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UAE-based Etihad Water and Electricity (EtihadWE) announced on Tuesday its second desalination project under a public-private partnership (PPP) model in the country.
The state-owned utility’s development and investment arm signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement for the Fujairah I Independent Water Producer (IWP) project with a consortium of Abu Dhabi-based NMDC Infra and Spain’s Lantania Aguas.
The 60 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant has a total investment value of 1.046 billion UAE dirhams ($285 million), according to an EtihadWE press statement.
The facility, located at Port of Fujairah, will also have storage capacity equivalent to 18 hours of production, and is expected to be completed within 30 months.
Lantania NMDC Water, formed after NMDC Infra acquired a 51 percent stake in Lantania Aguas in January 2026, will deliver the project.
Initial operations will begin at partial capacity, followed by ramp-up to full output, the statement said.
UAE PPP porfolio
Fujairah I is EtihadWE’s second desalination project under a PPP structure, following the 150 MIGD Naqa’a IWP in Umm Al Quwain.
While details about the Fujairah 1 IWP’s offtake agreement weren’t disclosed in the press statement, EtihadWE had signed a 35-year water purchase agreement (WPA) with Naqa’a IWP’s developer consortium of ACWA Power and Mubadala-owned MDC Power Holding Company.
EtihadWE owns a 20 percent stake in the project company - NAQA'A Desalination Plant - with the remaining equity split equally between ACWA Power and Mubadala.
The AED 3 billion ($800 million) project was financed through a syndicate of seven international and local lenders, which provided $680 million senior debt. The EPC contractor was a consortium of France’s Veolia Sidem and China’s China Gezhouba Group (CGGC). Naqa’a IWP started full commercial operations in August 2022.
EtihadWE is also part of the consortium developing the $300 million Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Treatment Plant project.
Regional expansion
Regionally, the utility is expanding its footprint across power, water and wastewater projects. Last month, EtihadWE was awarded the gas-fired Seventh Independent Power Producer (IPP7) project in Jordan.
The utility is a consortium member in the Misfah and Duqm gas-fired power projects in Oman, the Dawadmi wind power and Hadda sewage treatment plant projects in Saudi Arabia.
In December 2025, EtihadWE was part of the consortium selected as the reserve bidder for Riyadh–Qassim Independent Water Transmission Pipeline (IWTP) project in Saudi Arabia.
The award of Fujairah I reinforces EtihadWE’s strategy to scale desalination capacity through PPP structures, while expanding its project pipeline across the UAE and wider region.
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by SA Kader)
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