The Jeddah Services Company (JSC) began executing its first project, constructing a drainage system in Jeddah, with an investment of 14 billion Saudi Riyals ($3.7 billion), Al-Hayat reported. Water and sewage projects in Jeddah would require a SR60 billion ($16 billion) investment in the next 20 years, estimated the Makkah Province Governor Prince Abdelmajeed Bin Abdulaziz.
A subsidiary of the Jeddah Holding Company (JHC), JSC specializes in construction, maintenance and management projects of sewerage, desalinizing and water treatment and distribution. JCS has just recently completed its registration procedures with the Ministry of Commerce. The firm’s capital stands at SR 400 million ($106 million), divided into eight million stocks, according to the official Saudi press agency, SPA.
The governor disclosed that another big drinking water project is currently under study, as well as a saline water conversion corporation. "We are now debating whether the project should be implemented by the government or the private sector. I personally prefer private investment and JHC is ready for investment in the project if invited," he added.
The parent company JHC was established in a bid to encourage the privatization of the city’s sewage system and investments in real estate and tourism. JHC's licensed capital was set at one billion SR, out of which SR 500 million ($135 million) is paid-up. JHC has set up three subsidiary companies: the Jeddah Services Company, the Jeddah Company for Development and Real Estate and the Jeddah Tourism Company.
Due to the growing population and lack of public utility services and infrastructure, Jeddah authorities decided establish a several service companies, constructed as public-private partnerships (PPP) investment schemes.
A Jeddah family of five pays SR250-SR300 for the water and sewage services monthly. Ten percent of Jeddah, where 30 percent of its people live, is linked with a sewage network, while the remaining of the city’s inhabitants must “pay a minimum of six SR ($1.60) per cubic meter of sewage to a contractor to have it removed and an equal sum for drinking water,” Mecca province governor told Al-Watan.
According to official statistics, Jeddah’s rising water consumption is being met by 163 companies whose combined fleet of 1,000 tankers distributes 70,000 cubic meters of water a day and removes 40,000 to 50,000 cubic meters of sewage daily and dumps it east of the Makkah-Madinah expressway. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
