01
City Water System
Doha’s water services are run at national level. KAHRAMAA, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation, operates the country’s only water network and handles transmission, distribution, retail supply and billing. It reports 100% supply coverage in Doha Municipality in every year from 2019 to 2025. Water is produced by independent water and power producers, the largest being the listed Nebras Energy, and QatarEnergy supplies the natural gas that fuels the plants. The Public Works Authority, Ashghal, runs sewerage, stormwater and treated sewage effluent. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change regulates water quality and groundwater, and Law No. 23 of 2025 governs the sector.
02
Resources & Supply
Qatar has no perennial surface water and receives about 77 mm of rain a year, so drinking water is almost entirely desalinated seawater. National production was 666 million m³ in 2025 and has stayed between 666 and 691 million m³ a year since 2019, while demand reached 420 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) in 2024.
The plants nearest the city are the Ras Abu Fontas complex just south of Doha and Umm Al Houl, the country’s largest single source. Groundwater abstraction, estimated at 200 million m³ in 2023, goes mainly to agriculture. Capacity is due to reach 648 MIGD once the new Ras Abu Fontas plant is commissioned.
03
Wastewater & Stormwater
Ashghal’s sewer network assets grew from 2,836 km in 2013 to 9,707 km in 2025. It operates eight wastewater treatment plants, including Doha North and Doha South, and 99.7% of sewage was treated in 2021. Treated effluent irrigates landscaping, and 33 of Qatar’s 76 district cooling plants had switched to recycled water by 2025. The national target is to reuse all treated wastewater by 2030, supported by the D-Line transmission line and seasonal storage lagoons, whose first-phase main works were completed in November 2025. For stormwater, Ashghal’s North Doha flood programme is addressing about 51 rainwater accumulation spots.
04
Investment & Resilience
The new Ras Abu Fontas plant, known in trade press as Facility E, will add 2,400 MW of power and 110 million gallons a day of desalination; KAHRAMAA signed its QAR 13.5 billion agreement in May 2025. Ashghal’s 2025–2029 plan exceeds QAR 81 billion across all its sectors.
Storage is the main buffer against supply disruption: total water storage was 2,417 million imperial gallons in 2023. On the network side, real losses were 5.71% in 2023, and almost 298,000 residential water meters joined KAHRAMAA’s smart metering system in 2025. The national development strategy targets consumption below 310 litres per person a day by 2030.
05
Key Challenges
- Keeping desalination capacity ahead of demand, which reached 420 MIGD in 2024 and is expected to keep rising.
- Delivering the new Ras Abu Fontas plant, which is planned to add full water capacity in 2028 and reach full operation in 2029.
- Reducing groundwater abstraction, mostly for agriculture, in line with national targets for 2030.
- Reaching full reuse of treated wastewater by 2030.
- Protecting low-lying coastal land and drainage as sea levels rise, measured at about 1.5 mm a year in Doha.
