Saudi Arabia's National Water Company (NWC) said that work is well under way on the first phase of a mega project to secure sustainable water supplies to the capital Riyadh at a total cost of $1.99 billion.

NWC is completing work on the initial stages of the first phase which will provide 600,000 cu m of storage space at a cost of SR250 millon ($66.63 million) and progressively come on line to serve the city’s western neighbourhoods by the summer of 2015. The company has finalised contracts for the remainder of the first phase which will provide 4 million cu m of storage capacity at a cost of SR1.6 billion ($426.46 million). Work has already begun at four locations and will be completed in 18 months.

The second phase will see NWC build further storage facilities with a total capacity of 6 million cu m at a cost of SR2.6 billion ($693 million).

The project includes the construction of main transmission lines and operational storage tanks at a further cost of SR3 billion ($800 million).