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| Saudis to spend $5 billion on six new de-salination plants |
| 2004-02-19 |
| Edited for brevity. Saudi Arabia is to build six new desalination plants at a cost of 20 billion riyals (5.3 billion dollars) to satisfy demand in the desert kingdom, a neswpaper reported Wednesday, quoting deputy minister for water and electricity Abdullah al-Hussain. The plants, which also produce electricity as well as drinking water from sea water, will push to 36 the total number of desalination facilities in the kingdom, the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, Arab News said. The desert kingdom has scarce fresh water resources and contributes 30 percent of global desalination output. The 30 desalination plants pump almost 600 million gallons (some 2.27 billion litres) of water daily through nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of pipeline, meeting 70 percent of Saudi needs for drinking water. The rest comes from underground water. Water is heavily subsidised by the state in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, where the a cubic meter of water costs about 1.30 dollars to produce and is sold for about four US cents. That’s quite a return on investment... |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #7 I suppose you have figure water for cooking, washing, bathroom fixtures, crop irrigation... Of course, I'm going by Western ways of water usage and don't know the finer points of Arabian plumbing! Maybe .com or someone can explain if there are water use restrictions, 'cause it seems awfully expensive to produce water this way and let it evaporate or run down the sewer for something as mundane as a swimming pool, decorative fountain, car wash, etc. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-2-19 6:10:27 PM |
| #6 600 million gallons (some 2.27 billion litres) of water daily through nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of pipeline, meeting 70 percent of Saudi needs for drinking water Damn how much water do these guys drink? Thats 30 gallons a head less the 30% groundwater. They must be talking about bath water also.... unless Dr. Atkins is big there.... who knows. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-19 4:05:55 PM |
| #5 Ooooh... targets! |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-2-19 3:47:26 PM |
| #4 Would these plants be inside or outside of the 40 km strip? |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-2-19 2:21:11 PM |
| #3 Wow! This means they'll have enough salt to last them forever! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-2-19 1:02:46 PM |
| #2 "No Blood for Water!" |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-2-19 12:16:19 PM |
| #1 Why hasn't Al Kayda bombed the pipelines yet ? Seems like the obvious soft spot. Too many friends in high places ? |
| Posted by: KerryIsSoVery 2004-2-19 12:12:07 PM |