammam, Al Hofuf, Al Jubail, Al Khobar, Al Qatif and Hafar Al Batin.

In December 2020, Manila Water won the bid for its first project in Saudi Arabia and signed the MOMC for a seven-year agreement to manage and implement improvement initiatives for the water and wastewater systems of the North West Cluster.

The cluster is one of six regional clusters created under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and National Water Strategy, which restructures the water distribution services and engages private sector participation.

Manila Water stressed that winning the North West and Eastern clusters puts the company and its partners in a strong competitive position when the same management contracts are converted into long-term concessions.

“We are extremely elated with this new international expansion as Manila Water gears up its vision of becoming a global Filipino water company whose operation and management expertise is now being recognized in the industry worldwide,” recently appointed Manila Water president and CEO Jocot de Dios said.

He said Manila Water would bring in 24 years of experience and knowhow in the water space to provide innovative solutions to the water and wastewater requirements in a region whose population and demand are almost comparable to its existing concession area in eastern Metro Manila and Rizal province.

“Our operations beyond the East Zone as well as our international operations in the Asia Pacific region also provide us the leverage to better understand and address the needs of foreign markets in providing solutions through an appropriate public private partnership framework,” De Dios said.

Manila Water holds a 30 percent interest in the consortium.