Veolia secures nearly $224mln desalination contracts in UAE, Oman
By Staff Writer
French environmental services company Veolia has secured two desalination contracts worth a combined nearly €200 million ($224 million) in the UAE and Oman in 2026, expanding its water portfolio in the Middle East.
The contracts cover design and technology provision for the Al Hamriyah desalination plant in the UAE and a five-year operations and maintenance (O&M) agreement for the Al Asilah desalination plant in Oman, the company said in a statement.
UAE desalination project
In the UAE, Veolia is undertaking the design of the Al Hamriyah desalination plant in Sharjah, which will have a production capacity of 410,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day), sufficient to supply drinking water to approximately 1.4 million people.
The project will incorporate Veolia's water pretreatment and remineralisation technologies, including dissolved air flotation, dual-media pressure filters and limestone filters.
The company said the plant is designed to achieve specific energy consumption of 2.75 kilowatt-hours per cubic metre (kWh/m3) of water produced.
The contract adds to Veolia's desalination project portfolio in the UAE, which includes Hassyan in Dubai, Mirfa 2 in Abu Dhabi, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah.
Oman O&M contract
In Oman, Bahwan Veolia Water (BVW), a partnership between Veolia and Bahwan Engineering Company, has secured a five-year operations and maintenance (O&M) contract from Al Asilah Operation and Maintenance (AOM) for the Al Asilah desalination plant.
The facility has a production capacity of 80,000 m3/day and supplies drinking water to approximately 200,000 people.
Under the contract, Veolia will deploy its Smart Connectors and Hubgrade digital solutions to improve equipment monitoring, optimise electricity consumption and enhance operational performance.
Veolia's Oman desalination portfolio also includes Sur, Barka IV and Salalah plants. The four facilities collectively provide drinking water to nearly 2.5 million people, according to the company.
The Al Asilah and Sur desalination plants will together supply drinking water to approximately 600,000 people across South Al Sharqiyah Governorate.
Regional expansion
Veolia is targeting a doubling of its operated desalination capacity worldwide to 1.4 million m3/day by 2030, with the Middle East identified as a key growth market.
"With these contracts, we continue to strengthen our long-term strategic partnership in the region and pursue our goal of doubling the desalination capacity we operate worldwide by 2030," said Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia.
In September 2026, Veolia had signed a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia's ACWA to improve the design, technology selection, chemical dosing, monitoring and operational performance of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants, with a focus on energy efficiency.
ACWA has a desalination capacity of 9.7 million m3/day, including 4.1 million m3/day in Saudi Arabia. The MoU does not commit either company to additional capacity but establishes a technical work programme covering existing and future SWRO developments. In a separate statement, Acwa had said a tenth of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) saved per cubic metre cuts roughly 22 GWh from a single site’s annual power consumption.
In its 2025 annual report, Veolia had said its seawater desalination operations supply drinking water to approximately 4.57 million people across the Middle East. The company’s desalination technologies account for approximately 18 percent of installed capacity worldwide.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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