Al-Mowkley: Nine local and international consortiums compete for the first management contract of Madinah and Tabuk regions

Nine local and international consortiums are participating in the competitive tendering for the management, operation and maintenance of the Northwestern Water Sector that includes the Madinah and Tabuk regions.

As a key component of the National Water Strategy, the National Water Company (NWC) sent invitations to qualified international consortiums, to submit their offers so that it can choose the winning consortium that would run the sector for the next seven years. This is with the aim of developing and enhancing sector’s performance and reducing operational costs as a first step towards a permanent private sector participation on the long run throughout the Kingdom, which creates a competitive environment for the operations of the distribution sector.

Eng. Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Mowkley, CEO of NWC, said that the pre-qualification of consortiums took into consideration their financial solvency, technical and operational experience, in addition to the necessary approvals of the supervisory commission on privatizing the environment, water and agriculture sector headed by MEWA Minister and the NWC Board of Directors, in line with the best international practices. “The implementation of management contracts will fully start in the two regions by the coming of 2020. The company would also be executing and implementing similar contracts gradually throughout the rest of the Kingdom regions, expected to complete by the first quarter of 2021.” 

Al-Mowkley stated that this is the first step in enabling private sector participation in the water distribution sector with the aim of enhancing operation, developing services, reducing operational, administrative and indirect capital costs, identifying the technical status of the sector’s assets and reinforcing the ratio of continuous water supply. Additionally, this will support the development of the human capital via training and boosting its technical experience, as well as enhancing the overall billing and collection operations, boosting water quality, supporting safety and security applications, enabling expertise and increasing competitiveness between the sectors in future.

This will ensure sustainable development for the NWC’s operations and strengthen the company’s sustained supervision and follow-up efforts, via regularly evaluating specific performance indicators and targets to proactively identify gaps, support business and address any issues that might arise during execution without affecting the service quality.

The CEO concluded that the company, with all its sectors and departments, is committed to facilitating these contracts through providing all necessary support to achieve their main objectives.