A consortium formed by the Spanish water company Lantania and the Emirati infrastructure group NMDC Group has secured an AED1.046 billion ($285 million) contract to develop a large seawater desalination plant in Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates.
The agreement was signed with Emirates Utilities Development Company (EUDC), the development and investment arm of Etihad Water and Electricity, for the Fujairah I Independent Water Producer (IWP) project, a 60 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant.
The project marks one of the first industrial milestones for the newly created joint venture Lantania NMDC Water. The plant will be developed under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. Lantania said its role would include project engineering, the supply of the main process equipment and supervision of installation and commissioning works, while NMDC would oversee civil and marine works as well as assembly activities.
The plant will be developed under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model
The facility will be located within Fujairah Port on the Gulf of Oman and will have a desalinated water production capacity of 272,000 cubic metres a day, equivalent to 60 MIGD. The project also includes water storage capacity equivalent to 18 hours of production, distributed across two tanks.
According to the companies, the plant is intended to provide “a reliable supply of desalinated water for households, businesses and strategic industries in Fujairah and EtihadWE service areas, especially during peak demand periods”. They added that the project would “reinforce the resilience of essential water infrastructure and guarantee continuity of supply”.
The seawater intake system will include an offshore intake tower, intake pipelines and pumping systems designed with operational redundancy. Two glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) pipelines will be used for seawater intake, while a separate marine outfall system will discharge brine and treated effluents.
Construction is expected to take 30 months, including civil works, process systems and commissioning. Initial operations will begin at partial capacity before the plant reaches full production.
