The UAE’s state-owned water company Etihad Water and Electricity has been awarded a $285 million engineering, procurement and construction contract to build a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, the second to be delivered under a public-private partnership model in the country.
The company has chosen NMDC Infra, based in the United Arab Emirates, and Lantania Aguas, based in Spain, through their joint venture called JV Lantania NMDC Water, to develop the Fujairah I Independent Water Producer project, a desalination facility with a capacity of 272,765 cubic meters per day. The project is scheduled to be completed in 30 months to drive the country’s Water Security Strategy 2036, a national plan to achieve sustainable and continuous access to an adequate supply of drinking water.
The project, which is being developed at the port of Fujairah, more than 74 miles northeast of the city of Dubai on the Persian Gulf, will have storage capacity equivalent to 18 hours of production. It will draw in seawater and remove salt and impurities to produce potable water for residential, commercial and industrial uses, according to a company statement.
The project will feature an open seawater intake, a pipe disburser, a reverse osmosis plant and potable water storage tanks, although Etihad Water and Electricity has not yet confirmed the dimensions or specific details of these components.
Mohammed Al Shehhi, director general of utilities, said the project “marks an important step [its] journey… to develop [reverse osmosis] capacity across its network.”
The company, which provides electricity and water services to six emirates, is expected to sign a long-term water supply agreement with Lantania NMDC Water. The project will “add significant investment value to the utility portfolio,” the CEO said, adding that the company is currently developing multiple projects to announce.
NMDC Group acquired in January, through its subsidiary NMDC Infra, a majority stake of 51% in Lantana Aguas, a subsidiary specializing in desalination, treatment and water purification of Lantana Group.
The Fujairah project is the second desalination project the company is acquiring in partnership with the private sector under the P3 model, following the $800 million Naqa’a facility located about 124 miles north of Abu Dhabi, with a production capacity of more than 681,900 cubic meters per day.
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