The Central Agency for Public Tenders has set September 4 for closing the tender for the design, installation and operation of the reverse osmosis desalination plant (second phase) at the Doha plant, which is expected to produce 60 million gallons.
Informed sources told a local Arabic daily that “this project, which the ministry had previously asked the agency to cancel, will add 60 million gallons per day to the water network, enhancing its production capacity, which currently stands at 680 million gallons, to raise it to 740 million,” pointing out that the ministry has a plan to raise the water production capacity to 900 million gallons per day by 2030, in order to secure the country’s needs in light of the urban expansion.
The sources indicated that “the ministry’s plan includes the water projects that will be introduced after the implementation of the projects of the North Al-Zour station (the second and third phases) and the Al-Khairan station (the first stage), indicating that the production capacity is 680 million gallons, of which 120 million are produced by the reverse osmosis plants in the Shuwaikh stations, and Al-Zour, at a rate of 30 million gallons for each plant, in addition to the Doha station (first stage), which produces 60 million, and the remaining 560 million gallons is produced by the distillation units located in the power stations.
The sources pointed out that “the ministry has a storage capacity of water, sometimes reaching 4 billion gallons, to secure the country’s needs in case the consumption rate exceeds the production rate on some days due to operational conditions, noting that 507 million gallons of water was maximum consumption recorded last summer.”
“The Ministry’s implementation of these water projects, and its endeavor to link the North Kuwait water network with the South Kuwait water network,” the sources said, “is aimed at enhancing its production capacity and not repeating the water production shortage crisis that Kuwait witnessed in 2006, and at a time when the Ministry seeks to enhance its production capacity, it hopes the consumers make the best use of the water without wasting it, especially since water desalination costs the state millions of dinars annually.”