Saudi Municipal Wastewater Projects in Tabuk, Buraydah & Medina Win Global Water Award
Acknowledgement of novel wastewater treatment technology
In a milestone for sustainable water infrastructure, three major wastewater treatment plants in Saudi Arabia – located in Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina – have been honored with the Global Water Award for Municipal Project of the Year. This prestigious accolade, presented at the annual Global Water Awards, recognizes the projects’ outstanding contribution to municipal wastewater management and water reuse on a world stage. The award highlights not only the scale and impact of these facilities, but also the innovative technologies and partnerships that made them possible, marking a proud moment for everyone involved in their development
Partnership Excellence in Saudi Arabia
The award-winning projects were delivered through a robust public-private partnership that brought together international and local expertise. A consortium comprising International Water Distribution Company (TAWZEA), Spain’s Acciona, and Saudi developer Tamasuk Holding collaborated to finance, build, and operate the Tabuk-2, Buraydah-2, and Madinah-3 Independent Sewage Treatment Plants (ISTPs) under a 25-year build-operate-transfer agreementThe client and off-taker, the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC), provided oversight and ensured the projects align with national water strategy goals. Each partner played a vital role: Acciona and TAWZEA led engineering, procurement, and construction (with support from local contractors), while Tamasuk contributed local project development prowess. This strong consortium enabled the on-time delivery of high-capacity municipal wastewater facilities that serve a combined population of over 2.5 million people in the Kingdom.
Crucially, Waterleau served as the technology provider on these projects – a role that proved instrumental to their success. Within TAWZEA’s contractor scope, Waterleau integrated its proprietary LUCAS® Cyclic Activated Sludge technology as the core biological treatment process. By having Waterleau “on board” to supply its cutting-edge LUCAS system, the consortium leveraged best-in-class process performance and total cost of ownership advantages. The result is a set of plants that meet rigorous wastewater treatment standards while operating reliably and efficiently. This fruitful partnership between the consortium members, SWPC, and Waterleau exemplifies how global collaboration can deliver excellence in essential infrastructure.
LUCAS®: Innovative Cyclic Activated Sludge Technology
At the heart of the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina plants is Waterleau’s LUCAS® technology – a proven aerobic wastewater treatment system trusted in both industrial and municipal applications worldwide. LUCAS® combines the time-tested principles of activated sludge with the efficiency of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in a novel configuration. The system features a modular setup of three hydraulically interconnected reactor tanks with common walls. Each tank operates in a staggered cycle, performing one of three key treatment phases: accumulation, regeneration, and effluent withdrawal, before ceding to the next phase. This cyclic process enables continuous influent flow and treatment – essentially creating an “assembly line” of batch treatment that maximizes throughput and stability. By optimally alternating the three processes in each tank (controlled by an advanced monitoring system), LUCAS® achieves high removal of organic pollutants and nutrients while minimizing energy use.
Key Benefits of the LUCAS® Technology:
- Compact & Modular Design: The LUCAS® cyclic activated sludge system is ultra-compact. Its three-tank modular configuration requires a much smaller footprint than conventional continuous-flow systems, allowing easy scaling and capacity expansion by adding modules.
- Cost-Efficient Operation: LUCAS® is engineered for low energy consumption and efficient nutrient removal, translating to reduced operating costs. The technology delivers a low total cost of ownership, as demonstrated by its best-in-class performance and economical operation in the Saudi plants.
- Integrated Treatment Train: The flexible design can fully integrate pretreatment and post-treatment processes, as well as sludge and biogas handling, into one seamless system. In practice, these plants incorporate fine screening, primary settling, LUCAS® biological reactors, tertiary filtration, disinfection, sludge digestion, and even biogas energy recovery within their layouts. This all-in-one approach reduces duplication of equipment and streamlines construction.
- Proven Reliability: From city sewage treatment for millions to industrial effluents, LUCAS® has a track record of meeting strict discharge standards and enabling water reuse. Its intelligent control of aeration and settling ensures consistent performance even under fluctuating loads, a vital feature for municipal systems dealing with varying inflows.
By deploying the LUCAS® technology in the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina plants, the consortium ensured that these facilities would achieve high treatment efficiency with a compact footprint and optimal costs – a decisive factor in their recognition as a global model for municipal wastewater projects.
