meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Water sector braces for likely slowdown

27 December 2024

 

Geopolitical tensions, climate change and higher-than-average population growth have exacerbated the water demand and supply gap across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, home to some of the world’s most water-stressed countries.

For example, Jordan, where available water per capita is equivalent to only 12% of the absolute water scarcity level, hosts over 700,000 refugees fleeing wars and conflicts in neighbouring countries.

Most regional governments have developed and started to implement water strategies aimed at narrowing this gap. Subsidies are being phased out, environmental campaigns are being developed and digital solutions are being deployed in order to manage demand and improve efficiency.

Expanding desalination and treatment capacity, increasing treated sewage effluent (TSE) reuse, boosting reservoir capacity and building more efficient transmission and distribution networks are key levers used to improve supply.

Strong spending 

These efforts have prompted significant capital spending on more energy-efficient water production, distribution and storage facilities, typically in partnership with private investors, particularly among the more affluent states.

According to data from regional projects tracker MEED Projects, the Mena region awarded $17bn of project contracts across the water desalination, treatment, transmission and distribution, storage and district cooling subsectors in the first nine months of 2024.

This figure represents about 72% of the contracts awarded in 2023 and is slightly above the average value of annual contract awards in the preceding five years.

With only a few more packages expected to be awarded before the end of the year, 2024 looks set to be one of the best years so far in terms of water project activity, even if it fails to match the record value of contracts awarded in 2023, which reached almost $24bn.

In 2024, Saudi gigaproject developer Neom set the pace in January by awarding a $4.7bn contract to build dams at the Trojena Mountain Resort in Tabuk to Italian contractor WeBuild. 

The contract covers the construction of three dams that will form a freshwater lake for the Trojena ski resort. The main dam will have a height of 145 metres and will be 475 metres long at its crest. It will be built using 2.7 million cubic metres of roller compact concrete.

While this project does not necessarily belong to the band of solutions that aim to narrow the water supply and demand gap, the overall development is part of Saudi Arabia’s drive to boost tourism and diversify its economy away from oil.

Meanwhile, 2024 also saw the award by UAE northern emirate utility Sharjah Electricity, Water & Gas Authority of the contract to develop its first independent water project (IWP), the 400,000 cubic-metres-a-day facility in Hamriyah, to Saudi utility developer Acwa Power, the contract’s sole bidder.

In May, Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company announced that it had completed the award of 10 contracts under the first phase of its privatisation programme. Each rehabilitate, operate and transfer contract involves the retrofitting or expansion of existing sewage treatment plants and associated network, and their long-term operation and management. The facilities are expected to deliver water at the TSE level for irrigation reuse.

On the greenfield sewage treatment front, Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC) awarded a $400m contract to develop the Al-Haer independent sewage treatment plant (ISTP) project to a team comprising the local Miahona Company and Belgium’s Besix. The facility is the largest and first to be tendered under the third round of the water offtaker’s ISTP procurement programme.

In September, Chennai-headquartered VA Tech Wabag confirmed it had won a $317m contract to build the Ras Al-Khair seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) facility in Saudi Arabia using an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. The project client is Saudi Water Authority (SWA), formerly Saline Water Conversion Corporation.

In Oman, Nama Water Services awarded two water distribution network packages, worth a combined $600m, catering to Al-Dhahirah Governorate.

Jordan also appointed a team comprising Paris-based Meridiam, Suez and Vinci Construction Grands Projets, along with Egypt’s Orascom Construction, for the contract to develop the Aqaba-Amman water conveyance and desalination scheme. It is the country’s largest infrastructure project to date and the first phase is valued at an estimated $2bn-$3bn.

The project is crucial to addressing Jordan’s severe water shortage problem, piping desalinated water over 445 kilometres from the southern Red Sea coast to the country’s northern regions. The consortium is talking to lenders and aims to reach financial close for the project in 2025.

Slower momentum

Despite 2024 being a good year for contract awards, it fell short of the expectation built over the past few years, when the region’s largest economies began to execute their long-term water strategies.

