Issuu

Summer 2026

IDRA GLOBAL

CONNECTIONS

In Conversation with

Dr. Joan B. Rose

Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research, Michigan State University, and 2026 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate Build it now – the case for the next decade of water infrastructure Page 14

Securing water's future: it's time to scale up wastewater reuse Page 16

Building the workforce for water security: The talent imperative for 2036 Page 56 ©Photo: Michigan State University

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 | MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY GENERAL 6 | MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT 8 | COVER STORY: IDRA: IN CONVERSATION WITH JOAN B. ROSE 14 | EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINTS 14 | ʞ BUILD IT NOW – THE CASE FOR THE NEXT DECADE OF WATER INFRASTRUCTURE 20 | ʞ SOLVING THE WATER TRILEMMA:RESILIENCE, AFFORDABILITY, AND THE PATH TO PRACTICAL INNOVATION 26 | ʞ SECURING WATER'S FUTURE: IT'S TIME TO SCALE UP WASTEWATER REUSE 32 | ʞ SYSTEMIC WASTEWATER RECYCLING: OUR MOST VIABLE PATH TO WATER SECURITY 38 | ʞ THE WATER TRANSITION: INVESTING FOR ABUNDANCE BY 2036 44 | ʞ WHAT THE INDUSTRY MUST DELIVER BY 2036 FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL STANDPOINT: TORAY'S PERSPECTIVE 50 | ʞ BEYOND BUILDING PLANTS: DELIVERING WATER SECURITY THAT LASTS

67 | ʞ FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY: A FIRSTPERSON TECHNICAL HISTORY OF THE RED SEA–DEAD SEA AND AQABA– AMMAN DESALINATION PROJECT 74 | ʞ WHY AI ADOPTION STALLS IN WATER OPERATIONS 80 | ʞ THE KINGDOM AND THE SEA 86 | ʞ GLOBAL PRIZE FOR INNOVATION IN WATER 88 | IDRA WORLD CONGRESS 2026 111 | IDRA NEWS 112 | ʞ IDRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION FOR TERM 22, 2026– 2028, VOTING IS NOW OPEN 114 | ʞ SAVE THE DATE SEVILLE 2027 115 | ʞ IDRA AT SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL WATER WEEK 117 | ʞ IDRA IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE ITS MEMBERSHIP WITH WATER STRIP 118 | ʞ HALF OF EVERY DROP. BY 2045. 120 | ʞ CONSULTANTS AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES INVITED TO 2026 INDUSTRIAL WATER REUSE INNOVATION AWARD

56 | ʞ BUILDING THE WORKFORCE FOR WATER SECURITY: THE TALENT IMPERATIVE FOR 2036

122 | ʞ IDRA IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE YVONNE ZHOU, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND SENIOR PARTNER AT BCG, AS IDRA SPECIAL ADVISOR

60 | TECHNICAL VIEWPOINTS

124 | ʞ IDRA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

61 | ʞ BRINE VALORIZATION – PARADIGM SHIFT IN DESALINATION

126 | ʞ IDRA PARTNERS UPCOMING EVENTS

IDRA Global Connections is published quarterly. The views expressed in articles contributed to IDRA Global Connections are not necessarily the views of the International Desalination And Reuse Association. IDRA assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or artwork.

Editorial Director Shannon McCarthy Editorial Inquiries +1-978-774-0959 info@idrawater.org Sponsorship Inquiries +1-978-774-0959 sponsorships@ idrawater.org This publication is produced on recycled paper in support of sustainability

unlocking circular water economies. We ran it deliberately differently from a conventional panel. Rather than position statements, senior leaders from PUB Singapore, Xylem, ACCIONA, Jacobs, WABAG, AQUA Polo, GHD, AECOM, SUEZ, and Almar Water Solutions each took the room inside one real project and told the honest version: the risk they took, the moment it nearly failed, and the lesson they carried out of it. Singapore was the right place to hold that conversation, in the one city that has already made reuse a national water source.

MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY GENERAL A Running Start In the spring edition, I wrote that 2026 would be a year of action rather than declarations, and I set out what we had delivered in the first quarter to prove it. Two quarters on, I stand by that. The platforms are working, the engagements are landing, and Riyadh is close. But there is a bigger question sitting behind our own progress, and this edition puts it to the sector directly. Global water demand is projected to outstrip supply within a decade. Closing that gap will require desalination and reuse capacity to scale at a rate this industry has never delivered. So, can we actually build what the world needs? Not can we design it. We can. Not can we finance it, because the capital is increasingly there and the structures to move it are being proven. Can we build it: at the pace required, in the places that need it, with the workforce, supply chains, regulation, and public consent that construction at that scale demands? That is the question we put to the sector's leaders in this edition. It is also the question we will carry to Riyadh in November, because a Congress that only reports on what has already been achieved is not worth convening. A Season of Engagement In June, IDRA convened its Business Forum at Singapore International Water Week, on scaling water reuse and

In July, IDRA participated in the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, convened under the theme of transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda. This year's Forum conducted an in-depth review of both SDG 6 and SDG 7, and saw the launch of the UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026 alongside the Tracking SDG 7 Energy Progress Report 2026. That pairing matters. It confirms what our sector has argued for years: scaling non-conventional water resources and decarbonizing the energy that drives them are not two agendas. They are one. IDRA's consultative status with ECOSOC exists so that the technical reality of desalination and reuse is present in rooms where that agenda is set. The Synthesis Report also gave us the clearest account yet of where a decade of effort has taken us. Between 2015 and 2024, 961 million people gained access to safely managed drinking water, and global coverage rose from 68% to 74%. That is real, and it deserves to be said plainly. The same report finds that on current rates of progress, the world will fall well short of universal access by 2030. Which returns me to the question this edition asks. I have come to think the binding constraint is neither capability nor capital. It is time. The years that pass between a country deciding it needs new supply and that supply reaching people are years we do not have, and remarkably few of them are spent not building anything. Our President, Jon Freedman, develops that argument in his message in this edition, and I would ask you to read it as the practical companion to this one. Riyadh: The Program Is Set The IDRA World Congress 2026 takes place from 1 to 5 November at the King Faisal Congress Center, InterContinental Riyadh, held under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and hosted by the Saudi Water Authority, under the theme "Driving Global Water Sustainability Through Innovation." Since

