The Saudi Water Authority (SWA), previously known as the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, is the entity responsible for managing, operating, and maintaining water desalination systems, repurposing and desalinating seawater, and then pumping it to cities and governorates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The headquarters of the corporation is located in Riyadh, the capital. Its Board of Directors is headed by the Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture.
Beginnings of the SWA
Water desalination in the Kingdom began when the Founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, issued a Royal Decree in 1928 to establish two condensation devices for seawater distillation. Later named al-Kandasa, they served the needs of Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.
In 1974, due to the increasing demand for water in the Kingdom, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation was officially established by a Royal Decree as an independent government institution with a legal personality. It operates under the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture. On May 7, 2024, the Council of Ministers approved the transformation of the General Authority for Desalination of Seawater into an authority under the name of the Saudi Water Authority.
Responsibilities of SWA
SWA has several competencies and roles, including: producing and desalinating seawater, pumping desalinated water to cities and governorates through a pipeline network of about 11,600 km, developing production systems, providing water and electrical products to enhance and support economic and social sectors, as well as, constructing, operating, and maintaining electrical generation systems, training, and supporting scientific research.
SWA strategy
SWA aims to efficiently meet the desalinated water needs at the lowest possible cost and with the highest economic return. This is achieved through effective investment in human resources, developing the desalination industry, contributing to economic and social development, and adhering to safety and environmental standards.
SWA's strategy includes supply chain development, environmental conservation, and integration with sustainable development. One of the goals of the Kingdom Vision 2030 is to use modern technological equipment in the field of water desalination and transfer, and benefit from artificial intelligence in accelerating the production processes of desalinating saline water and electricity.
SWA institutional sustainability
SWA adopts an institutional sustainability approach, committed to local laws related to environmental protection, energy production, economic development, principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requirements of the ISO26000 standard, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards.
Institutional sustainability is achieved through several targets, notably: localization of jobs, innovation of solutions to support methods of producing salt water and their sustainability, providing high-quality medical facilities and services, equipping systems with the latest technologies suitable for desalination and sustainable electricity production, responsible management of natural resources, ensuring gender equality in job roles and entitlements, empowering women, increasing green areas, and using clean energy.
SWA has launched several institutional sustainability initiatives within the National Transformation Program to reinforce the program's objectives and contribute to realizing Kingdom Vision 2030. These include the Saudi Green Initiative, water quality improvement initiative, commercial investment initiative for brine return water mining, enhancement of desalinated water sources, increasing efficiency and performance, and building local content capabilities.
SWA in the Guinness World Records
In 2018, SWA broke its global record of desalinating five million m³ of water daily by registering a new record of 5.6 million m³. Consequently, it received a Guinness World Records certificate in 2019 as the largest seawater desalination producer in the world. It then reached 6.3 million m³ in 2023.
In 2021, SWA set another record for the lowest energy consumption in water desalination, with 2.27 kWh/m³ of water. Moreover, in 2019, al-Jubail Water Desalination Plant set a world record with a daily production of 1.4 million m³. SWA also received the award for the best desalination company in the world in 2021 in the international competition organized by Global Water Intelligence. It also ranked first among government entities in institutional excellence for the Pillars of Sustainable Spending Efficiency Program.
SWA has received the Institutional Excellence Recognition Certificate from the European Organization for Quality Management and achieved a four-star rating. It is the first organization in the Kingdom to receive this award. Additionally, it received the Practical Excellence Award for creating innovative opportunities and the ISO 9001 Quality Management System certificate.
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