Liwa Strategic Water Storage and Recovery
Strategic storage, More than 26 million m3 stored; recharge 7 MIGD (about 32,000 m3/day), recovery 40 MIGD (about 182,000 m3/day) for 90 days in United Arab Emirates.
Operational
The record
- Country
- United Arab Emirates
- Location
- Liwa, Al Dhafra
- Coordinates
- —
- Technology
- Strategic storage
- Capacity
- More than 26 million m3 stored; recharge 7 MIGD (about 32,000 m3/day), recovery 40 MIGD (about 182,000 m3/day) for 90 days
- Capital cost
- US$350 million
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- TRANSCO (Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company), with the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi
- Contractor
- KN International (civil and structural works); an ACC and POSCO joint venture among the contractors
- Operator
- TRANSCO
- Finance
- Government of Abu Dhabi
- Award or start year
- 2018
- Commissioned
- 2018-01
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 2002
Environment Agency Abu Dhabi begins investigating aquifer storage in the Liwa area
- 2015
Construction completed, AED 1.3 billion construction value
- 2018-01
Reserve unveiled with more than 26 million m3 of desalinated water stored, 315 recovery wells and three infiltration basins
Sources
7 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- KN International, Strategic Water Storage and Recovery Project, Liwa. kn-uae.com.
- Three recharge and recovery schemes, 315 recovery wells, 117 monitoring wells, three infiltration basins, three pumping stations and reservoirs, 155 km of well connection pipelines and 160 km of DN900 and DN1200 transmission pipelines; recharge 7 MIGD for 27 months and recovery 40 MIGD for 90 days; developer TRANSCO; construction value AED 1.3 billion; completion 2015. GRIPP and IWMI, Dawoud, M.A., A strategic water reserve in Abu Dhabi (16 August 2018). gripp.iwmi.org.
- Cost US$350 million.
- WaterWorld, World's largest man-made desalinated water reserve completed in Abu Dhabi (22 January 2018). waterworld.com.
- The National, Abu Dhabi unveils a Dh1.6bn underground reserve for desalinated water (15 January 2018). thenationalnews.com.
- TRANSCO, 2019 Seven Year Water Planning Statement, section on the Water Supply Scheme for the Aquifer Project (Contract G-4877). saudigulfprojects.com.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Infiltration of 7.0 MIGD and recovery of 40.0 MIGD of chlorinated groundwater for emergency supply to Abu Dhabi via Madinat Zayed and Mirfa. This site already carries a full case study of the scheme at the slug liwa-reserve, Liwa: the largest man-made reserve of drinking water, in the groundwater and aquifers hub.