NEOM Extends Bidding for Modular Wastewater Plant to Serve Oxagon Industrial Zone
vendredi 16 octobre 2026
Enowa, the energy and water utility behind Saudi Arabia's giant NEOM development, has pushed back the bidding deadline for a temporary modular wastewater treatment plant serving Oxagon, NEOM's planned industrial cluster, giving contractors until 25 October to submit offers, up from an original 2 October deadline.
The tender covers a design-build-operate contract for a dismantlable, relocatable plant built in modular trains, intended to provide interim wastewater treatment while Oxagon continues to develop. The scope includes an industrial wastewater package with initial capacity of 35,000 cubic metres a day, expandable to a maximum of 45,000 cubic metres a day through additional 5,000-cubic-metre modules, plus a smaller sanitary wastewater package handling 1,000 cubic metres a day. Winning bidders would be responsible for supply, installation, testing and three years of operation and maintenance once the plant is commissioned.
The project replaces an earlier, more permanent scheme — the Oxagon Village Water Recycling Plant — which NEOM cancelled in 2024 despite having already received bids from contractors including PowerChina, Alfanar and Orascom. Those same firms, alongside Veolia, are reported to be preparing proposals for the new modular tender, according to industry publication MEED. Commercial evaluation of the bids is expected to weigh not just price and technical design but also the strength of financing packages, with NEOM said to be considering support from export credit agencies as part of its assessment.
The shift from a fixed, large-scale treatment plant to a modular and movable one reflects a broader pattern seen across NEOM's megaproject portfolio in 2026, as the developer has recalibrated the pace and format of infrastructure investment while Oxagon's footprint and timeline continue to take shape. A modular design allows capacity to be added, relocated or wound down as actual industrial demand in the zone becomes clearer, reducing the risk of stranded assets tied to a single large facility built years ahead of need.
The tender is one of several active water and wastewater procurements across the Gulf this autumn. In Saudi Arabia, five consortiums recently bid on the Riyadh East sewage treatment plant, which would initially process 200,000 cubic metres of wastewater daily with room to double that capacity, and the kingdom's SHARAKAT Award programme has continued to recognise public-private partnerships across the water sector. Regionally, desalination and wastewater investment has remained a consistent policy priority, with Gulf states citing water security, population growth and industrial expansion as the primary drivers behind sustained capital spending on the sector, even as governments experiment with smaller, more flexible infrastructure formats like the one now being tendered at Oxagon.