The National Water Company (NWC) began its fifth annual symposium on Thursday at the Jeddah Hilton, to discuss important water projects and outline future developments across the Kingdom. The main objective of the symposium is to address new initiatives and solutions for innovative water and environmental projects, and develop strategies for sustainable water and investment opportunities. Delegates also assessed current and future trends in modern technology in the industry and management of water demands locally and globally. The event opened with Loay Al-Musallam, chief executive officer of the NWC, addressing the gathering. Local and international experts in the filed of water attended the session. "We have successfully launched comprehensive innovative solutions by adapting best practices, which have brought about significant improvements to the sector in terms of addressing the ever-increasing water demand, ensuring security of supply, sustainability, as well as managing the impact on the environment," said Al-Musallam. Al-Musallam said the NWC continues to take the lead in promoting sales of TSE (Treated Sewage Effluents). "More than 13 billion cubic meters of TSE is projected to be utilized in the next 20 years. This will result in 1.8 million cubic meters of additional savings of water resources every day. More than SR5.4 billion in TSE sales has been successfully contracted, and is expected to grow to more than SR33 billion over the next 20 years." He said the NWC's long-term plan is to expand its operations into other major cities in the Kingdom, including Madinah, Dammam and Alkhobar, and increase its customer base to almost 60 percent of the Kingdom's population. Abdullah Saleh Al-Hagbani, executive director of projects at the NWC, said the diversity of modern techniques created new investment opportunities in water demand management, allowed for attractive returns and maximized environmental benefits. He said the goal of the company is to pursue strategies to explore opportunities in the water sector and environmental remediation. This has been demonstrated by the successful implementation of the company's project to strengthen water sources in the city of Riyadh over a period of six months. "We have successfully implemented 43 underground wells, 27 stations for the purification of water, seven stations for the filling of tanks and 10 tanks in separate locations amounting to SR1.6 billion, to ensure benefits from the available alternatives and achieve water security," said Al-Hagbani. The company also gave video presentations and displayed a snapshot overview of its current water projects, including the Riyadh and Jeddah Water Storage Programs. Leading local water company representatives and international experts took part in four sessions of panel discussions. The topics included waste-water reuse in the Kingdom, new plans and initiatives toward developing a sustainable water strategy for the country and project management lessons learned. Speakers participating in the panel discussions were Al-Musallam; Al-Hagbani; Montazar Al-Muhalhal, executive director of strategic planning at the NWC; Ibrahim Shirazi, financial adviser and executive director of business development at the NWC; and Yahya Al-Yousef, director of asset services at the NWC. Speakers and panelists included Mohsen Murtaza, general manager of Arcadis Middle East; Walid Abdulrahman, chief executive officer of Miahona; Pierre Paulk, chief executive officer of Degremont Middle East; Abdulaziz Trbag, professor at the department of civil engineering at King Saud University; Adam Kingdon, chief executive officer of i2O Water; Frederic Fleury, chief executive officer at Veolia Environment; Jesús Sancho, Middle East regional director at Acciona Agua; José Enrique Bofill, director of Aqualia Middle East; Bill Hackin, artistic director of the Water Resources Corporation (AECOM); and Ingmar Obermann, senior business developer of GIZ.