The National Water Company (NWC) Sunday signed two contracts worth SR579 million with the private sector to operate water services and environmental sanitation in the central and eastern sectors that were merged under the umbrella of the company in early March. The first contract, which includes the consortium of AlKhorayef Water and Power Technologies Company and French Veolia Company to administrate, operate and implement maintenance in Riyadh Region, worth SR 358 million. The second contract is under the consortium of Saudi Miahona Company and the French Saur Group and Manila Water to administrate, operate and implement maintenance for the Eastern Region, worth SR221 million. National Water Company CEO Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Mowkely said: “One of the most important pillars of the Saudi Vision 2030 is the welfare of citizens and quality of services offered to them, which resulted in preparing the 2030 National Water Strategy. “The National Water Company Strategy was accredited to prepare detailed plans to develop the level of water services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the participation of the private sector.” He added: “We have completed restructuring the water services in Saudi Arabia 100% through annexing 13 administrative regions to six sectors under the umbrella of the company. “The latest of which was in early November 2021, with merging the Northern Sector that includes the four administrative regions of Al-Qassim, Hail, Al-Jouf, and the Northern Borders, after which all of Saudi Arabia’s regions have become under the full administration of the National Water Company.” He pointed out that these contracts depend on achieving 14 key indicators that the Consortium must achieve, the most important of which are: improving the customer experience and developing it, raising operational efficiency through cost rationalization, reducing water loss, and improving network management. Al-Mowkely indicated that the contract term is 7 years, and if targets are met after the third year of the contract, and the readiness of the sector increased, this will enable the National Water Company to move directly to the phase of concession contracts in which the private sector will take full responsibility for water services, and not to wait until the seven years are over. — SPA