the last edition of Global Connections, the Congress has continued to take shape. Our call for abstracts drew 288 submissions from 48 countries and 184 organizations, assessed through blind peer review by more than 60 volunteer reviewers, and the technical program now stands at more than 200 peer-reviewed papers across four parallel tracks and 40 Subtopics. We have announced our first waves of technical speakers. The preliminary thematic program is published. Exhibition space is almost sold out. The week also carries the Water Regulation Forum, the new global regulators platform established by the Saudi Water Authority with IDRA as the Strategic Partner, alongside the Saudi Business Development Forum, the 2nd Edition of the Global Desalination Hackathon for Sustainable Water Solutions in collaboration with ACWA, the Young Leaders Program and its Translation Stage, and our Industry and Sustainability Awards. Nominations for the Awards close on 20 August. I want to say clearly who has built this. WC26 is the work of a joint IDRA and Saudi Water Authority team, but it exists only through the dedication of our wider community. More than 90 people sit on the technical and thematic committees that shaped the program, all of them alongside full-time roles. An association is a community. It is everyone who gives their time to make that community meaningful, and to shape the future of desalination and water reuse. Riyadh is one of the defining markers of that future, and I am grateful to every member of our community who has helped build it. I want to thank the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture for its patronage of this Congress, and the Saudi Water Authority for hosting it. The commitment both have brought to WC26 has shaped every part of the program, and the Kingdom's leadership in desalination, reuse, renewable energy, digitization, and integrated water management is unmatched. This is shaping up to be the largest and most influential Congress in IDRA's history. If you have not yet registered, do it now. Term 22: Your Vote Voting for the 2026 to 2028 Board of Directors election is open to all Class I and Class II members. The ballot closes on 2 September. Results are announced on 15 September, and the new Board takes office on 5 November, immediately after the Congress closes in Riyadh.

I would ask every eligible member to vote. The Board sets the direction of this association, and a Board elected on a strong turnout carries an authority that one elected by a handful does not. This is the most direct say any member has in what IDRA does next. If your organization holds a membership, and you are not certain whether you are eligible to vote, please check now rather than in late August. This Edition of Global Connections I am honored that this edition features an interview with Professor Joan B. Rose, whose work on water microbiology and public health has shaped how the world understands water safety, and whose legacy runs through the science this sector depends on. Our Executive Viewpoints put the 2036 question directly to the people who will have to answer it, with contributions from ACWA, Xylem, SUEZ, Aquapolo, GHD, Toray Industries, VA Tech WABAG, and Veolia, spanning infrastructure, resilience, wastewater reuse, investment, technology, delivery, and the workforce. Our Technical Viewpoints answer the same question from the other direction. Where the executives set out what must be delivered, the technical papers show what delivery actually looks like: brine valorization as a paradigm shift rather than a disposal problem, and a first-person engineering history of the Red Sea, Dead Sea and Aqaba, Amman projects. Ambition is set in boardrooms. It is proven on plants. My thanks to every contributor to this edition. Looking Ahead The platforms are built. The capital is moving. What remains between here and 2036 is delivery: the plants, the people, and the institutions that turn proven technology into water in people's hands. The industry has spent a decade proving the technology works. The next decade will be judged on what we build, and on whether what we build lasts. I look forward to seeing many of you in Riyadh.

With gratitude, Shannon McCarthy Secretary General

be 40% greater than the current supply by 2030, with one-third of the world’s population living in river basins where the deficit could exceed 50%. The United Nations has likewise warned that water scarcity is already affecting billions of people and that the number of people facing urban water scarcity is expected to increase sharply in the coming decades. We should therefore be careful about making a precise prediction for the global water deficit in 2036. There is no single forecast that can reliably tell us the exact gap eight or ten years from now. What we can say with confidence is that the direction of travel is clear: demand is increasing, climate variability is putting additional pressure on conventional supplies, and many regions are already experiencing water stress.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Speed Is a Policy Choice Ask anyone in the water sector how long it takes to deliver a major desalination or water reuse project, from the decision to build to the day water reaches customers, and the answer will usually be measured in years. Then ask how much of that time is spent building the plant. The answer is often a fraction of it. The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant in California is a useful example. The project dates back to 1998. After years of feasibility work, permitting, environmental review, negotiations, and financing, construction began in 2012. The plant entered operation in 2015. In other words, the physical construction took roughly three years; the development process took more than a decade. Today, the 50-million-gallon-per-day facility supplies approximately 10% of the San Diego region’s water needs and remains the largest seawater desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere. That experience is not unique. A major desalination project can take six to ten years from early development to water delivery, depending on the jurisdiction, permitting requirements, financing structure, and project complexity. And yet we know that projects can move much faster when the key parties, such as utilities, regulators, developers, communities, and governments, are aligned from the beginning. That distinction matters. The challenge facing the water sector is not simply whether we have the technology to produce more water. We do. The challenge is whether we can deploy proven technologies quickly enough and at sufficient scale to keep pace with growing demand, climate pressures, urbanization, and the declining reliability of traditional water sources. The urgency is not hypothetical. The World Bank has projected that, under current policy assumptions, global water requirements could

That makes time one of the most important resources in water development. If a project takes a decade to move from concept to operation, then every year spent waiting for approvals, agreements, or financing is a year in which that water supply does not exist. And we cannot make up that lost time later. The Technology Is Moving. Can The System Move With It? The capacity numbers demonstrate that the sector can deliver. According to the IDRA/GWI Desalination and Reuse Handbook 2025–2026, installed desalination capacity has grown by approximately 40% since 2020, while water reuse capacity has grown by approximately 52%. Those are significant increases, and they represent real infrastructure being designed, financed, constructed, and operated around the world. But the question now is not simply whether we can build more. It is whether we can repeat successful projects faster. Meeting future water needs will require more than adding capacity one project at a time. It will require us to shorten development cycles, replicate proven approaches, build regulatory confidence, mobilize investment, and create the conditions for many more successful projects. That is where policy becomes critical. So where does the time go? The Bottleneck Is Often The Process, Not The Plant To be clear, desalination and reuse are not the only water projects that face complex regulation. Conventional water supply, wastewater treatment, infrastructure, and resource-management projects all involve environmental standards, public health requirements, permitting, energy considerations, and multiple government agencies. The challenge is that desalination and reuse are increasingly being deployed as new sources of water, rather than simply as infrastructure for managing an existing source. A reuse project, for example, may involve wastewater treatment, advanced purification, public health protection, environmental regulation, source-water management, and the introduction of treated water back into a municipal or industrial system. A desalination project may involve marine environmental requirements, energy use, intake and discharge regulation, land use, water-quality standards, and long-term water purchasing arrangements.