For example, in Saudi Arabia, the years-long restructuring of the domestic water sector took a significant turn in 2024, with Water Transmission Company (WTCO), the kingdom’s licensed desalinated water transmission operator, gaining a broader portfolio of projects. As a result, the mandate to procure upcoming water transmission pipelines has been transferred to WTCO from SWPC.

The slower pace of IWP contract awards in Saudi Arabia was somewhat offset by a slew of tenders from SWA. The authority received bids for the EPC contracts to build four SWRO facilities in 2024, although as of November it had only managed to award one.

Earlier in 2024, Saudi gigaproject developer Neom also shelved a project to develop a zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) SWRO plant.

“The year may not have been as strong as 2023, but it is still a good year,” says Robert Bryniak, CEO of Dubai-based Golden Sands Management (Marketing) Consulting. “Some projects have been delayed or cancelled – for instance a few in Saudi Arabia – but all in all [2024 has been] a good year for the water business.”

Bryniak adds that Neom’s ZLD scheme is one of the year’s shelved projects that he would like to see revived in the future.

Beyond the GCC states, Morocco and Egypt are endeavouring to move their planned SWRO projects into the tendering phase.

In Morocco, Office National de L’Electricite et de L’Eue Potable (Onee) extended the review of its second IWP in Nador while waiting for its first IWP in Casablanca to reach financial close.

The first batch of renewable energy- powered desalination plants in Egypt has yet to reach the proposals stage despite the Sovereign Fund of Egypt having completed the bid prequalification process in 2023.

Potential contract awards

According to data from MEED Projects, an estimated $34bn-worth of water projects are in the tendering stage across the Mena region. A further $40bn-worth is in the prequalification stage and $57bn is in the design and study phases.

The $22bn Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels (DSST) scheme stands out among the upcoming projects due to its scale, as well as for the chosen procurement approach.

The project aims to convert Dubai’s existing sewerage network from a pumped system to a gravity system by decommissioning the existing pump stations and providing a sustainable and reliable service that is fit for the future.

In April, Dubai Municipality launched the procurement process for the DSST project, which is to be developed as a public-private partnership (PPP).

While a dose of pessimism persists over the chosen PPP model – in part due to the project’s scale and strong civil works orientation, and Dubai’s dismal track record in procuring PPP schemes outside the utility sector – the project has managed to attract strong interest from EPC contractors, as well as from potential investors and sponsors.

Some of those that have sought to prequalify as investors, such as Begium’s Besix, Beijing-headquartered China Railway Construction Corporation and South Korea’s Samsung C&T, have previously been prequalified as EPC contractors for the DSST project, which suggests that the preferred approach of prequalifying EPCs ahead of investors could offer advantages.

In Saudi Arabia, WTCO, SWA, SWPC and Neom’s utility subsidiary Enowa are each expected to let several contracts in 2025, while Bahrain and Abu Dhabi could award one IWP contract each.  

However, a robust overall pipeline does not necessarily guarantee that 2025 will resemble the upward trajectory that the sector has seen in the past two years.

“This year could be a turning point for the water industry throughout Mena,” says Bryniak, alluding to the possibility that, come January, the foreign and climate policies of the new occupant of the White House could affect the trend of water production capacity buildout in the Mena region.

Bryniak says that if US President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his promises, then we may be in store for, among other events, lower energy prices as the US drills more oil; a dampening of world trade as the US places tariffs on imports, especially on Chinese goods and services; less focus on the environment; and, generally, a more isolationist America.

“In my view, much depends on how much oil prices fall,” he continues. 

“A significant drop in oil prices could result in cut-backs in a lot of development projects, and this, in turn, will adversely impact water demand and the overall build programme.”  

However, the impact will not be uniform across asset types and procurement models, Bryniak notes. He expects water PPP projects to continue to grow, especially if capital availability is reduced by lower oil prices, as this is one way to preserve capital for use in other areas. 

“I do not see any reason for tariffs to fall further in 2025. Tariffs, in my view, will remain roughly where they are now or increase slightly,” adds Bryniak.  

However, the executive says that EPC contracts will likely have “a higher opportunity cost”, so there might be a reduced focus on this type of procurement model.  

He concludes: “To the extent that development projects get trimmed down due to less capital being available as a result of significantly lower oil prices, then water procurers and other developers will likely scale back their projects.”

