01
City Water System
Abu Dhabi’s water sector is run at emirate level and split by function. The Department of Energy, established by law in 2018, licenses operators, sets tariffs and limits their revenues. The Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), part of ADQ, is the sole procurer of water, buying desalinated output from independent producers under long-term contracts. TRANSCO carries bulk water to the distribution network. TAQA Distribution, formed in January 2025 from the merger of ADDC and AADC, supplies customers across the emirate, and TAQA Water Solutions collects and treats wastewater. All three belong to the listed TAQA group.
02
Resources & Supply
All licensed drinking-water production in the emirate is seawater desalination. It totalled 1,160 million m³ in 2023, including exports to the Northern Emirates, and TRANSCO supplied an average of 2.15 million m³ a day to Abu Dhabi.
The technology base is moving from thermal distillation to reverse osmosis. In 2019, two-thirds of desalination used multi-stage flash and 16% used reverse osmosis; in 2023, reverse-osmosis output rose 46%. The Taweelah plant reached its full 909,000 m³ a day in 2024, and the Mirfa 2 and Shuweihat 4 plants reached financial close in 2023. Groundwater is regulated separately by the Environment Agency.
03
Wastewater & Stormwater
In 2023, TAQA Water Solutions operated 41 treatment plants with 1,333 million litres a day of installed capacity. More than 90% of the emirate’s flow goes to five plants, including Mafraq and Al Wathba 1 and 2 in Abu Dhabi, and two private operators, Etihad Biwater and Veolia Besix, manage about 75% of treated wastewater. The Strategic Tunnel Enhancement Programme carries flows by gravity through a 41 km deep tunnel to Al Wathba, replacing pumping stations. Treated effluent produced 334 million m³ of recycled water in 2023. Stormwater sits with the Department of Municipalities and Transport.
04
Investment & Resilience
For the second regulatory control period, January 2023 to December 2026, the Department of Energy capped the combined revenue of water, wastewater and electricity operators at AED 50 billion and projected AED 16.2 billion of sector infrastructure investment.
EWEC forecasts power and water demand growing by about 5% a year to 2035, while contracts covering over 2 million m³ a day of water capacity expire between 2024 and 2037. The Integrated Water Sector Strategy, launched in November 2025, targets a 40% cut in network water losses by 2035 and the capture of 100 million m³ of rainwater a year.
05
Key Challenges
- Keeping desalination capacity ahead of power and water demand forecast to grow by about 5% a year to 2035.
- Replacing over 2 million m³ a day of water capacity whose contracts expire between 2024 and 2037.
- Cutting the carbon intensity of water production as thermal plants give way to reverse osmosis.
- Raising recycled-water reuse from 72% towards the federal target of 95% by 2036.
- Managing stormwater from heavy-rain events in a country where annual rainfall averages under 100 mm.
