Saudi Arabia has pledged to support Sri Lanka in offering its expertise in the desalination sector, visiting Sri Lankan Minister of City Planning and Water Resources Rauf Hakeem told Daily News on Monday.
Hakeem was speaking to the Daily News following his meeting with his counterpart Minister of Water, Environment and Agriculture Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Fadhli in Riyadh on Tuesday.
“It was a useful and cordial dialogue with the Saudi minister where Saudi Arabia offered technical support and advice on desalination projects that would be undertaken by the Sri Lankan government,” the visiting minister said. The talks were also attended by Sri Lankan Ambassador in the Kingdom Azmi Thassim, legislators accompanying the minister M S Thowfeek and M.H.M.Salman and Additional Secretary to the City Planning and Water Resources Ministry Mangalikka Lokuliyanage and Thillina Wijetunge from the same ministry.
Minister Hakeem said that his ministry has already called for tenders for desalination plants for projects in Jaffna.
He said the government intends to carry out similar desalination projects in Hambantota and Kalpitiya. Hakeem said that Minister Al-Fadhli has extended an invitation to a technical team from his ministry to visit the Desalination plant in Jubail.
Saudi Arabia was acclaimed as the country which has the largest desalination plant in the world. The total length of supply pipeline is 7,000 km. It caters to around 60 percent of domestic use in the Kingdom, making Saudi Arabia the largest producer of desalinated water in the world.
Its Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) carries out the transmission of drinking water to the beneficiary regions using a very long pipeline network with pipes ranging between 8 and 80 inches in diameter. The water is pumped through 47 pumping stations to a total of 224 water tanks, with a total capacity of 11,6 million cubic meters, in addition to 16 blending stations to mix the desalinated water with the underground water, and 8 other terminal stations. Its electricity co-generation capacity has reached 7,500MW and is considered one of the major electricity producers in the country.
During his meeting with Dr.Abdullah Al- Abdul Karim, Deputy Governor for Planning and Development, Saline Water Conversion Corporation, Minister Hakeem explored the feasibility of joint cooperation between the Kingdom and Sri Lanka.
Hakeem also met with the Vice Chairman of the Saudi Fund For Development Yousef Al-Basam and discussed the possibility of obtaining micro-credit for SMEs in Sri Lanka. Earlier,the SFD has assisted financial lending for several projects in the island. They include, a $140 million for a road construction project and for the refurbishment of the Epilepsy Hospital in Colombo.
The financing for Epilepsy Hospital came as an additional financing for procurement of equipment for the ongoing Epilepsy Hospital Project where SFD has provided $ 20 million to construct fully equipped state of art hospital for epilepsy patients. The 10-storey hospital building consists of an operation theater, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), 242 beds for male and female wards, an auditorium for capacity building for island wide medical staff. The additional financing of $ 12 million is mainly to procure all necessary equipment including device ray CT, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, physical therapy devices, medical furniture.
Saudi aid offered to Sri Lanka include a bridge costing SR 440 million in Kinniya . The Kinniya bridge is the longest overpass in the island is to connect Kinniya and Trincomalee and ease transport problems of the people in the Eastern Province. The Saudi Fund For Development, SFD, also gave a supplementary grant of Rs. 330 million for the development of health facilities at the Neuro Trauma Hospital, which was built with Saudi aid of Rs.440 million in Colombo.
The SFD had also provided Sri Lanka with project loans on several occasions. It offered SR 99.9 million for the second stage of the Water Supply and Sewage project and gave SR 48.1 million for the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B in 1981. Subsequently, Sri Lanka obtained Rs. 255 million for the Mahaweli Ganga Development Project System B Left Bank in 1984.
Add new comment