Minister of Environment signs agreements to build Rabigh 4 IWP

The signing ceremony 

Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture and Board Chairman of Saudi Water Partnership Co. (SWPC), Abdulrahman Al Fadley, signed today, April 12, agreements to build Rabigh 4 Independent Water plant (IWP) in Rabigh governorate, Makkah. The new plant will operate with a capacity of 600,000 cubic meters/day of desalinated water.

In a ministry statement, Al Fadley said Rabigh 4 IWP will directly provide services to Umrah and Hajj performers, in addition to other beneficiaries in Makkah and Madinah.

The project aims to develop the water sector, improve the quality of services, enhance spending efficiency and benefit from the private sector’s track record in construction, operation and management. Rabigh 4 IWP also seeks to increase the private sector’s contribution to development in line with Vision 2030.

Khaled Alqureshi, CEO of SWPC, said Rabigh 4 IWP will commence operations in Q1 2026. It will use reverse osmosis (RO) technology and will contribute to reducing electricity consumption, cutting operating costs and supporting local content by raising localization rates. 

Rabigh 4 IWP is the eighth water desalination project in partnership with the private sector, after the launch of the National Water Strategy. 

The project was offered to investors under the build, own, and operate (BOO) model. As many as 39 firms showed interest in the projects, including 20 Saudi players, of which eight were pre-qualified. 

A consortium led by ACWA Power, a Saudi developer and operator of a portfolio of power generation and desalinated water production plants, and its partners Haji Abdullah Alireza & Co (HAACO) and Al Moayyed Contracting Group (AMCG) was selected as the winning bidder for the Rabigh 4 IWP.