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13146291/main.gif
Jennifer Aguinaldo

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Accor and Al-Qimmah plan 4,000 Saudi rooms

    27 August 2026

    France's hotel operator Accor has expanded its partnership with local firm Al Qimmah Hospitality, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's BinDawood Investment Company, to develop more than 4,000 hotel rooms in the kingdom.

    The plan focuses on building a portfolio in Mecca and Medina.

    The expanded agreement was announced in Paris during the French-Saudi Investment Roundtable. It follows a master development agreement signed in 2025. The partnership now covers five hotels in Jeddah, Mecca and Medina across the premium, midscale and economy segments.

    One of the planned developments is an 850-room Novotel in Mecca, which is due to open in 2030. The agreement also covers the Mercure Makkah Shesha, ibis Styles Makkah Mesfalah, Movenpick Madinah and Swissotel Jeddah properties.

    The partnership will also support job creation and Saudi workforce development through Tamayyaz by Accor, the group's national talent programme run with the Saudi Ministry of Tourism. The programme aims to develop and hire more than 3,000 Saudi nationals by 2030.

    Accor has operated in Saudi Arabia for more than three decades and runs 48 hotels with more than 21,600 rooms nationwide. Its pipeline includes a further 47 properties comprising more than 11,400 rooms.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19051854/main.jpg
    Colin Foreman
  • Jeddah tenders stormwater drainage contracts

    27 August 2026

    Jeddah Municipality has invited contractors to bid for a contract covering the construction of a rainwater drainage network for the Prince Fawaz neighbourhood.

    The project aims to collect and convey rainwater away from residential streets and low-lying areas. It is valued at $60m and intended to reduce flooding risks during heavy rainfall.

    The scope includes manholes, stormwater catch basins and connections to existing manholes as well as the restoration of road surfaces.

    The bid submission deadline is 12 October.

    The municipality is also progressing with a second stormwater drainage project for the first package of Zone (BC), Old Zahraa in Jeddah Governorate, with bids due on 2 September. The project is valued at about $30m.

    The two projects are part of the muncipality's wider drainage programme including the flagship King Abdullah Road-Falasteen Road tunnel project,

    MEED previously reported that Saudi contractor Thrustboring Construction Company had been selected for phases one and two of the project, each valued at about $175m, covering the construction of large-diameter stormwater drainage tunnels.

    It is understood an official agreement has still yet to be signed.

    In June, MEED reported that local contractor Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies (AWPT) had signed two contracts with Jeddah Municipality to operate and maintain stormwater and surface water drainage networks across the city.

    The contracts have a combined value of SR202.06m ($53.9m), and each will run for five years.

    The first contract, valued at SR108.46m ($28.9m), covers the operation and cleaning of stormwater and surface water networks in the South and Al-Malisa sub-municipalities.

    The second contract, worth SR93.59m ($25m), covers similar services for the Airport Sub-Municipality.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19039514/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Saur and Nesma sign water infrastructure deal

    26 August 2026

    French firm Saur and local contractor Nesma & Partners have signed a deal to jointly "pursue the design and construction" of two recycled water plants in Riyadh.

    The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed during the French-Saudi Investment Roundtable Meeting in Paris on 24 August.

    It builds on an earlier agreement by the companies last September focusing on developing desalination and sewage treatment plants aceross the kingdom including project development, engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and long-term operations and maintenance (O&M).

    At the time, the companies agreed to "target industrial water treatment through concession and operations contracts," extending the agreement beyond municipal water infrastructure.

    The latest agreement appears to mark a move from the broader partnership towards specific project opportunies in the Riyadh market. Details of the projects were not disclosed.

    In May, MEED exclusively reported that a consortium including Saur, Nesma and another local firm Al-Bawani was preparing to bid for the Riyadh East Independent Sewage Treatment Plant (ISTP) project, of which, the submission deadline was recently extended to 29 September.

    There are almost $2.5bn worth of water treatment projects at the pre-execution stage in Saudi Arabia, according to regional tracker MEED Projects.

    The French-Saudi Investment roundtable meeting was organised as part of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman’s state visit to France.

