Feasibility assessment of the construction of a purified water treatment facility

This paper describes a feasibility study of the construction of a water treatment facility. The proposed facility location is in the village of Al-Munaizilah, in the Al-Hasa area, of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, where drinking water is not supplied by the water network. Residents in this area purchase drinking water from water treatment suppliers. Upon implementation, the project will be capable of producing quality drinking water and ice for three areas of the village. The maximum daily drinking water production rate of the proposed facility is 10,000 gallons/day. This amount is based on the results of a questionnaire which was randomly distributed to the residents of the area for this purpose. The available raw water is brackish in quality, and will be obtained by drilling a well at the site location. This raw water will then sequentially be pumped, filtered, treated and finally stored in large tanks before being delivered to customers. A reverse-osmosis (RO) unit will be used to treat the raw water. The RO unit capacity is based on the annual treated water requirement. The total first cost (initial investment) of the proposed project is estimated to be SR 1,224,000 and the total annual operating and maintenance costs are approximately SR 527,350 (1 U.S.$ = 3.75 SR). The financial analysis of the project indicates that the annual rate of return of the project will be between 18.5% and 80%, depending on the actual demand for the treated water.