The 1st International Forum of Top Women Leaders in the Water Sector, a forum organized within the framework of the International Desalination Association (IDA) Congress, will be held in Dubai from October 18 to 24.

Acciona, a leading company in the development of water infrastructure, is sponsoring and organising the event.

The total value of the global desalination market, including services, is estimated at around $17 billion for 2019 with an average linear growth of 8 per cent expected between 2019 and 2025, according to Julio de la Rosa, business development director for the Middle East at Acciona Agua. The pipeline for new water desalination projects – globally – is expected to be of 11Mill cubic metre per day (cm/d) of water for 2019 and 12Mill cm/d for 2020, he told the Gulf Industry.

The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the global market. Within Mena, 50 per cent comes from for the Middle East, while 10 per cent from the North of Africa. In the Middle East market, Saudi Arabia dominates as the largest market accounting for 25 per cent of the total market for new projects, he elaborated.

The main factors driving an increase in the demand would be the population growth along with the higher living standards, which in term imply higher water consumption figures per habitant. Another factor to be considered is the development of some economic activities with a large water demand such as hospitality and the tourism sectors, which tend to have one of the highest water consumption ratios per USD income. Regarding the industrial sector, there is a need to improve the sharing of the utilities generation facilities within the industrial clusters (that is, avoiding individual ancillary facilities) towards a more holistic and sustainable approach for each industrial complex.

According to De La Rosa, the traditional water scarcity in the Middle East can be dealt with by the modern seawater desalination
facilities.

The Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) technology is the most energy efficient way to desalt seawater and the Middle Eastern regional governments are now profusely using it in almost all of the new generation plants. There are several initiatives to decouple water and power generation facilities in favour of the stand-alone reverse osmosis plants.

The trend to increase the generation of energy through renewable energy sources – and even the nuclear power plants – in the Middle East are all conducive to the adoption of the SWRO technology as the new standard.