QATAR – ACCIONA has revealed it will finance an Artificial Intelligence (AI) project at the Umm Al Houl desalination plant in Qatar to lower the carbon footprint of the plant by 12,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The plant, scheduled to become operational by April 2021, will use an AI platform called Maestro, to optimise operations and achieve energy savings. The Maestro AI platform processes operational data in real-time to allow predictive, autonomous and continuous optimisation at scale. (Construction Week)

NAMIBIA – The governments of...

DJIBOUTI – A new desalination plant located in Doraleh was inaugurated on March 14^th by Djibouti’s president. The plant was constructed by Eiffage genie civil, a subsidiary of Eiffage, in partnership with Tedagua. The plant is powered by a nearby wind farm and is one of the few wind-powered water treatment plants in Africa. The plant has a production capacity of 22,500 m³/d and will supply drinking water for up to 250,000 Djiboutians. There are plans to extend the capacity of the plant to 45,000 m³/d after the full completion of the ‘...

BELGIUM – Macquarie Capital has partnered with AVAIO Capital in finalising the development and construction of a new desalination plant in Port of Antwerp. The project intends to cut down industrial use of water sourced from the Albert Canal while minimising the need for water treatment chemicals. AVAIO in collaboration with Port of Antwerp and its anchor customers including Covestro and Evonik, plan to apply for core permits in 2021 and begin construction in 2022, with the aim to commission the plant by 2024. Macquarie Capital will aid in...

U.S.A. – The Bureau of Reclamation is awarding $3.6 million to 10 projects that seek to improve technologies for water supply development from non-traditional waters, including seawater, brackish groundwater and municipal wastewater. Reclamation selected six laboratory projects and four pilot-scale research projects. The $3.6 million will be matched by $5.3 million in non-federal funding to support the research projects. The Desalination and Water Purification Research Program supports President Biden’s new Executive Order on Tackling the...

MOROCCO – The Irish company Ingersoll Rand’s Engineering Project Solutions has been selected by Abengoa to supply a compressed air system for the Chtouka desalination plant. The plant is currently under construction by the Abengoa subsidiary Aman El Baraka. Ingersoll was chosen for its CompAir technology, which will also power the station’s pneumatic equipment, valves and electrical controls.

The desalination plant will launch operations in March 2021 and will supply 150,000 m³/d water to the drinking water grid of Greater Agadir and will...

GERMANY – Floating WINDdesal (FWD) is a European industry initiative developing a new technology concept that combines a desalination plant and a floating offshore wind turbine, both supported by a floating semisubmersible structure. The technology will be implemented in the Middle East region later this year.

At present three modules of varying sizes are in preparation, with respective water treatment capacities of 15,000, 30,000 and 50,000 m³/d. Utilizing a semi-submersible support structure, partially derived from deep water drilling rigs...

CYPRUS – A team of scientists explored the scale of seawater desalination in Cyprus and the technology’s impact on the environment and potential sustainable solutions. The study reports that five large desalination plants and 24 smaller desalination units supply drinking water to Cyprus’s municipalities, industry, power stations, tourist facilities and military. The energy consumed in the desalination facilities releases about 169 kilotons of CO2 equivalent to the atmosphere, representing around 2% of the island’s total greenhouse gas...

EGYPT – The government of Egypt has signed a partnership agreement with Russia to collaborate in the seawater desalination sector of Egypt. The agreement was recently signed between the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation, the Engineering Authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the University of Alexandria and RUSNANO group. The agreement specifically includes the construction of a plant to manufacture seawater desalination components in Egypt. (Construction Review Online)

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s water agency PUB and Keppel...

IRAN – The desalination capacity of Hormozgan Province will increase by 40,000 m³ to 170,000 m³/d in March. Last month Bandar Abbas desalination plant became operational and started producing 200,000 m³/d water which is transported to Kerman and Yazd via a 300-km pipeline and seven pumping stations. (Financial Tribune)

In the 38^th week of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program, 3 water projects and 20 electricity projects were inaugurated in the provinces of Zanjan, Qom, Isfahan and Semnan. The 23 projects combined cost $163.33 million and...

FRANCE – French start-ups Ecosun Innovations and Mascara Nouvelles Technologies collaborated on the development of a novel solar powered desalination system. The companies combined two of their products, the autonomous solar-powered desalination system Osmosun and the solar container Mobil-Watt, into developing the Osmo-Watt system which can produce 100 m³/d drinking water. The fully equipped container does not require any civil engineering expertise to set up and thus can be rapidly deployed in disaster or emergency situations. (pv magazine...