These issues often span different agencies, each with legitimate responsibilities and operating according to its own timetable. The result can be a process in which a project that has already demonstrated its technology and safety in one jurisdiction must undertake substantial additional work to establish confidence in another.This is particularly important for water reuse. A treatment process that has operated successfully for years and generated extensive monitoring data in one jurisdiction may still require a new regulatory review when proposed elsewhere. That does not mean the second regulator should simply accept the first regulator’s decision. It means there is an opportunity to make better use of the existing evidence. If regulators can establish common principles for evaluating evidence, share data, and understand how other jurisdictions assess risk, the process can become more predictable without lowering standards. That is the opportunity. The Same Applies To Capital Financing is no longer an entirely untested proposition for major water infrastructure. Project-finance structures, public-private partnerships, long-term water purchase agreements, and other bankable models have been demonstrated on major projects in multiple markets. Carlsbad, for example, reached a financial close exceeding $900 million in 2012 after a decade of development, demonstrating that a large desalination project could attract substantial private financing when the contractual and institutional framework was in place. But financial close does not equal regulatory approval. A project can have a proven technology, a willing customer, experienced developers, and a financeable commercial structure, and still wait years for the approvals necessary to move forward. That is why I believe the next major opportunity for the water sector is not simply technological. It is institutional. We need regulators talking to regulators. We need utilities to share lessons with utilities. We need developers, technology providers, investors, and governments to compare what works and, importantly, understand why. The objective is not to eliminate regulation. It is to make regulation more predictable, more coordinated, and better able to recognize credible evidence generated elsewhere. That Is Why The 2026 IDRA World Congress In Riyadh Matters This is why IDRA is so pleased to support the Saudi Water Authority’s launch of the Water Regulation Forum during the IDRA World Congress in Riyadh on November 1st. The Forum is intended to provide a standing global platform for water regulators to exchange experience, compare regulatory approaches and strengthen international cooperation. It is important to be clear about what this does not mean. It is not an attempt to create a single global water rulebook. Water governance is necessarily shaped by national laws, environmental conditions, public-health requirements, institutional structures, and local priorities. A single global regulatory framework would neither be practical nor desirable. The objective is more achievable, and potentially more valuable. It is to reduce the unnecessary cost of regulatory differences.

If a regulator in one country can review evidence generated in another jurisdiction and understand how that evidence was produced, what standards were applied, how risks were assessed, and what operating experience has demonstrated, then that evidence can serve as a useful starting point rather than something that must be recreated from scratch. That is how we can accelerate projects without compromising safety or environmental protection. And the benefits compound. Faster and more predictable approvals can reduce development costs and uncertainty. Greater certainty can help projects reach financial close sooner. An earlier financial close can bring water infrastructure into construction sooner. And successful projects can create a stronger evidence base and greater confidence for the projects that follow. In other words, speed can become a virtuous cycle. The barriers to water security are not all technological or financial. Many are policy, regulatory, and institutional barriers. That is encouraging, because these are barriers we can change. Which Brings Me Back To Riyadh The IDRA World Congress opens on 1 November 2026 under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and hosted by the Saudi Water Authority. The Congress will bring together more than 200 peer-reviewed technical papers, a broad thematic program with over 150 speakers, a major international exhibition, specialized workshops, a thought leadership Summit, and water leaders from around the world. The scale of the program is impressive, but that is not what matters most to me. What matters is who will be in the room. Regulators. Utilities. Developers. Engineering firms. Technology providers. Researchers. Investors. Government leaders. People who make policy. People who build projects. And people who ultimately need the water. For five days, they will have an opportunity to move beyond discussing the challenges separately and start examining how the system works as a whole—and how we can make it work better. My hope is that the conversations in Riyadh will produce more than good ideas. I hope they produce practical lessons, stronger regulatory cooperation, and policy approaches that can be applied in markets worldwide. The water sector does not need to wait for the next breakthrough to move faster. In many cases, the breakthrough we need is already in front of us. We need to make it easier, faster, and more predictable to deploy what already works. That is why speed is a policy choice. As always, I want to thank IDRA’s Secretary General, Shannon McCarthy, for her leadership in bringing this important global gathering together, and our colleagues at SWA. I look forward to seeing you in Riyadh. Jon Freedman President, IDRA

COVER STORY

In Conversation with

Joan B. Rose Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research, Michigan State University, and 2026 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate, on QMRA, the trust it took to win, and the risks the sector still underestimates.

COVER STORY

The "Reuse" in IDRA's name rests on science, and Joan B. Rose is one of the people who built it. Beginning in 1988, she helped create Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, the framework that let the water sector stop reacting to outbreaks and start predicting and preventing risk. It gave utilities a way to account for the viruses and parasites that behave nothing like the E. coli standard, and to prove their treatment was doing the job. It is the method that made recycled water credible, and gave regulators and the public a way to know, rather than hope, that treated water was safe. That confidence turned reuse from a hard sell into a trusted supply, from California to Singapore's NEWater, and carried QMRA into EPA and WHO standards. Rose holds the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University, directs the MSU Water Alliance, and has published

Professor Joan Rose wins the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize. May 7, 2026

more than 300 papers. This year's Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize winner anchors this issue as it carries into the IDRA World Congress in Riyadh. We were privileged to interview her about the science she built and what the next generation must carry forward. Q: QMRA reframed water safety from reacting to outbreaks toward predicting and preventing risk. For readers who run desalination and reuse systems, what is the clearest way to understand what QMRA changed, and why it mattered? A: Utility managers and operators run their plants based on monitoring water quality and processes. The QMRA framework allowed, for the first time, microbial water quality data to be put into perspective regarding how well the facility was running and achieving the desired water quality, which defines what is safe. As methods

