ACCIONA commences work on the Fujairah desal plant in the UAE

ACCIONA has laid the first stone in the new phase of the Fujairah desalination plant. Early on this year, ACCIONA was awarded the design-build-operate (7 years) contract for this new facility.

A mixed company, Emirates SembCorp Water & Power Company, comprising Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority and Singapore SembCorp (a water and energy company), awarded the contract to a consortium made up of ACCIONA Agua (75%) and ACCIONA Infrastructure (25%), two of ACCIONA Group's core business divisions.

The overall project (design-build-operate) is worth more than 200 million US dollars (about 153 million euro). The enlargement will bring an additional capacity of 137,000m3/day, raising the existing plant's total capacity to 592,000m3. The enlarged facility is scheduled for completion in 28 months' time and is expected to service 500,000 people. 

This is ACCIONA Agua's third major deal in the Middle East. Blighted by water shortage, this is now one of the parts of the world with the greatest growth potential for desalination and water treatment overall.

In October 2012, ACCIONA Agua obtained the US$100 million design-build-commission contract for the Al Jubail desal facility which will service both the city itself and its industrial complex in the Eastern Province, on the Saudi seaboard of the Persian Gulf. Later, ACCIONA Agua was awarded the O&M contract for the Haddah-1 and Arana-1 the wastewater treatment plants, located in Mecca Province, with a joint total capacity of 375,000 m3/day.

After projects ground to a halt in the Persian Gulf owing to the 2007-2011 worldwide economic recession, last year saw a number of tenders for large-scale infrastructure and water projects in some of the region's most developed nations, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, among others.