Scaling Up Sustainable Water Reuse in Saudi Arabia
The three newly recognized ISTPs build upon a foundation of success established by an earlier project in Saudi Arabia: the Taif Independent Sewage Treatment Plant. Taif was the first in the Kingdom to implement Waterleau’s LUCAS® technology at scale, coming online in 2023 with an initial capacity of 100,000 m³ of wastewater per day. Notably, the Taif plant earned its own accolades – receiving a Distinction Award (runner-up) in the 2022 Global Water Awards for Wastewater Project of the Year. The Taif project’s performance demonstrated the effectiveness of the LUCAS® system in treating large volumes of municipal sewage to reuse standards, while minimizing energy and footprint. This paved the way for Waterleau’s technology to be adopted in the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina facilities as they were developed shortly thereafter.
Now, with four major plants in Saudi Arabia operating on the LUCAS® platform (Taif plus the three new ISTPs), Waterleau’s sustainable treatment technology is making an unprecedented impact. Together, these four plants are capable of treating a combined total of about 700,000 cubic meters of wastewater every day for reuse in the water-scarce kingdom. The treated effluent is being safely reused for beneficial purposes such as agriculture and landscape irrigation, reducing reliance on precious freshwater resources. For example, the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina projects include over 70 km of newly built pipelines and storage to convey treated water to agricultural users – a first-of-its-kind integration of reuse infrastructure in Saudi wastewater projects. By converting sewage into a valuable water resource, these projects illustrate the circular economy in action. In addition, extensive sludge processing at the plants (including anaerobic digestion and solar drying) allows biosolids to be repurposed as fertilizer or fuel, while generating biogas for renewable energy onsite. In fact, thanks to biogas-to-energy and on-site solar panels, the three ISTPs source more than 50% of their energy needs internally – dramatically cutting their carbon footprint.
The sheer scale and integrated sustainability features of the Saudi ISTPs make them a showcase for modern municipal wastewater treatment. By leveraging advanced technology and design, the projects manage to turn 700,000 m³ of wastewater each day into a safe supply of recycled water and green energy. This achievement is a major step forward for water reuse in the Middle East, positioning Saudi Arabia as a regional leader in sustainable wastewater management.
Advancing Vision 2030: Sustainability and Circular Economy
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 blueprint places strong emphasis on environmental sustainability, efficient water management, and development of a thriving circular economy. The success of the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina wastewater projects directly contributes to several key Vision 2030 goals in these areas. By treating and recycling municipal wastewater on an unprecedented scale, the projects support the Kingdom’s aims to conserve water resources and increase the reuse of treated sewage effluent. Every drop of water recovered by these plants is a drop of groundwater or desalinated water saved, helping to alleviate water scarcity in this arid region.
Moreover, the projects exemplify the “waste-to-value” approach at the heart of Vision 2030’s circular economy objectives. Instead of simply disposing of wastewater and sludge, the ISTPs transform them into valuable outputs: clean water for irrigation and industry, renewable energy from biogas, and nutrient-rich biosolids that can be used as soil amendments or in manufacturing. This aligns perfectly with Saudi Arabia’s strategy to reduce waste and create new economic value from residues. Indeed, the Global Water Awards committee highlighted that these plants are “a central part of the environmental and circular economy aspirations laid out in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy.” By setting new benchmarks in resource recovery and green energy integration, the projects demonstrate the viability of large-scale sustainable infrastructure, inspiring similar initiatives in the region and around the world.
The recognition of the Saudi ISTPs on the global stage also underscores the importance of international partnerships in achieving Vision 2030’s targets. The collaboration between Saudi stakeholders and global technology providers like Waterleau brought in expertise, innovation, and investment aligned with the Kingdom’s vision. It serves as a model for how public-private partnerships can deliver complex projects that advance national development goals while also earning worldwide acclaim for excellence
Celebrating Success and Looking Ahead
This award is not only a recognition of the projects themselves, but also a tribute to the dedicated teams behind them. Waterleau wishes to congratulate and honor all team members, engineers, and operators who contributed their talent and hard work to the Tabuk, Buraydah, and Medina plants. Their expertise and commitment were the driving force that turned ambitious plans into a operational reality on the ground. The successful commissioning and ramp-up of these facilities – amid the challenges of scale, timeline, and technical complexity – reflect extraordinary teamwork and professionalism across all partners.
As Waterleau celebrates this achievement, the company reaffirms its commitment to delivering sustainable water solutions around the globe. From Europe to the Middle East and beyond, Waterleau will continue to innovate and deploy cutting-edge technologies that help cities and industries reduce their water footprint and turn waste into value. The Global Water Award for Municipal Project of the Year stands as a proud testament to what this commitment can accomplish. Going forward, Waterleau and its partners are inspired to “ride this wave of success” and tackle new water challenges, bolstered by the knowledge that smart, sustainable solutions can indeed win both global recognition and a better future for our planet
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