COVER STORY

advanced for microorganisms in water, there was more information on viruses and parasites in water, and these microbes survive and act very differently in water systems compared to the E. coli bacterial standard that is normally used. As this knowledge increased over the last 10 to 20 years, it was clear that to achieve safe water, more attention on the efficacy of treatment was needed to control viruses and parasites in particular. QMRA allowed reuse and desalination facilities to secure a pathway for addressing all the new pathogens that may show up in their water supply and to be assured that the treatment process was sufficient to meet emerging challenges. Q: Getting that preventive approach into the EPA and WHO standards took years. What were the hardest barriers, and what finally moved the field? A: Good scientific knowledge that has developed a proven track record is the foundation for good policies. It does take time for new approaches and information to find their way into the peer-reviewed literature, be reproduced, discussed by the scientific community, and finally endorsed. Collaboration between academicians, policy makers, and the private sector, in this case the water industry, was critical to moving this forward. Demonstrating the benefits of QMRA allowed this to advance. One of the biggest barriers early on was the merging of biology, infectious disease, mathematics, and engineering. The standard approach to studying waterborne disease was through epidemiological methods. The concept of dose-response was not accepted for

microorganisms initially, and the medical community was skeptical of the ability to examine low risks below what could be observed through disease surveillance. Q: IDRA's members live at the desalinationand-reuse frontier. How decisive was QMRA in giving regulators and the public the confidence to treat recycled water as safe and dependable? A: The industry, while monitoring for the traditional indicators, was still at risk from emerging microbial pathogens and pollutants. There was a reluctance to monitor emerging contaminants, particularly microbes, when there was no obvious solution for how much effort was needed to control these microbiological populations other than what they were already doing. Too many in the industry think that the question should not be explored if there is no obvious answer. QMRA allows us to address any microbe of concern, providing the path to better risk assessment and management despite limited data, uncertainty, and variability. Q: From California's potable reuse rules to NEWater in Singapore, you helped turn reuse from a hard sell into a trusted supply. What did winning that trust actually take, and what still holds reuse back elsewhere? A: Water utilities, both wastewater and drinking water systems, need to be seen as an integral part of the community's wellbeing, health, and economy. More funding at the national level should be allocated to utilities to advance water technologies,

COVER STORY

and in particular the monitoring, to achieve a high-functioning reuse system. Reuse is a bridge between clean water and all the water we use to keep our communities clean and sustainable. Data must be shared with policy makers and the public. To move the political will, we need to find the champions and form networks of crosssector scientists, engineers, and public representatives who can work together to achieve the relationships and trust for reuse to move forward. Q: Singapore's "one water" model (use, reuse, capture, desalinate) is admired worldwide. What is the lesson other countries most often miss? A: There needs to be the political will to build a management system that is truly focused on One Water. Many policies create barriers to implementing a One Water approach; even in the US, there has long been a call to merge and connect the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. This means that financial support is comprehensive across all the water environment boundaries. In addition, communication with the public is crucial; there needs to be a focus on sharing the data, approaches, and results with the utmost transparency. Q: Wastewater surveillance went mainstream during COVID-19. Where does that capability go next, and what should utilities be building now? A: What the pandemic taught us was several things that we can now continue to carry forward in our work. First, the academic

community responded quickly, setting up monitoring programs all over the world using new advanced molecular tools. They created partnerships and a bridge between public health and the water industry. This increased capacity should not be wasted. Wastewater treatment is still one of the most important public health endeavors, and every operator, manager, and engineer working in this arena is protecting not only their own communities but all downstream potential ecosystems, services, and people, particularly disadvantaged communities. For the wastewater industry, this is truly a One-Health mantra. We should continue to advance the rapid, sensitive, and highly specific techniques for monitoring, and both upstream (disease surveillance) and downstream (treatment efficacy and water quality) testing needs to be supported by government agencies. Q: You have called mixtures (microplastics, PFAS, and antibiotic resistance interacting) the new frontier. What risk is the sector underestimating, and what science do we most urgently need? A: We have been addressing too many contaminants one at a time. The Information Collection Rule in the US, which addressed viruses, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia, should be a model for how we support data gathering for emerging concerns. We are now seeing a dramatic increase in published work on microplastics, antibiotic resistance, and PFAS, but it is rare to see any studies that monitor all three or address the interactions between these contaminants and the direct impact on

COVER STORY

changes to treatment technologies. We have an inkling that microplastics adsorb both bacteria and chemicals; these could be associated with unknown consequences regarding transport and fate as well as risk. Larger studies need to be supported that begin to explore these issues. Q: As desalination and reuse scale fast worldwide, what must not get lost on water safety, and what do you most want the next generation of water scientists and engineers to carry forward? A: There are so many advances in engineering, for example membrane

technologies and new sensors to monitor the system. AI will transform how all of this complex data will be analyzed and interpreted. However, we cannot be complacent. History has time and time again shown us that when we thought a problem was solved, a new concern emerges. Water quality monitoring and presenting the data to the public are still going to be the most important activities that the water industry takes on. The next generation of scientists and engineers is going to enter the workforce at one of the most exciting times. Collaboration and communication across disciplines and sectors are still going to be extremely important.

About the Author Joan Bray Rose holds the Homer Nowlin Chair

and architects of the framework beginning in

in Water Research at Michigan State University

1988. She continues to study emerging global

where she has worked for the last 22 years. She

microbial health risks.

is the Director of the MSU Water Alliance leading

the National Academy of Engineering (2011),

interdisciplinary efforts to solve significant

Royal Institution of Singapore, (2019), the EU

water problems in the 21st Century (https://

Academy of Sciences, (2019) and the Chinese

water.msu.edu/ ).

She is an international

Academy of Sciences (2025). She is the winner

expert in water microbiology, water quality

of the 2016 Stockholm Water Prize and the

and public health safety (with over 300

2024 International Water Association’s Global

publications). She is one of the early creators of

Water Award and the 2026 recipient of the Lee

quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA)

Kuan Yew Water Prize.

