Water production at Sohar Power Company’s (SPC’s) desalination plant in Oman failed for the third time this year due to “unspecified technical problems”.
Water supply in the North and South Al Batinah and Buraimi governorates were disrupted according to the local power and water supply company, the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) said in a statement.
Production at Sohar 1, which has a desalination capacity of 150,000 m³/d of water, was halted twice in May due to technical problems. A rupture of the seawater supply pipe to the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) facilities on May 3 caused seawater flooding of the SPC site which led to breakdowns in water and power production on 5 May and 19 May.
A report following a formal investigation into two breakdowns at the Sohar Power Company’s (SPC’s) power and desalination facility May this year said lack of emergency skills and failure to follow operating manual instructions were among the reasons for the catastrophic losses of power and water production extensive water shortage in North Al Batinah governorate.
The losses cost SPC between OMR 0.7 million (US$ 1.82 million) and OMR 1.4 million the company said.