Deliver high quality drinking water to Jeddah inhabitants, Saudi Arabia

Ensure an excellent drinking water supply in a Saudi Arabian region affected by water scarcity and galloping urbanisation, a challenge to which SUEZ was equal. SUEZ supported the national water supplier in modernising its water infrastructures and created an efficient customer service network, while transferring maintenance skills to local

The mission

Solve the water scarcity issues for Jeddah through appropriate water management

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sustainable water management is an ongoing challenge. Drinking water resources are almost non-existent. Almost all the water distributed is supplied by seawater desalination plants. In this backdrop of constant scarcity, this type of production requires that the natural water resources be preserved through optimised use, while avoiding all waste.

To benefit from the changes in regulations which now permit public-private partnerships in Saudi Arabia, in 2008 SUEZ and its local partner ACWA Power Development won the water and sanitation services management contract to serve Jeddah for a 7-year period. The purpose of the contract was to upgrade and modernise the water and sanitation services in Jeddah and improve the quality of the service delivered to users.

Our solution

Ensure a sustainable, high quality drinking water supply

Solution

By entrusting the management of public utilities - water production and sanitation - to SUEZ under a management contract, Saudi water authority National Water Company (NWC) set out lofty objectives in terms of improvement in the quality of service.

Ensure excellent service for the local population
To restore a satisfactory level of service for inhabitants, SUEZ committed to:

providing continuous 24/7 access to drinking water;
reduce emergency intervention times by 2/3rds to repair leaks over 5,300 km of drinking water networks;
combat overflow in wastewater collection networks.

Transfer know-how

Like the project in Algiers since 2005, this contract also featured a strong local dimension with the introduction of an ambitious training plan with knowledge transfer from SUEZ to 1,400 local NWC employees:

a training centre delivered employee training over the first two years of the contract;
these classes were accredited by renowned European certification bodies such as the International Water Office.

Measure the quality of service
One of the major challenges in the contract was to improve the performance of the service. This is measured using a system of 18 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – also referred to as Performance Standards - and 31 additional KPIs defined within the management contract.

The results

Through its expertise in water and wastewater management, SUEZ was rapidly able to generate real improvements in the quality of the water supply for inhabitants.

A less leaky drinking water network

In six months, leak detection across the water network had doubled, their immediate repair enabling the precious resource to be preserved. In parallel, the average lead time for each intervention was halved (37 hours compared to 78 hours previously). The hydraulic modelling of the network was completed: in the field, thousands of defective valves were replaced.

More efficient customer management

SUEZ also delivered its expertise in business management, creating a new customer contact centre. This centre offers a one-stop shop for all customers of the NWC Jeddah City Business Unit.

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