 SAUDI ARABIA – ACCIONA announced that the construction of the Al-Khobar 1 desalination plant has now been completed with the plant producing beyond its normal capacity from December 26. The plant produces 210,000 m³/d drinking water supplying the equivalent of 350,000 people. The testing program and commissioning of the plant was completed remotely using digital twin technology.  By using an exact digital copy of the Al-Khobar 1 plant, an expert team in Madrid was able to start the tests and launch the plant remotely, reducing...

SOUTH KOREA – The port city of Busan will use the desalination plant located in Gijang, a coastal town near Busan, as a research hub to demonstrate new desalination technologies. In a statement released on January 8 the city revealed it had forged a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Environment and K-Water, a state water resource development and management agency, for the repurposing of the plant.

The facility was built in 2014 at a cost of $82.9 million and has a production capacity of 45,000 m³/d. But the plant operation was halted...

 SAUDI ARABIA – The Saline Water Conversion Corporation has awarded ACCIONA and RTCC the contract for the design and construction of the Shuqaiq 1 desalination plant on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia. The $384 million reverse osmosis plant, once completed, will have a daily capacity of 400,000 m³/d. The project is expected to be completed in 2023 and will be ACCIONA’s fifth desalination plant in Saudi Arabia and the third awarded by SWCC. (Zawya)

13 mobile desalination plants in Saudi Arabia achieved a world record low energy...

AUSTRALIA – The South Australian state government has released a climate action vision plan, including the construction of a new desalination plant as a key component, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The new desalination plant will be located at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. SA Water recently held an information night at Penneshaw to discuss its plans to expand the existing desalination plant. The funding linked to the Climate Change Action plant includes a $19.8 million contribution to the new SA...

INDIA – The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the construction of a new desalination plant and mega energy park. The desalination plant will be located in the arid region bordering Pakistan and will have a production capacity of 100,000 m³/d, serving the 800,000 people living in the region. The energy park will be constructed on 72,600 hectares of land, the size of Singapore, in the district of Kutch in Gujarat and will produce 30 GW of renewable energy. (Construction Review Online)

CANADA – H2O Innovation Inc.’s...

BELGIUM – A new desalination facility is to be built in the port of Antwerp, which will pump up brackish dock water and convert it to high-quality process water for the chemical sector in the area. The project will be developed by investment company AVAIO in collaboration with chemical companies Covestro and Evonik.  

AVAIO has concluded a letter of intent with Covestro to build the plant on the Covestro industrial site and will also supply Evonik via a new pipeline. With the construction of the new plant in the port of Antwerp,...

INDIA – Carlsberg Group is planning to build a solar desalination plant in a small East Indian town. The facility will be constructed in partnership with Dutch clean-water company Desolenator and will produce 20 m³/d of drinking water for 4,000 people in West Bengal’s Sundarbans region, near the border with Bangladesh. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2021.

The plant will sell clean water at a subsidised rate and hire more than a dozen women in Pathar Pratima. According to Desolenator, the social enterprise model, with all...

SAUDI ARABIA – Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology developed a new method to clean desalination membranes. The scientists developed a nontoxic removable coating that provides a safer and more efficient alternative to the chemicals used to clean reverse osmosis systems.

A challenge for reverse osmosis desalination is the development of biofilm resulting from the growth of bacteria and other microorganisms on the membrane surface. The method developed by the researchers utilizes a polyelectrolytic coating and...

SAUDI ARABIA – Target Engineering Construction has signed a subcontract with the Shandong Tiejun Electric Power Engineering Company for marine construction works at the Jubail-3A water project. Jubail 3A is a $650 million desalination project that will produce 600,000 m³/d of water. Target, a subsidiary of Dubai-based contractor Arabtec, won the 14-month contract worth $39 million despite the collapse of its parent company. Arabtec Holding has requested that banks allow Target a three-month delay for debt repayments, according to Arabian...

IRAN – The annual desalination capacity of the south of Hormozgan Province has increased six-fold in the past five years, according to the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company. In 2020 the region’s annual capacity reached 46 million m³ compared to 8 million m³ in 2015. By March 2021, with the completion of new desalination facilities in Bandar Abbas and Sirik County, the region’s desalination capacity is expected to reach 243,835 m³/d. (Financial Tribune)

MADAGASCAR – Mascara Renewable Water, in partnership with Mada Green Power, will...

