Middle East Water Tech Brief – January 2026
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Middle East Water Tech Brief, your essential source for the latest water innovations, investments, and policies shaping the region’s water security.
Water security across the Middle East is entering a transformative era, driven by strategic investments, climate-resilient infrastructure, and smart water technologies.
In this edition of the Middle East Water Tech Brief, we spotlight how large-scale desalination consolidation, accelerated public investment, and system-wide reform agendas are reshaping regional water security. From ACWA Power’s expanding footprint to Jordan’s infrastructure push and emerging industrial water technologies, this issue highlights the policies, investments, and innovations defining the Middle East’s next phase of water resilience.
Key Developments
Saudi Arabia – ACWA Power expands regional desalination footprint
What’s New?
Saudi utility ACWA Power has acquired power generation and desalination assets in Bahrain and Kuwait, strengthening its position as a leading Gulf independent water and power producer and consolidating cross-border utility ownership.
Why It Matters
The acquisition deepens regional integration of large-scale desalination, supports economies of scale for lower-carbon water production, and positions ACWA Power to standardise advanced technologies and financing models across multiple Middle East and North Africa markets.
What’s Next?
Further portfolio optimisation and refinancing are expected, alongside potential expansion into additional Gulf and North African markets. Asset upgrades are likely to link new capacity with renewable energy and long-term offtake agreements.
Jordan – Government accelerates water project spending
What’s New?
Jordan has announced nearly $500 million in water-sector spending, covering major strategic projects, network upgrades, wastewater facilities, and expanded water-harvesting schemes to address chronic shortages.
Why It Matters
This investment push targets non-revenue water losses, reliability gaps, and supply resilience, reinforcing Jordan’s long-term strategy to stabilise urban service delivery despite severe regional water stress and refugee-driven demand.
What’s Next?
Additional public-private partnerships, donor-backed finance, and phased construction are likely. Future briefs will track progress on flagship schemes, including large conveyance projects and advanced reuse systems.
Regional – Continental drying and the MENA water reform agenda
What’s New?
Recent analysis has highlighted a rapid global decline in freshwater storage, warning that the Middle East and North Africa face an existential water challenge without faster reforms in monitoring, pricing, non-conventional supply, and regional cooperation.
Why It Matters
Water scarcity is increasingly framed as a systemic economic risk. Desalination, wastewater reuse, and groundwater recharge must be paired with strong regulators, transparent tariffs, and social protection mechanisms to deliver durable outcomes.
What’s Next?
The 2026 UN Water Conference, co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates, is expected to catalyse new financing and policy commitments on allocation, demand management, and cross-border collaboration, making 2025–26 a pivotal reform window for the region.
Technology Spotlight: Innovations in Water Management
GI Aqua Tech Nanotechnology Industrial Wastewater Plant
What it Does
This nanotechnology-based industrial wastewater treatment plant combines advanced membranes with process optimisation to deliver full on-site treatment. The system enables closed-loop reuse while significantly reducing energy consumption and sludge volumes, particularly for heavy industry applications.
Why it Matters
The export-ready technology signals Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a high-tech water solutions manufacturer. It supports Vision 2030 economic diversification while giving industrial operators a practical tool to comply with tightening discharge standards, ESG expectations, and circular-economy requirements across the Middle East and North Africa and international markets.
Impact
By enabling up to full wastewater reuse alongside major energy savings, the technology reduces disposal costs, lowers emissions, and demonstrates how Gulf-developed innovation can influence global industrial water management standards.
Modular MBR Containerised Wastewater Plants
What it Does
These containerised wastewater treatment plants use membrane bioreactor technology in plug-and-play units that can be rapidly deployed to remote or fast-growing sites. They treat municipal and industrial wastewater to high standards within a compact footprint and with lower energy demand than conventional systems.
Why it Matters
Modular MBR systems provide utilities, developers, and industrial zones with a flexible pathway to scale wastewater reuse without waiting for large centralised facilities. This supports decentralised water strategies that enhance resilience while reducing pipeline, pumping, and construction costs.
Impact
By producing high-quality reclaimed water suitable for irrigation and industrial use, these units help close local water gaps, reduce pressure on freshwater resources, and advance the region’s transition toward circular, climate-aligned wastewater management.
Investment Tracker: Major Water Infrastructure Projects
Saudi Arabia
Project / Investment Name: Decentralised Water Purification Plants Program
Value, Contract Type: Approximately one billion Saudi riyals under a design–build–operate agreement between the Saudi Water Authority and the National Water Company.
Project Overview: This nationwide programme will deliver sixteen groundwater purification plants with a combined capacity exceeding eighteen thousand cubic metres of drinking water per day. The initiative expands reliable water services to around eighty thousand people in remote and underserved areas, while advancing more sustainable approaches to groundwater desalination in line with Vision 2030.
Strategic Significance: The programme strengthens rural water security, reduces reliance on tanker supply, and embeds decentralised treatment as a core pillar of Saudi Arabia’s long-term water strategy.
Bahrain
Project / Investment Name: New Hawar SWRO Desalination Plant
Value, Contract Type: Engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a one million imperial gallons per day seawater reverse osmosis plant, with potential expansion to three million imperial gallons per day, procured through an international tender.
Project Overview: The Hawar project adds new island-based desalination capacity and is supported by separate tenders for intake, outfall, storage, and transmission infrastructure. Competitive bidding concluded in late 2025, with award anticipated in early 2026.
Strategic Significance: The project underpins Bahrain’s long-term water security by diversifying supply assets, strengthening system resilience, and reinforcing the country’s transition toward modern, high-efficiency desalination infrastructure.
Upcoming Event
2026 United Nations Water Conference – UAE
High-level United Nations water conference co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates and Senegal, taking place in the UAE from 2–4 December 2026.
Focused on accelerating delivery of Sustainable Development Goal 6 through interactive dialogues on people, prosperity, planet, cooperation, and investment.
Positions the Middle East as a central platform for mobilising finance, policy commitments, and innovation in climate-resilient water infrastructure.
Want More? Unlock Next-Level Intelligence
The Middle East Water Tech Brief – Premium Edition delivers expert, in-depth analysis on how wastewater reuse and circular water systems are reshaping regional water security. Designed for decision-makers, investors, and innovators, it examines how policy reform, technology deployment, and industrial-scale recycling are transforming treated wastewater from an underused liability into a strategic asset for resilient growth.
Why It Matters
As water scarcity intensifies across the Middle East, wastewater reuse is emerging as one of the most controllable, climate-resilient supply options available. Governments and utilities are shifting from linear disposal models toward circular recovery, integrating advanced treatment, reuse standards, and industrial participation to reduce pressure on desalination, safeguard aquifers, and stabilise long-term water systems in highly stressed environments.
What You Will Discover
Why wastewater reuse is moving from pilot projects to a core pillar of national water-security strategies
How advanced treatment technologies and nutrient recovery are enabling high-value reuse across cities, agriculture, and industry
Where regulatory reform and institutional alignment are unlocking large-scale recycling and investment confidence
How industrial and decentralised reuse models are accelerating circular economy outcomes across the Middle East
Why Subscribe?
Join the region’s policy architects, infrastructure investors, and tech pioneers. Premium Edition is your edge for understanding the strategies, regulations, and technologies shaping the Middle East’s water-secure, sustainable future. Unlock the insights that global leaders and decision-makers rely on, exclusively in the Premium Edition.
