MENA Water Market Briefing, October 2026

Supply shocks and security

On 1 September five of Israel’s six large Mediterranean desalination plants were shut because of unusually turbid seawater, with only Hadera running; the authorities cut supply to farms in the Negev and asked municipalities to stop public watering, while household supply continued.¹ A preliminary finding by researchers at Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research pointed to a bloom of microscopic algae.² The Energy Minister, Eli Cohen, said on 2 September that the shutdown was “mostly behind us”; on 7 September the Ashkelon and Ashdod plants were still offline and the state had decided to buy a dedicated stock of membranes.^7 8 Globes reported on 24 September that supply had been drawn from groundwater and the Sea of Galilee, where the level was the lowest since 2018.⁹

The shutdown reached Palestinian supply. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that it reduced the water available to about 1 million people in Gaza who rely on the Israeli grid, and cut bulk supply in the West Bank for about three days.^10 11 On 25 September OCHA said the three lines from Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, were supplying about 40% below contracted quantities because of algae at Israeli plants, and that the Al Basa desalination plant in Deir al Balah was running at reduced capacity.¹² The Palestinian Water Authority said on 17 September that it had begun a partial rehabilitation of the Sheikh Ajleen wastewater plant in Gaza City with about US$2 million from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and was seeking 15 million euros from KfW, the German development bank, for a second phase.¹³

In the Gulf, we found no report of a strike on a desalination plant in September; that is a negative finding from the sources we could read. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz stayed thin: Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Kpler data, counted six commodity vessels on 2 September against a 10-day average of about 13.¹⁴ A law firm’s note of 22 September put reported war-risk premiums at 1% to 5% of vessel value, against about 0.125% to 0.25% before the conflict.¹⁵

Saudi Arabia: treatment and operations lead

The Saudi Water Partnership Company (Sharakat), the state procurer of water partnerships, received five bids for the Riyadh East independent sewage treatment plant, a 25-year build-own-operate-transfer concession for 200,000 m³ a day, expandable to 400,000 m³, with commercial operation targeted for 2030.^16 17 In early September the National Water Company (NWC) signed a 15-year long-term operation and maintenance contract worth 1.3 billion Saudi riyals (SAR) for nine sewage plants. Zawya named the consortium as Armada and Zhangzhou United Waters;¹⁸ the Shanghai-listed Jiangsu United Water Technology had disclosed in July that it leads the package with Armada Holding.¹⁹

Larger partnerships waited. MEED reported on 8 September that Saudi water contract awards came to US$3.94 billion by early September, against US$10.7 billion in 2025 (MEED Projects data), that the developer’s agreement for the Riyadh to Qassim water transmission pipeline was still unsigned, and that the Arana and Hadda sewage plants had not reached their targeted financial close.²⁰ On 6 September the utilities system serving the Red Sea tourism destination, built and run by a consortium led by ACWA and including three seawater reverse osmosis plants, reached commercial operation.²¹ Veolia announced on 1 September three non-binding memoranda of understanding in the kingdom: with ACWA on desalination, with the mining company Ma’aden and with Khazeen.²²

Elsewhere in the Gulf

Bahrain’s Tender Board accepted for evaluation two price offers for the Sitra independent water and power project (IWPP), from ACWA and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), and said price would be the main criterion.²³ Zawya, citing a source, reported on 15 September that the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) was expected to award the project in the fourth quarter.²⁴ In Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) forecast on 21 September that reverse osmosis will supply more than 95% of its water production by 2035.²⁵ We found no water award in Kuwait, Qatar or Oman in September.

Jordan, Iraq and Syria

The board of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved on 16 September a loan to the National Carrier Project Company and political risk insurance for its investors, Meridiam and Suez.^26 3 Jordan News, citing the DFC, put the loan at up to US$1 billion and the insurance at up to US$800 million, and reported that the cabinet had approved incentives and exemptions for the project in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone in mid-September.⁴ ION Analytics reported that the project was still working towards financial close, and InfraPPP World that water supply is scheduled to start in 2030.^3 27 The Ministry of Water and Irrigation declared Jordan’s dams ready for the rainy season on 3 September.²⁸

Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources said on 4 September, according to 964 Media, that it will pay for water projects under its framework agreement with Turkey with a daily allocation of oil rather than cash, and that six water-harvesting dams are planned in Nineveh, Karbala, Anbar and Muthanna.²⁹ On 15 September the ministry put national reserves above 31 billion m³ and activated a flood operations room ahead of a forecast wet season.^30 31

In Syria, a World Bank procurement plan dated 22 September for the Syria Emergency Water Security and Resilient Services Project lists the rehabilitation of the Ain Al-Zarqa supply system, the Upper Orontes treatment plant serving Homs and Hama, and the Adra wastewater plant in Damascus.³² The Energy Minister inaugurated two rehabilitated water stations in the Idlib countryside on 6 September, which the ministry said restore supply for about 430,000 people.³³ ACWA and the Water Transmission Company signed a technical services agreement with the ministry and the consultancy Fichtner to study desalination and transmission options; it is a study, not an award.³⁴

