Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
The UAE is racing towards a sustainable water future, leveraging advanced desalination technologies and ambitious policy targets to tackle one of the world’s most pressing challenges: water scarcity.
Launched in 2017, the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 lays out a comprehensive roadmap aimed at ensuring sustainable water access under both normal and emergency conditions.
The strategy sets a series of ambitious national targets: reducing total water demand by 21%, halving per capita consumption, increasing water productivity to $110 per cubic metre, and expanding the reuse of treated water to 95%.
In emergencies, the plan guarantees a minimum of 91 litres of water per person per day, dropping to 30 litres during extreme crises.
Once fully implemented, it is expected to deliver savings of Dh74 billion while cutting carbon dioxide emissions from desalination by 100 million metric tonnes.
A cornerstone of the strategy is the shift to low-carbon desalination.
Desalinated water already accounts for roughly 42% of the UAE’s total supply, produced by about 70 large-scale plants that together provide nearly 14% of the world’s desalinated water.
In Abu Dhabi alone, desalination contributes 30% of total water resources, with an installed capacity of 960 million imperial gallons per day across nine plants – around 9% of global output.
A key focus of the UAE’s water strategy is transitioning to low-carbon desalination.
Reverse osmosis (RO) technology is central to this shift, offering energy savings of up to 75% compared to traditional thermal methods like multi-stage flash distillation.
In a previous interview with Aletihad, Professor Nidal Hilal, director of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Centre, noted that reverse osmosis consumes roughly one-tenth of the energy required for thermal desalination.
National Targets and Mega Projects
Federal and emirate-level ambitions are driving rapid RO expansion. Abu Dhabi plans to increase the share of RO desalination from 27% in 2022 to nearly 90% by 2030.
Meanwhile, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) aims to produce 100% of its desalinated water using renewable energy and waste heat by the same year.
Flagship projects include the Taweelah RO plant in Abu Dhabi, the largest globally with a capacity of 909,000 cubic metres per day, and the Mirfa 2 RO Independent Water Project, which began operations in 2026 with 550,000 cubic metres per day.
Dubai’s Hassyan desalination plant, slated for 2026–2027 completion, will produce 818,000 cubic metres per day and become the world’s largest solar-powered desalination facility, supported by a Dh3.357 billion investment.
Policy measures complement these infrastructure developments.
For example, Abu Dhabi’s 2024 low-carbon water certification scheme tracks emissions from desalination, quantifying the carbon footprint of water production and allowing certification and trading of water produced with clean energy.
