Islamabad: Commercial Counselor Jeddah has liaised with M/s Muhammad Nazir Chaudhry Chemical Products (MNCP) Ltd Co KSA which has formed an investment consortium with a representative from Saudi Arabia and another from Australia to bring investment proposal for promoting foreign direct investment in Pakistan through a sea water desalination project. Through this project the government will get foreign investments of $ 2 billion in five years
A similar project has been completed by this consortium on the red sea in Yanbu. They are currently operating the project in Yanbu and negotiations are underway with the government of Saudi Arabia for nine new desalination projects announced on the Red Sea.
They are offering five projects of 200 million liter per day (MLD) to Pakistan. The Proposed projects would be installed at Karachi and the Desalinized water will conform to AWWA standards of Potable sweet water.
It is believed that the total capacity of five projects would be 1000 gallons per day (1,000,000 cubic meter/day). First line of 200 MLD would be completed in two years. The project is proposed on BOT basis.
With the proposed arrangements, the people of Karachi could enjoy sweet potable water (meeting AWWA standards) at a very competitive price offered to the GoP i.e. $ 0.6 per M3 as compared to the one being offered to Saudi Arabia i,e 2 per M3 (i.e. 0.533 M). Pakistan may discuss bringing down price from $ 0.6 to 0.5 per M3 with them.
