MOROCCO –  Morocco’s secretary of state for water, Charafate Afailal, has said that seawater desalination is the “only recourse” to reduce the national water deficit for domestic, industrial, and agricultural purposes.^[1]  In Casablanca, officials are finalizing their plans for a desalination facility that will serve the city and the greater Casablanca-Settat region. 

By 2030, according to one estimate, Morocco will need to desalinate 425 million cubic metres of water per day to ensure supply.^[2]  The country is currently...

U.S. –  A water utilities project developed by Stanford University environmental engineers has been honored at the American Society of Civil Engineers Innovation Contest. Known as AquaCharge, the software program functions as an “optimization tool for enhancing water resiliency and sustainability”—by helping water management planners to make informed decisions about the operations and development of water reuse and stormwater systems.^[1] 

The program’s evaluation process includes analysis of several factors including the...

TUNISIA’s national water utility, SONEDE, will build a new seawater desalination plant along the country’s Mediterranean coast. SONEDE has acquired a loan of $328 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to build the plant.  The facility will produce 100,000 cubic metres of water per day for the country’s second largest city, Sfax.^[1]

Home to 600,000 people, Sfax experienced a water shortage in 2017—and is expected to fall short of its daily demand for water in the amount of 150,000 cubic metres by 2030.  The project...

OMAN –  The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) will soon develop a seawater desalination plant in the southern province of Dhofar.^[1]  The facility will be located in the city of Salalah and produce 100,000 cubic metres of water per day.^[2]  It is set to go online in 2022 as part of an ongoing initiative to nearly double the nation’s water supply between 2016 and 2023 (at a rate of 9 percent per year).

U.S.A. –  Atmocean, Inc., a renewable energy company, utilizes hydro-power to provide reverse osmosis...

MYANMAR – The Wellthy Corp, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, has formed a joint venture with Myanmar Water Engineering & Products to provide a variety of water services in the southeastern Asian country.^[1] The company’s new business follows the completion of demonstration projects on the waters of the Yangon River—which have provided information pertinent to the equipment, maintenance, and technical expertise that is necessary for large-scale commercial operations.

Wellthy’s expansion into Myanmar follows its...

ISRAEL – India’s national government is looking to Israel for its expertise in water management and recycling.^[1] Last week, officials from India took steps toward developing a wide-ranging partnership with their Israeli counterparts. India’s Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources. And the state utility, Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, also signed an MoU with the Israeli ministry.^[2]

To mark the occasion, Narendra Modi has travelled...

SINGAPORE – The country’s new Keppel Marina East desalination plant will push the typical perimeters of industrial design.^[1]  PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and Keppel Infrastructure will design a 20,000 square metre green space on the roof of the treatment plant, which will be located underground.  This green space will serve as a recreational area.

The plant will be a large-scale dual-mode facility that will desalinate both seawater and freshwater from the Marina Reservoir.  This structure allows the plant to save...

EGYPT – The Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces is planning to build four seawater desalination plants.  Major General Kamel al-Wazir, head of the EAAF, announced that three of the facilities would each have a capacity of 150,000 cubic metres of water per day.^[1] They will be located in Al Alamain, Al-Jamila, and East Port Said, and reportedly financed in cooperation with French and German companies. A fourth facility will be located in Najila, with an initial capacity of 5,000 cubic metres per day.

In 2018, the Ain Sokhna water...

MUMBAI – To alleviate water scarcity in Thane the Mumbai Metropolitan Region will soon launch a desalination pilot project.^[1]  The facility will desalinate 20,000 cubic metres of brackish water from Vasai Creek, and discharge brine into the stream after diluting it with water from the Kopri sewage treatment plant.  The Thane Municipal Corporation has organized the project as a public-private partnership, and allocated a site for the plant in Kalwa, in the outskirts of Mumbai.^[2]

The company is also in the process of establishing a...

BAHAMAS – GE Water and Process Technologies is building a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in the Caribbean Island of Eleuthera.^[1] The company has entered into a 15-year build, own, operate agreement with Water and Sewerage Corporation Bahamas. The plant, which is GE’s fourth facility in the Bahamas, will produce 2,728 cubic metres of water per day.  It is expected to go online in the first quarter of 2018.^[2]

BRAZIL – Suez has signed a memorandum of understanding with Compendia de Agua e Esgoto do Caerá, the water...