    Saudi Aramco also announced agreements and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French companies, worth a potential combined value of more than $3.7bn.

    Among the other agreements signed during the conference was a cooperation agreement between Saudi Energy and French public investment bank Bpifrance, valued at up to $3bn, to support financing for projects to develop and expand Saudi Arabia’s power grid.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19011713/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Technip Energies secures role in Umm Shaif Gas Cap project

    26 August 2026

    France-based Technip Energies has secured a contract to provide detailed engineering services on a key offshore package part of the Umm Shaif integrated gas cap and surface pressure boosting project of Adnoc Offshore.

    The detailed engineering services deal was awarded as a sub-contract to Technip Energies by India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (L&TEH), in its capacity as the main contractor on the package 1 of the Umm Shaif gas cap project.

    MEED previously reported about the offshore business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Offshore) awarding the main EPC contract for package 1 to a consortium of L&TEH and Saudi Arabia/UAE-based Lamprell.

    Both L&TEH and Lamprell have confirmed their respective contract awards.

    Under the detailed engineering contract, Technip Energies, in its statement on 26 August, said it “will draw on its strong local engineering capabilities and extensive experience with complex, large-scale offshore projects in the Middle East.”

    In July, Adnoc and its foreign partners announced a $6.2bn final investment decision (FID) for their project to produce up to 600 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of natural gas by developing the Umm Shaif Gas Cap in Abu Dhabi.

    The Umm Shaif Gas Cap reserve is located within the offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, which is operated by Adnoc as the majority stakeholder. The other stakeholders in the concession are Italy’s Eni, France’s TotalEnergies and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

    Adnoc said the FID includes three EPC packages totalling $5.1bn for large-scale offshore infrastructure, awarded to consortiums comprising major UAE and international contractors. The company did not disclose the contractors or the scope of work.

    MEED reported in May that the following contractors had emerged as frontrunners for the two offshore packages and one onshore package of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project:

    • First offshore package – fabrication of a 30,000-tonne gas compression system: Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
    • Second offshore package – fabrication of another 30,000-tonne gas compression system: McDermott (US)
    • Onshore package – EPC of gas inlet and processing systems on Das Island: China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)

    McDermott recently confirmed its contract award for package 2, describing the order as “mega”, a term the company uses for jobs valued above $1bn.

    In its 21 July statement, Adnoc added that, as part of the FID, it has also awarded a $365m contract to its subsidiary Adnoc Drilling for a 14-well drilling and integrated drilling services scope, to be delivered over 18 months using three existing rigs.

    “The FID for Umm Shaif Gas Cap is the latest milestone in the company’s gas growth strategy and will unlock more than 600 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and associated gas liquids, equivalent to almost 10% of the UAE’s current daily gas consumption. The investment will reinforce the UAE’s energy security and its role as a reliable global energy supplier,” Adnoc said.

    Production from the development is expected by 2030, the Abu Dhabi energy giant said.

    “The UAE holds the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world. As global demand for reliable, lower-carbon energy continues to grow, Adnoc is unlocking more of the nation’s gas resources and expanding its liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio to meet the needs of its domestic and international customers and power industrial and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure growth,” it added.

    Umm Shaif Gas Cap project

    Adnoc Offshore, the offshore oil and gas business of Adnoc Group, is the operator of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project, MEED has reported.

    The primary objective is to increase gas production by 550 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and raise associated condensate output by 50,000 barrels a day (b/d).

    Adnoc Offshore intends to feed about 520 million cf/d of the additional produced gas into Adnoc Group’s sales gas grid.

    Adnoc Offshore is understood to have issued the main EPC tender for the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project in the first quarter of 2025.

    Contractors submitted technical bids for the three EPC packages by the 30 October deadline last year, while commercial bids were submitted by the 2 February deadline.

    The following contractors are among those understood to be bidding for the three EPC packages, according to sources:

    Offshore package 1:

    • Saipem (Italy) / Seatrium (Singapore)
    • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
    • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

    Offshore package 2:

    • China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC)
    • McDermott (US)
    • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
    • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

    Onshore package:

    • Archirodon (Greece)
    • China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)
    • Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi; Egypt)
    • Galfar Emirates (UAE branch of Oman’s Galfar Engineering & Construction)
    • Target Engineering Construction Company (UAE)

    Australian firm Worley has performed front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project.

