The Saudi Water Authority said on 2 September that 18 investment opportunities identified for the water sector cover about 90% of the industry’s core components. At a Riyadh event held the previous day, “Localising the Water Industry: Transferring Knowledge and Building Capabilities,” the authority announced that six opportunities had moved into industrial implementation, five of them newly advanced. Three agreements were signed and two factories inaugurated; the agreements provide for seven factories in total. The authority put the investment associated with the six opportunities at SAR2.8 billion. It described the move as a transition from presenting investment opportunities to implementing industrial projects and building local technical capacity. The announcement concerns a portfolio entering implementation, rather than a claim that every planned factory is already operating.

The programme is designed to turn demand generated by water projects into local manufacturing and services. The authority expects cumulative domestic demand linked to the opportunities to exceed SAR15 billion through 2033, with demand across the Middle East and North Africa estimated at about SAR65 billion. Targeted products range from reverse-osmosis membranes, antiscalants and membrane-cleaning chemicals to energy-recovery devices, high-pressure pumps, distributed control systems (DCS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. These components serve connected functions in water production and facility operations. The authority said at least 70% of production inputs for the targeted components are available in Saudi Arabia. It also reported that the supplier base expanded from 739 in 2022 to 3,441 in 2026.

The localisation programme also includes facilities that have already started production. Toray’s reverse-osmosis membrane factory in Dammam began operating in 2025. The authority described it as the Middle East’s largest membrane factory and Toray’s second such facility outside Japan, bringing the total number of factories associated with the programme to eight. It said locally produced membranes enabled the Khobar treatment plant to raise daily output from 600,000 to 700,000 cubic metres without additional cost, while high-pressure pumps had reached 91% efficiency. The authority also reported self-sufficiency in locally made reverse-osmosis membranes and exports to 27 countries. These are results reported by the authority and programme participants; the release did not provide independent verification or a detailed calculation method for the efficiency figures.

For the six opportunities moving into implementation, the authority projects SAR4.36 billion in gross domestic product contribution by 2033 and 3,090 direct and indirect engineering and technical jobs. It also set targets to reduce costs for the selected products by 20%–30%, address SAR11.37 billion in domestic demand and export 20%–50% of production, depending on product and external demand. Across the full localisation programme, it expects investment of about SAR11 billion and around 12,000 specialised technical and engineering jobs by 2033. These are forward-looking targets, not completed outcomes. The authority also aims to shorten lead times for key components by 50%–70%. The announcement sets out a strategy to replace imported technology with domestic production, knowledge transfer and export capacity, while the planned facilities continue through implementation.