She is a member of

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 14

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

BUILD IT NOW – THE CASE FOR THE NEXT DECADE OF WATER INFRASTRUCTURE By Dr. Samir J Serhan, CEO, Acwa The UN's 2026 World Water Development

a financing problem than a failure of pace

Report uses a word the sector has avoided

and prioritization. The capital exists, but the

until now: bankruptcy. Not scarcity, not

funding mechanisms to direct it at the speed

stress, but bankruptcy – a condition in which

the crisis demands are still being built.

withdrawals have outrun the capacity of freshwater systems to recover, with the damage described as irreversible1.

The

figures are unforgiving: as of August 2025, 2.1 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water2, and demand is projected to exceed reliable supply by 40 percent before 20303. The question that defines this decade is no longer whether we build. It is how fast,

Across Acwa’s own water desalination portfolio, energy consumption has fallen around 91 percent over two decades, moving from roughly 22 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter to under three.

how intelligently, and for whom.

The Scale

The critical factors

December 2025, the World Economic Forum

desalination was a Gulf story. The next

put the global water infrastructure gap at 6.5

decade will add four new chapters to it:

trillion euros by 2040 and found that closing

the MENA region, which has reached the

it would generate more economic value than

limits of what nature will supply and is now

it costs to construct4.

Yet private capital

building beyond them; South Asia, where

accounts for barely two to three percent

the World Resources Institute puts potential

of global water investment5.

GDP losses at seven to 12 percent without

The ‘for whom’ aspect is self-evident. In

This is less

For most of the last century, large-scale

1| UN-Water, United Nations World Water Development Report 2026, March 2026. https://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2026 2| WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, '1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water,' August 26, 2025. https://www.who.int/news/item/26-08-2025-1-in-4people-globally-still-lack-access-to-safe-drinking-water---who--unicef 3| World Bank / 2030 Water Resources Group, cited by World Economic Forum, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/03/global-freshwater-demand-will-exceed-supply-40by-2030-experts-warn/ 4| World Economic Forum, Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook, December 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/bridging-the-6-5-trillion-waterinfrastructure-gap-a-playbook/ 5| World Economic Forum, water infrastructure investment analysis, January 2026. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/water-catalyst-next-wave-global-growth/

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

action6; Sub-Saharan Africa, where a young,

power is driving it lower still7. Across Acwa’s

fast-growing population meets a chronic

own water desalination portfolio, energy

investment gap that has held projects back

consumption has fallen around 91 percent

long past the point of technical readiness;

over two decades, moving from roughly

and Southeast Asia and coastal China, where

22 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter to under

urbanization and industrial demand keep

three8.

climbing. Having worked directly in these

marginal to bank are crossing into viability.

markets, I can say this shift from forecast to

We have repeatedly proven the model.

reality is already underway. The die is cast; the only question is how fast we get there.

Why now – the economics

Markets once dismissed as too

Sustainability: The Obvious Critique

Beyond viability, investors and policymakers are right to raise environmental concerns

What makes this decade different is the

surrounding

desalination.

This

obvious

economics of production, not engineering,

critique deserves a direct answer. Brine

nor technology which has settled long ago.

management and energy intensity were

The levelized cost of desalinated water has

legitimate concerns for a long time, and both

fallen by roughly 60 percent since the 1990s,

are being addressed. Renewable coupling is

and the coupling of plants to renewable

reshaping the energy profile plant by plant,

6| OECD Studies on Water: Financing a Water Secure Future, 2022 https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2022/03/financing-a-water-secure-future_27cd3a4c/a2ecb261-en.pdf 7| World Bank, The Role of Desalination in an Increasingly Water-Scarce World, 2019. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/476041552622967264/pdf/135312-WP-PUBLIC14-3-2019-12-3-35-W.pdf 8| Acwa Investors Overview, 2025

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

and brine discharge is managed through engineered dispersion, so salinity returns to ambient levels at the boundary of the mixing zone. Reuse belongs alongside desalination, not against it. It maximizes the value of treated water, while new capacity meets demand that recycling alone cannot. The next decade needs both.

What It Really Takes: Bankability

Need and economics don’t build infrastructure. Bankability does. A viable project reaches financial close only when financing certainty, offtake credibility, disciplined risk allocation, and a genuine execution record all align at once. The Saudi public-private partnership model has demonstrated this alignment repeatedly, and it is now being adapted well beyond its origin – in Egypt, in Azerbaijan, in Senegal, and beyond9. That template is replicable, tested, and transferable across regions.

2036

By 2036, the four regions entering the water desalination market will hold operating capacity that today exists only on paper, much of it powered by renewables from the first day of commercial operation. The cost thresholds keeping marginal markets on the sidelines will have been crossed, and projects that look ambitious now will look ordinary. Desalination and reuse will run as a single integrated system, sized together and financed together, because the economics reward it and the water balance requires it. If the Saudi bankability 9| Acwa, 'ACWA Power Signs Landmark Agreements with Senegal Government,' July 20, 2025.

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

model holds its pace, it can be closing projects across four continents within the decade, and ten years is enough time to build all of this. It is also enough time to miss the window, if the sector treats an irreversible deficit as a problem for the decade after.

References [1] UN-Water, United Nations World Water Development Report 2026, March 2026.https:// www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2026 [2] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, '1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water,' August 26, 2025. https://www.who.int/news/item/26-08-2025-1-in4-people-globally-still-lack-access-to-safe-drinking-water---who--unicef [3] World Bank / 2030 Water Resources Group, cited by World Economic Forum, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/03/global-freshwater-demand-will-exceedsupply-40-by-2030-experts-warn/ [4] World Economic Forum, Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook, December 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/bridging-the-6-5-

We have the technology, and in Saudi Arabia, a bankability model already proven at scale. What 2036 demands is deploying both together at the speed the shortage already dictates.

trillion-water-infrastructure-gap-a-playbook/ [5] World Economic Forum, water infrastructure investment analysis, January 2026. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/water-catalyst-next-wave-global-growth/ [6] World Bank, The Role of Desalination in an Increasingly Water-Scarce World, 2019. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/476041552622967264/ pdf/135312-WP-PUBLIC-14-3-2019-12-3-35-W.pdf [7] Acwa Investors Overview, 2025 [8] Acwa, 'ACWA Power Signs Landmark Agreements with Senegal Government,' July 20, 2025. [9] OECD Studies on Water: Financing a Water Secure Future, 2022 https://www.oecd. org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2022/03/financing-a-water-secure-future_27cd3a4c/a2ecb261-en.pdf

About the Author Dr. Samir J Serhan is the CEO of Acwa, responsible

Earlier in his career, Dr. Serhan was President,

for the company’s global strategy and operations

Hydrogen for Praxair. For 14 years prior, he worked

spanning 15 markets. Before his current appointment,

for the Linde Group in leadership positions in the US

Dr. Serhan was Acwa’s President of Saudi Arabia and

and Germany, culminating in his role as Managing

Middle East, where he was responsible for seven key

Director of Linde Engineering. He brings more than

markets, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain,

three decades of global leadership experience across

Oman, Jordan, and Iraq.

large-scale industrial and infrastructure organizations, with a strong track record in driving operational

Previously, Dr. Serhan was COO of the US-based

transformation, strengthening institutional capability,

company

and delivering profitable growth in complex, capital-

Air

Products

where

had

global

responsibility for operational business and project

intensive environments.

execution with P&L accountability for the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. He also

He served as an adjunct professor at Temple University

led functions including technology, global engineering,

and Penn State, and holds a Ph.D. in engineering

manufacturing, and equipment.

mechanics from Virginia Tech.

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 20

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

SOLVING THE WATER TRILEMMA: RESILIENCE, AFFORDABILITY, AND THE PATH TO PRACTICAL INNOVATION By Mr. Albert Cho, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer at Xylem The forces reshaping water security over the next decade are not simply a matter of supply failing to keep pace with demand. The deeper challenge is that increasing climate variability is altering the shape of the risk itself – pushing water conditions further from historical norms and toward more frequent and severe extremes. Water infrastructure was designed and sized based on assumptions about the frequency and magnitude of droughts, floods, and other disruptive events that no longer reliably hold. Increasingly, the greatest operational risks lie outside the conditions these systems were designed to handle.

The Impossible Trilemma

Responding to this new risk profile would be

straightforward

resources

were

unlimited. They are not – and this is where the challenge becomes structurally difficult. Water systems are caught in what is best described as a trilemma.

we need to redefine process stability to focus on consistency of outcomes, not consistency with past practices.

Water security can no longer be managed by doing more of the same. A new way of thinking is required: around what investments

deliver

resilience,

what

financial models can support them, and how

proven

approaches

move

from

individual projects into standard practice.

The first element is resilience: every utility, every city, every water manager needs systems capable of delivering reliable water services regardless of changes in the external environment. The second is affordability: as an essential element of

That is not a technology problem. It is a

life, users expect water to be economically

structural one.

accessible to all. The third element – and

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

the one least often made explicit – is

stable world. As climate extremes become

process stability: the sector’s preference for

more frequent and severe, resilience at an

proven methods and incremental change

affordable cost will require wider adoption

over approaches that may be unfamiliar

of proven innovations, new financing

but equally safe. Given that infrastructure

models, and greater operational flexibility.

failures carry real consequences, the caution

The challenge is no longer whether the

is understandable.

sector can afford to change; it is whether it can afford not to.

But the three aspects pull against each other. Building resilience at the scale now required, at a cost that systems can sustain,

Why The Sector Needs To Move

Building infrastructure that can withstand

through approaches the sector has always

increasingly extreme and unpredictable

relied upon is no longer viable. The only

weather conditions, rather than simply

path through this trilemma is to challenge

perform well under average ones, comes at

the third element and redefine what process

a cost that conventional approaches cannot

stability means. In sum, we need to redefine

sustain.

process stability to focus on consistency of outcomes, not consistency with past

Research conducted by Xylem and Global

practices.

Water

Intelligence

puts

global

water

infrastructure resilience needs at $1.5 trillion1 The approaches that served the sector

over the next two decades. Meeting that

well for decades were designed for a more

need through conventional infrastructure

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

delivery and financing models is unlikely to

purpose – delivering both operational

be feasible at the speed and scale required.

value and resilience capacity – is also more

The answer is not to spend more but to

financeable, because it generates returns

invest more strategically.

continuously rather than only under stress.

Maintaining resilience while keeping water

Optimization extracts more capacity from

services affordable requires the sector to

what

engage more with proven innovations,

management

including digital tools already delivering

intelligence have delivered network loss

measurable results in the field. According to

reductions of up to 30% and savings of

our research, doing so could cut the bill for

billions of liters per year2 in cities managing

resilient infrastructure roughly in half. This

significant supply stress – operational

is not about building more infrastructure but

outcomes

doing far more with what we already have.

infrastructure to real-time data and action.

Where The Gains Will Come From

already

exists. and

from

Digital

pressure

real-time

hydraulic

connecting

existing

Optimizing sewer and stormwater network storage, for example, can reduce the cost

The greatest gains will come from increasing

of flood resilience by 40% and drought

the productivity of existing assets. Water

resilience by 20%.3

reuse and system optimization – enabled by digital infrastructure – are the most cost-effective path to expanding supply capacity and resilience without proportional increases in cost. Reuse addresses supply variability directly. Systems designed to recover and recycle water are less exposed to the unpredictability of extreme weather, because they draw on a resource largely within the system’s own control. Standardizing the procurement and delivery of reuse infrastructure can

Policy needs to keep pace: regulatory frameworks for reuse, permitting pathways that move at the speed of project development, and investment structures that recognize water security as critical infrastructure.

reduce per-unit costs and position reuse as a baseline option rather than a premium

Together, reuse and optimization expand

one. Infrastructure designed with dual

effective supply capacity while reducing

1| Xylem / Global Water Intelligence, Rethinking Resilience (2025) 2| How a digital twin enhanced daily operations in Global Omnium’s drinking water network 3| Xylem / Global Water Intelligence, Rethinking Resilience (2025)

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

the cost per unit of resilience delivered.

regulatory frameworks for reuse, permitting

The technology exists. The demonstrated

pathways that move at the speed of project

results exist. What remains is the work of

development, and investment structures

implementation.

that recognize water security as critical infrastructure. A coordinated approach –

Making It Work at Scale Delivering

this

built on shared data, multi-stakeholder

scale

requires

dialogue,

and

consistent

adoption

alignment across stakeholders who have

proven innovation – is what the scale of the

historically worked in sequence rather

challenge requires.

than in parallel. In Technology

needs

project-based

deployment

move

from

working

industrial

alongside operators,

global

utilities,

regulators,

and

standard

investors, the question I most often

infrastructure practice – embedding reuse

encounter is not “can this be done?” but “can

as the baseline expectation for water

we align the right partners early enough

systems.

evolve

to do it at the pace required?” The answer,

toward system-level integration, where

increasingly, is yes. That growing alignment

data and decisions are connected rather

gives me confidence in what the sector can

than siloed. Policy needs to keep pace:

realistically achieve over the next decade.

Operations

need

About the Author Albert Cho is EVP and Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer at Xylem, where he helps shape the company’s growth, innovation, and sustainability agenda worldwide. With leadership experience spanning Xylem, Cisco, McKinsey, the United Nations, and the U.S. Department of State, Al brings a rare blend of business, technology, and policy expertise to the conversation on water, resilience, and sustainable development.

is Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer at Xylem, where he helps shape the company’s growth, innovation, and sustainability agenda worldwide. With leadership experience spanning Xylem, Cisco, McKinsey, the United Nations, and the U.S. Department of State, Al brings a rare blend of business, technology, and policy expertise to the conversation on water, resilience, and sustainable development.

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT Photo: ©SUEZ_Antoine Meyssonier

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

SECURING WATER'S FUTURE: IT'S TIME TO SCALE UP WASTEWATER REUSE By Mr. Pierre Pauliac, SUEZ Executive Vice-President in charge of International Over the next decade, one thing will not

In this context, securing water supplies is

change: as it was yesterday, and as it is

no longer solely an environmental issue; it

today, water will remain essential to the

has become an economic, industrial, and

development of cities, industries and

sovereignty imperative. Access to water

societies. What will change, however, is

underpins social cohesion, food security

where that water can be reliably secured

and industrial production.

over the long term.

Securing water supplies is no longer solely an environmental issue; it has become an economic, industrial, and sovereignty imperative.

For industry, water is no longer merely an operational input— it has become a strategic resource, much like energy.

Tomorrow's industrial competitiveness will depend on water resilience. Regions that can secure their water future will attract investment, support growth and

Nearly

four

billion

people

already

experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year and almost three-quarters of the world’s population live in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure. And climate change is set to intensify this pressure through more frequent droughts, greater variability in rainfall and increasingly

strengthen their autonomy. Water is the invisible infrastructure of economic power. But resilience cannot be built overnight. Infrastructure is a long-term endeavour, and the decisions that will determine water security tomorrow must be taken today.

extreme weather events.

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Photo: ©SUEZ Graphix-Images Augusto Da Silva

The first priority is clear: reducing non-revenue water.

Some estimates suggest that 30% of all water produced globally is lost before reaching end users. At a time when pressure on water resources is increasing everywhere,

such

losses

are

simply

unsustainable. Addressing this challenge requires a combination of operational expertise and advanced digital tools. Better network visibility, real-time monitoring, predictive

maintenance

and

targeted

investment strategies are already helping utilities improve performance. Artificial intelligence

already

enables

faster

detection of anomalies, more accurate forecasting

failures

and

smarter

allocation of resources.

Yet efficiency alone will often not be enough. In addition, diversifying water resources is becoming an essential lever. Among

these

solutions,

wastewater

reuse—which applies circular economy principles to water management—is not a new concept. Yet it remains largely underutilized worldwide. Globally, around 10% of wastewater is reused, despite the growing value of this resource. The barriers

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costs,

This trend is not accidental. Industrial water

regulatory frameworks that do not always

reuse presents a compelling advantage: in

enable the full potential of reuse, and,

many cases, water can be reused locally, in

above all, public confidence.

short loops, reducing the need for extensive

are

well

known:

infrastructure

distribution

But the equation is changing.

infrastructure.

The

“yuck

factor”, often cited as a barrier to domestic

Mounting pressure on water resources

water reuse, is not a significant concern in

and growing demand from industry,

industrial applications.

especially data-driven industries, and agriculture

are

reshaping

demand.

Already, in 2025, industrial applications represented

approximately

one-fifth

of total installed wastewater reuse capacity. Around the world, governments and industries are accelerating their ambitions. In India, for instance, the National Tariff Policy (2016) requires thermal power plants located within 50 kilometres of a municipal sewage treatment plant to run their cooling and other non-potable systems on treated wastewater,

conserving

scarce

In a world where water is becoming increasingly scarce, the most resilient regions will be those that invest early and decisively in sustainable water management, transforming water security into a driver of economic strength, industrial competitiveness, and sustainable growth.

local

freshwater. Several states are now going further. Uttar Pradesh—the country’s

Another promising pathway is gaining

most populous—approved a policy in

momentum: aquifer recharge using treated

2026 targeting 50% safe reuse of treated

wastewater. As an Indirect Potable Reuse

wastewater by 2030, with full reuse in

(IPR) approach, it leverages natural water

a later phase, across sectors including

cycle processes to replenish groundwater

agriculture, industry and construction.

resources. It offers an effective balance

In China, many industrial parks have

between water security, social acceptance

implemented

reclaimed

and optimization of existing infrastructure.

water reuse systems, with some moving

Mature projects already operating around

toward highly circular models, aiming to

the world demonstrate the viability of this

achieve 100% wastewater recycling.

model. In coastal regions, it can also help

large-scale

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prevent seawater intrusion—a growing

The question is no longer whether

threat as groundwater levels decline.

wastewater reuse will expand. The question is how fast. And will it be fast

The challenge is no longer technological.

enough

prevent

crises?

Because

ultimately, this is not only about managing

Today, proven technologies can produce

a resource—it is about securing the

water that meets the most demanding

foundations of future prosperity. In a world

quality

potable

where water is becoming increasingly

standards. The challenge is now economic

scarce, the most resilient regions will be

and societal. It is about building trust. It is

those that invest early and decisively

about adapting regulatory frameworks.