CAPE TOWN – As drought in the water-scarce region deepens, the city’s nuclear power plant, Koeberg, is looking to desalination.^[1]  Koeberg is dependent on Cape Town’s water supply and uses roughly 1,300 cubic metres of freshwater per day in order to function. The facility’s station manager, Velaphi Ntuli, has said that the safeguarding of Cape Town’s power supply necessitates an alternative water source.  This water, Ntuli has said, would come from the groundwater located near the power station.  Ntuli is hopeful that,...

CAPE TOWN – In the midst of South Africa’s years-long drought, the Richard’s Bay desalination wastewater plant opened last week.^[1]  The $23.19 million-dollar hybrid facility (R300 million) significantly reduces water costs, by producing 50 percent of its water from the ocean, and the other 50 percent from waste water.^[2]  The facility will help 150,000 households in the area and improve water security within the King Cetshwayo District Municipality.  The plant’s initial operations have already improved water levels in the...

CALFORNIA’S Coastal Commission faces steep budget cuts under the Trump administration.  As reported in the Chicago Tribune, the “regulation-averse” government may cut $2 million in federal assistance to the agency—slashing 9 percent of its $22.4 million annual budget.^[1]  Established by the California Legislature in the 1970s, the land use agency has the mandate to regulate development, increase public access to the shoreline, and protect delicate coastal ecosystems—from the Redwoods in the north to Los Angeles in the south. ...

MEKOROT, the state-owned Israeli water company, has retreated from its ambition to enter the desalination business.^[1]  Last week, an expose on the company’s finances revealed its $330 million debt accrued over the course of the past decade.  Delays with the company’s construction and reports of poor operation of a desalination plant in Ashdod form a significant part of its financial burden. The facility, worth roughly $444,800,000, went into operation last year—four years behind schedule—and has yet to work at full capacity due to...

In MOMBASA COUNTY, KENYA, the World Bank is supporting the development of three desalination facilities.[1] County officials are currently tendering two of the desalination plants on a build, operate, transfer basis.  They will soon request proposals from five shortlisted companies for the third facility.  It is expected that the plants will be located in the West Mainland, the North Mainland, and Likoni, where the World Bank is financing the construction of a new water network. The projects will be financed through public-private...

IN SOUTH AFRICA, a new public-private initiative may yield a large-scale desalination plant for Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape Province.^[1]  The initiative involves officials from the beer maker SABMiller, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, and the salt producer Marina Sea Salt. The impetus for the project is the national government’s Business-Adopt-a-Municipality scheme—which seeks to strengthen municipal infrastructure by fostering closer ties between government, business, and state-owned entities.^[2]

POSEIDON...

DUTCH company Hatenboer-Water has supplied three reverse osmosis units for an oil ship.^[1]  The vessel, Pioneiro de Libra, is a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit, which produces, processes, and stores oil.^[2]  Two of the reverse osmosis units each produce 480 cubic metres of water for the oil separation process.  The third unit provides potable water.

SUEZ has taken the next step in refinancing its acquisition of GE Water, offering 600 million worth of undated, deeply subordinated hybrid bonds.^[3]  In...

RESEARCHERS in England have created a graphene-based sieve for desalination, which may eventually be manufactured on an industrial scale.^[1]    In 2004, scientists isolated graphene as a material with tremendous tensile strength and electrical conductivity—capable of filtering salts.  It is both two-hundred times stronger than steel and the thinnest material on earth: one million times thinner than a human hair.^[2]

Until now, it has been difficult to produce large quantities of single-layer graphene membranes.  But...

THE SOUTH KOREAN company, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, has acquired a (USD) $421 million contract to build a seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility in Saudi Arabia.^[1]  The facility will provide water for 130,000 people in the vicinity of Shuaibah, approximately 110 kilometres south of Jeddah. 

LAST WEEK, Saudi Arabia and Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct a feasibility study for two nuclear reactors that will power seawater desalination in Jordan. Officials from the two countries...

AFTER THE UNITED STATES’ presidential election, Consolidated Water’s proposed mega-project in Baja California faces an uncertain future.^[1]  Last week, the company issued its annual performance report, which cited the decline of the exchange rate for the Mexican peso relative to the dollar, and the deterioration of “general macroeconomic conditions in Mexico.”^[2]  Aguas de Rosarito, the company which was set up to deliver this project, has proposed to the Baja California State Water Commission (CEA) to increase the water tariff...