    Umm Shaif gas production

    Adnoc Offshore operates the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development, which is located 150 kilometres (km) northwest of the city of Abu Dhabi. The field is located in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, previously operated by former Adnoc Group companies Adma-Opco and Zadco.

    In March and April 2018, Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) awarded a 10% stake in the Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore block to Eni, 20% to TotalEnergies and 10% to CNPC. Adnoc Group retained the majority 60% interest. The operators produce a total of about 460,000 b/d of oil from the Umm Shaif and Nasr block.

    Gas is produced from the Umm Shaif Khuff and Uweinat reservoirs, as well as from the Arab C and Arab D Early Production Scheme 2. The Umm Shaif Khuff reservoir is a formation that consists of dry gas volumetric reservoirs located in the Umm Shaif field.

    Khuff reservoirs have been in production in Abu Dhabi since August 1989. Umm Shaif Khuff gas is currently produced from 28 active wells within the Umm Shaif field. A majority of these wells supply gas to Adnoc Group subsidiaries Adnoc LNG and Adnoc Gas Processing, with the rest supporting oil reservoirs at the Umm Shaif field through gas injection.

    The Umm Shaif Super Complex (USSC) processes and transports oil, condensates and natural gas in separate pipelines to Das Island for further processing and export. The condensates collected from the USSC are transported to Das Island through an 18-inch pipeline stretching 34.4km, or are spiked into the 36-inch Adnoc main oil line.

    The gas collected from the USSC is transported to Das Island through two 46-inch pipelines, which also run 34.4km.

    Pressure at the Umm Shaif Khuff gas reservoirs will start to decline by the end of 2028. The flowing wellhead pressures at some of the Khuff gas wellhead towers are likely to reduce, so boosting well deliverability and increasing the flowrates is necessary.

    Therefore, new Khuff surface pressure boosting facilities are required to maintain the plateau – with a goal of achieving a 90% gas recovery factor – and increase production beyond the end of the plateau by lowering pressure at the Khuff reservoirs.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19009217/main5444.jpg
    Indrajit Sen
  • Wabag confirms $372m Kuwait desalination contract

    26 August 2026

    India's VA Tech Wabag has confirmed it has signed a contract to supply, install, operate and maintain the second phase of the Doha seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant.

    Wabag confirmed the signing in a Regulation 30 filing on 25 August to the National Stock Exchange of India and BSE Limited.

    The contract is valued at KD114.28m ($372m) and will be delivered by a Wabag-led unincorporated joint venture with Kuwait’s Heavy Engineering Industries & Shipbuilding Company (Heisco).

    In April, MEED reported that Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders had approved the recommendation of the Ministry of Electricity & Water to award the contract to the joint venture.

    It is understood that the decision then had to go through final approval from the Audit Bureau

    The project will deliver a production capacity of about 60 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) equivalent to about 272 million litres a day.

    It will include the desalination plant with full reverse osmosis trains, pre- and post-treatment systems, recarbonation equipment, booster pumps, and safety and filtration systems. On-site solar photovoltaic systems will also provide part of the plant’s energy requirements.

    According to the filing, construction is scheduled to take 36 months, followed by a five-year operation and maintenance period.

    The Doha SWRO desalination plant is part of Kuwait’s broader programme to expand water production capacity and reduce reliance on thermal desalination methods.

    As reported by MEED, the Heisco/Wabag joint venture submitted the lowest of three bids for the project in August 2025.

    In April 2025, MEED reported that Kuwait had retendered the contract for the facility after the ministry cancelled the initial tender in June 2024.

    The Ministry of Electricity & Water awarded South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction – now known as Doosan Enerbility – a $422m contract in May 2016 to build the 60 MIGD Doha 1 SWRO plant.

    The contract marks Wabag's first project in Kuwait. In June, the contractor also won its first major contract in the UAE for the Ajman sewage biorefinery plant phase 3 project.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19004753/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall