INDIA – The Federation of Kutch Industries Association (FOKIA) is considering purchasing water from private desalination plants to meet their water needs. Due to a severe water shortage the Gujarat Water Infrastructure Limited (GWIL) has stopped supplying water from its Anjar-Mandavi pipeline to industrial units, and limited supply to units in Kutch. As a result, FOKIA has requested the state government to allow water supply from private desalination plants to industrial units through the pipeline network of GWIL. In a letter to chief...

SAUDI ARABIA – The sale of the Ras Al-Khair desalination facility—the largest in the world—has been described as a “game-changer” in a document outlining the future of the country’s vast privatization program. Officials have extolled the significance of the sale of the 1,025,000 m³/day hybrid plant despite delays to the the brownfield privatization scheme laid out by the plant’s owner, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC). Although an RFP had been expected to materialise early this year, the company’s deputy governor Abdullah...

SAUDI ARABIA – The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has completed the installation of the world’s largest multi-effect distillation desalination unit at Shoaiba.^[1] The plant has a capacity of 92,000 m³/day and is expected to pump water to Makkah and other areas before the start of the Hajj season in August.  The project was implemented by SWCC in collaboration with ACWA Power & Sasakura in order to expand the Shoaiba 2 desalination plant.

Meanwhile, the rapidly decreasing cost of photovoltaics (PV) has led industry...

OMAN – Earlier this week Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) signed an agreement for the construction of a $155.8 million desalination plant at Salalah. The consortium contracted for the project is comprised of ACWA Power Saudi Arabia, Veolia Middle East and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Company.^[1]

The plant will have a production capacity of 113,650 m³/day and will be built in the Ashur Plain in the Wilayat of Mirbat in Dhofar Governorate. The plant is expected to be operational by 2020. ACWA Power...

IRAN – Hyflux has announced that it has secured a contract with Asia Water Development Engineering Company (AWDEC) for the design, manufacturing and supply of a seawater reverse osmosis desalination project in Bandar Abbas. Local marine, civil and structural works are excluded from the $110.7 million project, but there is an option for add-ons such as equipment and technical advisors, which is valued at $12.9 million.^[1]

The project is part of the proposed Saghi Kosar (SAKO) Desalination and Power Plant in Bandar Abbas. The desalination plant...

SPAIN – Increases in output at the Torrevieja desalination plant is planned after a reported 45 million ($55 million) investment from the Spanish government. A local source reported that the announcement by the minister of agriculture and environment, Isabel Garcia Teherina, was made during a visit to the facility last week.

The Torrevieja plant has a design capacity of 240,000m³/d, but at present only produces around half of that quantity. The first increase in output is scheduled to be complete by the end of summer this year, and would...

ABU DHABI has restructured its water and energy sector, incorporating both the emirate’s Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Regulation & Supervision Bureau into a newly created Department of Energy.^[1] This follows Sheikh Khalifa’s establishment of several new government departments for the emirate.

The new department will also inherit majority stakes in desalination projects held by the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), in which ADWEA owns a 74% share.

INDIA – The Gujarat state government plans to build a seawater...

CALIFORNIA – The city of Antioch has been selected to receive a $10 million grant from the state of California to invest into the construction of a $62 million desalination plant. ^[1] The grant will be funded by a water bond under California’s Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 (Proposition 1), which so far has authorized over $7 billion in general bonds for state and municipal water projects. Antioch is among eight communities selected to receive a share of  $34 million in state money for desalination...

CHILE – State-owned mining company Codelco has received approval from environmental authorities to build a $1 billion desalination plant in the Antofagasta region. This will enable Codelco, the largest copper producer in the world, to expand its Radomiro Tomic mine and increase investment in its water-intensive mining operations in one of the driest regions in the world. With a capacity of 54,000m³/d, the desalination plant will be the second-largest in Chile.^[1] 

INDIA – The Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) is...

TAIWAN – Approval of Formosa Petrochemical Corporation’s desalination project at its naphta cracker facility in Yunlin County has received initial approval following environmental impact assessment (EIA), but is still awaiting a further review to “request the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to relax certain regulations.”

The project involves a seawater desalination plant with a total capacity of 105,000 cubic metres per day, which will treat water discharged from the Mailiao power plant, which is also operated by Formosa. The...

SAUDI ARABIA – Energy Recovery, Inc has announced total awards of $6.2 to supply its PX-Q300 pressure exchangers technology for desalination projects in Saudi Arabia.^[1]  The components will be used in multiple facilities with a combined output capacity of 305,000 cubic metres of water per day.  According to Energy Recovery’s estimates, these PX devices will save 291 Gigawatts of energy per year and will reduce the desalination plant’s carbon emissions by 174,000 tons annually.  The PX pressure exchanger devices are expected...

SOUTH AFRICA – Cape Town’s Koeberg nuclear power station has launched a fully operational groundwater desalination plant.^[1] The plant will take care of the power station’s water demands and allow the station to be independent of the city’s water supply.  Koeberg is Africa’s only nuclear power station, and provides 50 percent of the Western Cape’s energy demands.

According to Velaphi Ntuli, the Koeberg Power Station Manager, the launch of the desalination plant forms part of a three-pronged water management strategy to address the acute...

SCIENCE – A team of researchers from Monash University in Australia and the University of Texas at Austin have found a breakthrough solution to filter salt and metal ions from water. The researchers found that metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be designed to selectively filter both salt and ions. MOFs are remarkable next-generation materials that have the largest internal surface area of any know substance. Unfolded, a single gram of the material could theoretically cover a football field.  It is this intricate internal structure that...

PALESTINE – The Palestinian Water Authority has received tender and design documents for a new $600 million desalination plant located at Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.  The project includes the construction of the plant and associated infrastructure, including a distribution network and pumping stations.

The project has thus far faced significant political and financial obstacles. The head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mazen Ghuneim, reported that the utility has been working with donors and others to facilitate the entry of...

USA – Local leaders and port officials in Corpus Christi, Texas are looking to expand their water supply through desalination to support the city’s growing industrial sector. For some time now, officials have endeavored to utilize the plentiful saltwater on their shores for both industrial and residential use.^[1] The Texas Water Development board has already granted the city $2.75 million in credit to put towards desalination projects, and officials are now considering their options.^[2]

One option under consideration is for the Port of...

SOUTH AFRICA – The water supply for the city of Cape Town is expected to reach critical levels by April 2018, when the taps may have to be turned off for an indeterminate period of time.^[1] The City of Cape Town has stated that it will bring three desalination plants online in the first quarter of this year.^[2] However, only one of these projects—the V&A Waterfront desalination project—is on schedule for completion by February.^[3] The two other plants, located at Monwabisi and Strandfontein, are currently behind schedule.^[4] 

...

ABU DHABI’s Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) is reportedly planning to build the world’s largest water desalination plant.^[1] The facility will produce 757,000 cubic metres of water per day and will be located in the country’s Al Taweelah region, halfway between the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. ADWEA will retain a 60 percent stake in the project, which will be developed in partnership with the private sector.

SPANISH officials plan to install new desalination capacity to ameliorate water scarcity for farmers and residents in...

Last week the China Overseas Port Holding Company inaugurated a new desalination plant at PAKISTAN’s Gwadar port.^[1]  The desalination plant produces around 1150 cubic meters of clean drinking water per day.^[2]  The Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, expressed the hope that the desalination plant will resolve Gwadar’s ongoing water crisis and stated that there are plans for additional desalination plants.^[3]

GHANA – The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has shut down the Teshie-Nungua...

CHINESE officials plan to increase the nation’s seawater desalination capacity more than fivefold within the next three to five years.^[1]   This expansion will include the construction of roughly one-hundred plants concentrated in 16 coastal provinces and cities, according to a plan issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Oceanic Administration.

By 2020 many of China’s 500 inhabited islands, which are increasingly facing water shortages, are also expected to rely on desalination as their primary source...

PERU - A Spanish consortium consisting of Tedagua and Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios has started construction on the Provisur water treatment project in Lima. The plant, which has a capacity of 12,960 cubic metres per day, will be the first in Peru to desalinate seawater for domestic use. In addition to the desalination plant, the $95 million project includes 260km of piping, a sewerage treatment plant and a 780m underwater discharge pipeline. The project will benefit 100,000 residents in four coastal districts on the southern...

