USA –  Since its opening in December 2015, California’s billion-dollar Carlsbad desalination plant has faced considerable difficulties.^[1]  Mechanical failures and regulatory hurdles have prevented the plant from fully completing the water orders it has received.^[2]  In 2016, for instance, the facility provided the San Diego Water Authority with 90 percent of its water order, compared with only 70 percent in 2017.  The plant has also acquired more than a dozen water pollution violations.^[3]

Poseidon Water and its parent company, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, have spent millions on lobbying for their proposed desalination facility in Huntington Beach.^[4] The facility continues to face opposition from environmental groups—seventeen years after plans for its construction were first revealed.^[5]  In mid-October, the State Lands Commission will consider the permit for the plant, having last month received a letter from the Fish and Game Commission that articulates the impact of desalination on marine life.^[6]  The California Coastal Commission must also approve of the facility before it can go online.

PERU –  Over the course of the next year, Peruvian officials plan to invest $1.3 billion in national water projects.^[7]  They will also transfer $136 million to 47 bankrupt municipal water companies. Housing and construction minister Edmer Trujillo has stated that a further $3 billion will be spent on private-public partnerships for wastewater treatment and sanitation works across the country.^[8]

OMAN –  The Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) in Oman has offered tenders for two small desalination facilities in the Wusta and Musandam Governorates.^[9]  The projects will be procured through build-own-operate, public-private partnership models.  The PAEW said in a statement that it has adopted a policy of providing build-own-operate contracts in areas that are served by isolated water networks, tanker filling stations, or small desalination plants.^[10]

The public water authority currently operates roughly 40 small desalination facilities with a total capacity of 45,000 cubic metres per day.^[11]

^{Credit: Desalination.biz}

BRAZIL –  Petrobras, the semi-public multinational corporation headquartered in Rio de Janerio, has awarded a €6 million-dollar contract to Suez to supply desalinated water for roughly a dozen of its offshore oil rigs.^[12]   The contract is Suez’s first foray into the world of offshore oil operations. The three-year contract covers supply, operations, and maintenance for mobile reverse osmosis units, each with a capacity of 90 cubic metres of water per day.^[13]