North Africa: plants, loans and repairs

Tunisia’s Sousse seawater desalination plant entered effective operation on 28 September at 50,000 m³ a day, about eight years after launch, at an estimated cost of 132 million Tunisian dinars (TND).⁵ The main from the Zarzis desalination plant failed for a second time on 15 September, disrupting supply in Gabès, Médenine and Tataouine.³⁵ The African Development Bank (AfDB) signed a loan of 111.5 million euros on 22 September to the national water utility, the Société Nationale d’Exploitation et de Distribution des Eaux (SONEDE), for the Greater Tunis network,³⁶ and the European Union delegation said a SONEDE performance programme it supports had saved 5 million m³, about a third of its target for 2029.³⁷ Commissioning of the Mellègue 2 dam, announced for September, was not confirmed in the sources we read.³⁸

In Egypt, a government document reported by Al Borsa and relayed by Enterprise on 22 September lists 16 public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth US$3.08 billion, including a US$1 billion desalination plant at Suez and a US$800 million plant at Port Said said to be out to tender; we found no official tender notice.³⁹ The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) disclosed a planned equity investment of up to US$32.1 million in RWD Investments, the desalination platform of Hassan Allam Utilities.⁴⁰ The electricity and planning ministers discussed on 25 September using power-plant sites for seawater desalination, at the stage of preliminary feasibility studies.⁴¹

The OPEC Fund for International Development approved US$150 million on 16 September towards a new dam in Morocco, which it did not name.⁴² Algeria’s Minister of Hydraulics asked on 24 September for faster delivery of an emergency drinking-water programme of 23 billion Algerian dinars launched in mid-August.⁴³ In Libya, the National Development Agency and the Man-Made River Authority marked on 17 September the reactivation of the Qardabiya-Sadada section of the Man-Made River system, out of service for more than 13 years.⁴⁴

Water resources and policy

Morocco’s dams held 65.51% of capacity on 1 October, against 67.50% on 1 September and 32.68% a year earlier, according to the ministry’s daily bulletin as reported by Le360.⁴⁵ Istanbul’s reservoirs stood at 38.03% on 18 September, against 33.49% on the same date in 2025, on data from the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (ISKI).⁴⁶

On the Nile, Egypt’s water minister, Hani Sewilam, set out Egypt’s case against unilateral operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on 21 September, and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water and Energy rejected his remarks.^47 48 President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on 29 September that diplomacy on the dam would not come “at the expense of Egypt’s existence and its people”.⁴⁹ We found no change to water tariffs or water law in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in September.

The largest tenders of September

Water tenders published in September with the largest stated estimates or scope, from our Live tenders tracker and procurers’ own notices, with their deadlines, ranked by stated value and then by scope. Estimates are as stated in the notices; most notices outside the Maghreb state none.

• 2 NovemberMorocco, Directorate of Hydraulic Development: hydromechanical and electromechanical equipment for the Ribat El Kheir dam, Sefrou province; MAD 262.74 million including tax.⁶
• 21 OctoberMorocco, same directorate: drilling, grouting and drainage works for the Bou Khemis dam, Khemisset province; MAD 167.81 million.⁵⁰
• 26 OctoberMorocco, same directorate: hydromechanical and electromechanical equipment for the Taghzirt dam, Beni Mellal province; MAD 136.58 million.⁵¹
• 4 NovemberMorocco, National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE): extension of the El Hachef treatment plant, the first lot of a scheme to secure Tangier’s drinking water; MAD 118.2 million.⁵²
• 24 NovemberTunisia, SONEDE: design, construction and six months’ operation of two brackish-water reverse osmosis plants of 2,000 m³ a day each, at Blidet and Degueche; budget of TND 60.37 million for the two lots in the data of the national e-procurement portal (TUNEPS), not shown on the notice page.⁵³
• 16 NovemberJordan: prequalification for the rehabilitation, expansion and operation of the Shallala wastewater plant, under an EBRD project with a total cost of US$68.3 million; the EBRD loan of up to US$55 million was pending approval.^54 55
• 5 NovemberSaudi Arabia, Saline Water Conversion Corporation: first stage of a two-stage competition to use existing assets of the Shuaibah plant (phase II) for a reverse osmosis plant producing water for agriculture, 30 months; no value stated.⁵⁶
• 9 NovemberTurkey, Mersin Water and Sewerage Administration (MESKİ): retender for two wastewater treatment plants and a deep-sea outfall, 1,460 days; no value stated.⁵⁷
• 18 NovemberBahrain, Ministry of Works: about 31 km of sewers for 1,173 plots in Bani Jamrah, 30 months; no value stated.⁵⁸

What to watch

• 4 November 2026Approval date shown by the EBRD for its loan of up to US$55 million for the Shallala wastewater plant in Jordan.⁵⁵
• Fourth quarter 2026Award of Bahrain’s Sitra independent water and power project expected, according to a source cited by Zawya.²⁴
• 5 January 2027Bids due for the expansion of Oman’s Al-Ansab and Al-Amerat sewage treatment plants as a public-private partnership, according to MEED.⁶⁷
• 2030Start of water supply from Jordan’s national water carrier, as scheduled; commercial operation targeted for the Riyadh East sewage plant.^27 16