In April 2017 Suez and Solvay formed an alliance to offer new solutions for water treatment in CHINA. Having developed a newly patented advanced oxidation process, they have won a contract to treat brine from a desalination facility located in Wanhua Chemical Industry Park in Yantai, Shandong Province.^[1]  The facility will produce 24,000 cubic metres of water per day. 

The facility’s water quality parameters include total nitrogen levels of less than 15 milligrams per liter; total organic carbon levels of less than 20 milligrams...

SOUTH KOREA’s Samsung Engineering has asked the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to begin proceedings against Saudi Arabia over the cancellation of the Yanbu 3 Water and Power project.^[1]  The ICSID was founded by the Executive Directors of the World Bank in 1965 and mediates legal disputes between international investors.

Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) cancelled its EPC contract with Samsung in January 2017 due to disagreements over project changes.^[2]  SWCC had...

EGYPT has started construction on the Ain Sokhna plant, which will have a capacity of 164, 000 cubic metres per day.^[1] Kamal El Wazir, head of the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority, confirmed last week that construction had commenced on the plant, which will support three other large desalination projects currently under construction in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.^[2]

The country’s contracted desalination capacity has increased tenfold in the past two years to a total of 700,000 cubic metres per day.  Egyptian officials plan...

SOUTH AFRICA –  A subsidiary of the PSG Group, Energy Partners, is investing in the desalination company GrahamTek with aspirations to turn the company into a multibillion-rand business.^[1]  Although PSG typically makes smaller initial investments in new businesses—it has already secured a 50 percent share in GrahamTek.^[2]

GrahamTek produces mobile plants that generate 3,000 cubic metres of fresh water per day. Each plant costs $3 million rand (roughly USD$210,900 dollars) and has a life-expectancy of about 25 years.^[3]

The company...

Despite ISRAEL’s strong desalination base, the nation still relies on rainfall to supplement its water supply.  Last winter, however, the country experienced a drought that diminished the multi-year average of rainfall by 71 percent, with weather forecasters now predicting a similarly arid season this year.  The Finance Ministry has accordingly asked the nation’s desalination facilities to increase their water output for the final months of 2017 until the end of 2018, with the state covering the cost of all additional water...

Last week at the IDA World Congress UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission introduced the world’s first guide to harmful algal blooms.^[1]

The guide was produced by the commission and the Middle East Desalination Research Centre and it was written with help from 63 world specialists.  Consisting of nearly a dozen chapters, key topics include the fundamental features of algal blooms; case studies with practical information for plant designers and operators; monitoring approaches such as remote sensing imagery that reveals...

PAKISTAN –  The China Pak Investment Corporation is set to build a new seawater desalination project in Pakistan.^[1]  The project will be located in Gwadar and produce 23,000 cubic metres of water per day for a community of 500,000 Chinese professionals who will move to the city by 2020.   

The facility is part of a much larger development project that comprises homes, parks, shopping and sports facilities, and an international school for children. It advances China’s plan of foreign direct investment known as the...

SPAIN has granted Morocco $14.3 million dollars to finance a seawater desalination plant that will supply water to the country's northeastern provinces of Al Hoceima and Nador.^[1]  The Spanish company of Tedagua has been contracted to build the facility. 

The plant supports the Moroccan government’s National Water Plan, “a benchmark strategy” for water policy formulated in 2015. ^[2]  The plan carries three key objectives: to provide universal access to drinking water and to improve the efficiency of the water supply network; to...

U.S.A. –  In northeastern Arizona, on the lands of the Great Basin Desert, nearly 40 percent of Navajo families lack access to running water.  The rainfall is minimal and the groundwater is contaminated with metals.  The recent donation of a mobile water treatment system to the STAR School, a public school located on tribal lands, will help to alleviate this crushing water-scarcity. ^[1]  

The mobile system is solar-powered and located on a school bus, where it draws water upwards from a well into a feed tank and then...

U.S.A. –  Later this month, the U.S. Department of Energy will publicize a new funding opportunity through its SunShot Initiative.  The funding will support the research, development, and demonstration of early-stage solar desalination technologies with the primary objective of promoting cost-efficient schemes.^[1]  

Established in 2011, the Sunshot Initiative aims to make possible low-cost solar energy for all Americans by 2020 through collaborative research and development efforts in the public and private sectors....