SOMALIA – Boreal Light completed the installation of a solar-powered desalination system in Oog, in the Sool region of Somalia. The unit installed by Boreal Light is the Winture Planet cube, which is equipped with a borehole that pumps groundwater from Oog. The system is capable of producing 36 m³/d water for municipal use and fish farming. The desalination system was financed by Oxfam as part of its partnership with Boreal Light. Oxfam is planning to install four additional drinking water kiosks in the Sool region. (Afrik21)

CHILE –...

KUWAIT – The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) is finalizing the contract for transaction advisory services for its Az Zour North desalination plant, part of the Az Zour North Independent Water Power Plant Phase 2-and-3 project. The shortlisted bidders for the transaction services contract are Ernst & Young, KPMG International and Rodl Middle East. The project involves the construction of a 750,104 m³/d desalination plant, valued at around $950 million, and is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025. (Zawya...

RUSSIA – The Russian government is planning to set up industrial desalination plants in Crimea and Sevastopol. This was revealed in the government’s newly released plan to secure reliable water supply to the two regions. According to the plan, $106 million will be allocated for the construction of the plants in 2021-2022, of which $100 million will come from the federal budget and an additional $5.3 million will come from the regions. The plants will have a production capacity of 40,000 m³/d. The precise location of the plants remains...

PHILIPPINES – The Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) is planning to build desalination plants in the cities of Cebu, Mandau, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay and in the Municipality of Consolacion. The MCWD is aiming to have plants operational by December 2021 and supply 70,000 m³/d. The district’s board of directors has already approved bidding for the facilities and is planning to sign contracts and start construction of the plants this year. (Sunstar Cebu)

SAUDI ARABIA – The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has completed the...

SPAIN – Council members of the Vera municipality in the province of Almeria unanimously supported The Hydrological Resources Sustainability Strategic Plan for 2021 to 2027. Among the main projects included in the plan are the construction of a new drinking water treatment plant and a new seawater desalination plant. The sustainable water resources scheme aims to promote lower water consumption, implementing technology to increase saving and efficiency and increasing public awareness about rational water use. (EuroWeekly News)

MEXICO –...

INDIA – The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to revisit its plan for the construction of a desalination plant in Mumbai. Preliminary reports suggest that BMC is in talks with an Israeli based company to set up a 200,000 m³/d plant in an area near the sea in Malad. BMC plans to develop the project under the ‘Swiss Challenge Method’, which allows a project to be awarded to a private firm on an unsolicited proposal. According to officials the project is estimated to cost $805 million and if all goes to plan, Mumbai’s first...

U.A.E. – U.A.E.’s energy minister Suhail Al Mazroui announced that the country, which signed a peace agreement with Israel on Sep 15, may collaborate with Israel in the fields of water desalination and solar power. The UAE was the first member of the Gulf Cooperation Council to seek a peace deal with Israel. (S&P Global)

U.S.A. – California American Water (Cal Am) has withdrawn its application for a desalination project in the Monterey Bay town of Marina. The proposal was set to vote last week and had become one of the most fraught...

IRAN – The managing director of the Hormozgan provincial Water and Wastewater Company stated that Hormozgan’s desalination capacity will increase by almost 30%, or 40,000 m³/d, to reach 170,000 m³/d in October. Work on the Bandar Abbas desalination plant is finished and the plant will start operations by the end of the month, according to the director. (Financial Tribune)

The first phase of the water transfer project from the Persian Gulf to the provinces of Kerman, Yazd and Hormozgan will be completed by mid-October. Aliyar Yari, the...

U.A.E. – Construction of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s Jebel Ali Power and Desalination Complex is 79% complete. The project main buildings are at the finishing stage, most of the marine works are complete, and the commissioning work has started. The plant is expected to become operational in 2021 and will have a production capacity of 151,416 m³/d. DEWA awarded the $237.1 million contract for the construction of the plant to a joint venture comprising Acciona Agua SA and Belhasa Six Construct (Besix). (Utilities Middle East...

SINGAPORE – National water agency PUB is planning to build a $170.59 million NEWater factory in Changi and issued a tender to procure professional engineering services for the project in July. Construction of the treatment plant is projected to start in 2022 and will take two years to be completed. The new plant is destined to replace an existing facility in Bedok, one of Singapore’s oldest NEWater factories. The new plant will have a capacity to treat 227,304 m³/d water a day, three times as much as current Bedok facility.es as much as the...