SEVERAL JAPANESE COMPANIES will provide Saudi Arabia to develop the country’s desalination market.  Earlier this month, when King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud visited the East Asian island-nation, twenty companies signed 20 memorandums of understanding. The JFE Engineering Corporation will provide the desalination systems, while the materials manufacturer, Toyobo, will develop water treatment membranes.^[1]  Sasakura Engineering as well as several other companies will commercialize the facilities.^[2]

SAUDI ARABIA has pledged to...

SUEZ AND CANADA’S CDPQ will buy GE Water & Process Technologies for $3.37 billion (USD) in cash.^[1]  Suez will purchase 70 percent of the business, and the Canadian company, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, will purchase the remaining 30 percent. Suez chief executive, Jean-Louis Chaussade, has stated that the acquisition of GE Water abides by the company’s strategy to strengthen its position in the industrial water market.^[2]

^{The recently collapsed Azure Window of Gozo, Malta  Credit: Darrin Zammit Lupi via...}

INDIA’S SUPREME COURT has issued a landmark ruling to stop industrial operators from polluting the nation’s waterways.  The ruling requires operators to install primary effluent treatment plants (PETPs).^[1] Chief Justice J.S. Khehar directed all state pollution control boards to officially inform all operators producing wastewater that they must install PETPs within three months. If they do not comply to these requirements, the government will disconnect their power supplies.

MEANWHILE, IN CHENNAI, the Expert Appraisal Committee of...

AFTER 100 DAYS of combat, the water and sewage system in an eastern Mosul neighborhood collapsed.^[1]  Last week, two men decided to fix the despairing situation. Haitham Younis Wahab and his neighbor, Shamsuldeen Ahmed Saed, pulled out the sledgehammers, steel pipes, and shovels and started digging. Several days and 26 feet later, the men hit water.

All across the Rashidiya neighborhood, other residents have also dug fresh wells to retrieve water. But most have only been able to use this water for washing and cleaning.  For potable...

AS PART of a $183 million-dollar deal, Hyflux will deliver three seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants to Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC).^[1]  The company’s Saudi subsidiary has signed a memorandum of understanding with SWCC “to design, build, supply, test, and commission” three plants along the shores of the Red Sea.^[2] Each plant will have a capacity of 16,000 cubic metres of water per day.

Singapore’s Public Utilities Board has shortlisted four companies to develop the nation’s fifth desalination...

LAST WEEK, the Trump administration purportedly leaked a document that identified a list of 50 “Emergency & National Security Projects.”^[1]  The document identified projects worth a total of $137.5 billion, with 50 percent of this capital deriving from private investment. Poseidon Water’s Huntington Beach facility features as one of the nation’s key infrastructure projects.^[2]  

The document promotes the desalination project as “a cost-effective, environmentally sensitive solution” for providing “a safe and reliable...

The Gachsaran Oil and Gas Production Company in Iran is set to build two new desalination plants.  These plants will increase the production of crude oil by 15,000 barrels per day.^[1]  They will also improve the production quality of oil and prevent the decline of refinery feedstock.^[2]   Gachsaran has crude oil extraction sites in three provinces of southern Iran (Khuzestan, Bushehr, and Fars). However, it is not yet clear which of these facilities will undergo the planned works.^[3]

In the Gaza Strip, a new EU and...

In the ancient city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, millions of people have been suffering from an acute water crisis.  As reported in The New York Times, drinking water is the latest casualty of conflict.^[1]   The violence of war has brought with it the despair of dry taps.  

The creative adaptations and resilience of Damascus residents is in full swing. In one woman’s words: “‘When you cut off the water, we dig for water. When you cut off the tap, we make a tap.’”

The Barada Valley, north of Damascus, provides...

In November 2016, India and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on water management and development. The countries identified desalination as a key point of focus for their collaboration.  India’s Minister of State for Water Resources, Sanjeev Balyan, pointed to the country’s interest in developing desalination technology via the Department of Science & Technology.  The department has supported reverse osmosis technology for brackish- and seawater-desalination plants, as well as hybrid solar technologies...

In western Australia, the Government of Premier Colin Barnett has committed $37 million to the $380 million project for works on the Wellington Dam. This money would be allocated towards diverting water from the Collie River away from the Dam—in order to desalinate it for farmers.  Premier Barnett indicated that this plan would help drop salinity levels in the dam by over 50 percent, over the next few years.^[1] Even though the dam is western Australia’s second largest surface water reservoir—drought has rendered the water highly saline,...