In January 2019, Abdul Latif Jameel Enterprises along with Abdul Latif Jameel Energy’s Almar Water Solutions were part of a consortium with Marubeni Corporation, Acciona Agua and Rawafid Alhadarah Holding Co. that signed a US$ 600m investment to build one of the world’s largest (and Saudi Arabia’s second largest) reverse osmosis desalination plants on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia near Al Shuqaiq.
The project subsequently won the utility project of the year in September, 2019, and construction began with the breaking of ground in October that year. Once complete, Shuqaiq III, has capacity to supply 450,000 cubic meters per day providing fresh drinking water to more than 1.8 million people, local industry and agriculture in addition to contributing to the Country’s economic and industrial development and creating around 700 employment opportunities between the construction start and final commissioning of the plant. The project is executed under a 25-year ‘Build-Own-Operate’ (BOO) arrangement, and its completion is planned for the fourth quarter of 2021.