Saudi Arabia: SWA Desalination Rebuild and Upgrades (AIIB-000371)

Countries
  • Saudi Arabia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Dec 24, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Saudi Water Authority (SWA), Muneef Alhabbas
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Water and Sanitation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 300.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 300.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AIIB website

Updated in EWS Mar 27, 2025

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank provided information, the project objective is to improve energy efficiency and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission through rebuilding of 'end of life' desalination plants with new technology for increasing water production capacity.

The Project supports the SWA's initiatives to modernize its fleet of desalination facilities in various regions. The Project seeks to partially finance the rebuilding of two existing Multi-stage Flash Distillation (MSF) facilities: Jubail 1 and Khobar 2 on a Non-Sovereign Backed Financing (NSBF) basis. The Project is expected to increase the capacity of each facility, reduce power requirements of the plants, and increase asset lives for at least another 20 years.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

PROJECT TEAM LEADER
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Ahmed Ali
Investment Officer
ahmed.ali@aiib.org 

Danurachman Krishana
Investment Officer
Danurachman.krishana@aiib.org 

BORROWER
Saudi Water Authority (SWA)
Muneef Alhabbas
Senior expert
MAlhabbas@swa.gov.sa 

Abdulrahman Al-thonayan
Shared Services Development Specialist
AAl-thonayan@swcc.gov.sa 

Majed Almujalli
Executive Manager for Operational Shared Services
MAlmujalli@SWA.GOV.SA 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.aiib.org/en/contact/information-request/index.html 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AIIB

The AIIB has established the Accountability Mechanism for Project-Affected People (PPM). The PPM provides Òan opportunity for an independent and impartial review of submissions from Project-affected people who believe they have been or are likely to be adversely affected by AIIBÕs failure to implement the ESP in situations when their concerns cannot be addressed satisfactorily through Project level GRMs or AIIB Management processes.Ó Two or more project-affected people can file a complaint. Under the current AIIB policy, when the bank co-finances a project with another development bank, it may apply the other bank's standards. You can refer to the Project Summary Information document to find out which standards apply. You can learn more about the PPM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/how-we-assist-you/index.html 

The complaint submission form can be accessed in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Chinese, English, Tagalog, Hindi, Nepali, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu. The submission form can be found at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/submission/index.html 

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