It is about creating governance models

transforming

that foster collaboration among public

driver of economic strength, industrial

authorities, industry and utilities.

competitiveness, and sustainable growth.

requirements,

including

sustainable

water

management,

security

into

About the Author Pierre Pauliac is member of SUEZ’s Group Executive Committee, as Executive Vice President in charge of International. He leads the global team that provides essential and innovative solutions for water production and treatment, waste recycling and recovery, and hazardous waste treatment in more than 40 countries. After his first career steps in project management at Naval Group, Technip and Alstom Hydro, from 1999 to 2010, in France and abroad (Chile, Sudan), Pierre Pauliac joined the SUEZ Group in 2010.

He reorganized the engineering and construction activities of Degrémont in the Middle East, before heading up all water and waste activities for SUEZ in the region. As of 2019, Pierre has been CEO of Treatment Infrastructures (TI), SUEZ global engineering, procurement and construction activities. In 2022, Pierre Pauliac was appointed Chief Operating Officer in charge of Water. Photo: ©SUEZ/Denis Felix

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 32

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

SYSTEMIC WASTEWATER RECYCLING: OUR MOST VIABLE PATH TO WATER SECURITY By Mr. Marcio da Silva Jose, Aquapolo Ambiental Today, humanity already faces a critical and growing demographic and environmental intersection. Rising global temperatures, rapid and increasing urbanization, and

Industrial reuse (Leads)

High ROI, localized control, rapid deployment

shifting precipitation patterns are straining traditional freshwater aquifers beyond their natural replenishment rates. To safeguard global

economies,

public

health,

food

security and ecological stability, we must fundamentally shift how we view, treat, and

Municipal reuse (Follows)

Broad public impact, massive grid retrofits, political influence

reuse every drop of water. The next ten years demand an urgent, aggressive transition from linear water consumption to a fully circular,

Once industries prove the reliability, safety,

closed-loop paradigm.

and cost-efficiency of advanced purification

1. The Adoption Sequence: Industrial Leadership, Municipal Sequence

tech, municipal water utilities gain the political and social leverage to follow suit. Municipalities capitalize on the scaled

A clear economic pattern has emerged globally:

production and lowered costs of filtration

industrial water reuse leads, and municipal

technology pioneered by the private sector,

reuse follows. Heavy industries, data centers,

applying those lessons to city-wide drinking

mining

water systems.

operations,

and

manufacturing

plants have been facing immediate financial penalties from water scarcity. Over the last two or three decades industrial water reuse has transitioned from regulatory compliance to a

2. The Defining Barriers: Geography, Regulation, and Acceptance

The path to absolute water circular cycle is

core pillar of circular economy and business

blocked by three foundational hurdles that

survival.

require distinct strategies to overcome.

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Network Geography

health legislations to allow for IPR and DPR

bound by topography. The biggest geographic

major projects due to fear of future liability

Water is heavy, expensive to pump, and challenge is that wastewater treatment plants are traditionally built at the lowest elevation of a city, while industrial zones and agricultural fields sit uphill or far outside urban centers. Building thousands of miles of secondary "purple pipe" distribution networks to pump

projects public utilities hesitate to greenlight and shifting compliance rules.

Public Acceptance The psychological barrier, called “yuck factor”, remains a steep hill to climb. Municipal projects frequently stall due to the "toilet-to-tap"

reclaimed water backward against gravity

stigma, born from public misconceptions about

presents a massive civil engineering roadblock

purification science. Successful projects were

and an economic challenge.

implemented after the fundamental massive and broad investment in education campaigns

Regulatory Fragmentation

and demonstration sites for population and

Technology consistently outpaces the law. Many regions lack clear legal frameworks defining

water

quality

standards

and

permission for Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) and Direct Potable Reuse (DPR). Without federal and local cross-agency environmental and

media.

3. The Scaling Horizon: Realistic Pace and Practical Caps

Deploying water reuse plants is a race against time, but infrastructure cannot be built

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overnight. While the technical tools exist, the realistic pace of scaling reuse globally faces hard, despite the barriers mentioned before, engineering and economic caps.

Planning & Permitting 2-4 years

Capital Procurement 1-2 years

Civil Construction 3-5 years

A typical large-scale reclamation plant requires six to ten years from initial feasibility studies to active distribution. This timeline severely compresses our window for the next 10 years’ targets! The primary pace-capping factor is capital expenditure: retrofitting existing urban areas and piloting a plant before the permits require upfront investment. Additionally, project financing usually takes time, due to the complexity and collaterals constitution. Global supply chain constraints for specialized components might also impact on how fast new facilities can come online.

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4. The Latin American Experience

As the world looks for successful models to help scale water reuse and guarantee resilience, one Latin America experience shows vital, real-world lessons in resilience, innovation, and localized adaptation. In São Paulo – Brazil, the Aquapolo Ambiental project stands as one of the largest industrial water reuse ventures in the world, demonstrating how public-private partnerships can rapidly insulate a megacity's

Every drop of recycled water represents an investment in economic continuity and prosperity, environmental restoration and conservation, and shared human survival.

economy from extreme drought. The project

With the capacity of up to 1 m³/second

was created and built to operation in 3,5 years,

(equivalent of a city of 500.000 inhabitants)

due to the vision and commitment between

Aquapolo has been supplying high quality

industries (clients), public and private water

recycled water to one of Brazil’s largest

companies (shareholders) and government

Petrochemical Park, helping 12 industrial plants

(regulators). Aquapolo used its contract offtake

being adapted to water crisis at the same time

steady revenue and its clients premium credit

it reduces their competition for water with

rating as collateral to finance 90% of its entire

population. During São Paulo’s worst drought

capital expenditure.

ever in 2013-14, Aquapolo’s clients operated

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normally and increased their production. With

The need for water and climate adaptation

only one single extreme weather event, they

leaves zero room for bureaucratic delays.

estimated a loss of 50% of Aquapolo total

True water security cannot be achieved

capex!

by relying on twentieth-century linear

5. The next 10 years circular mandate

models

consumption.

Building

infrastructure in response to active

I personally believe in water recycling as a

emergencies costs significantly more

management tool for aquifer and reservoir

than proactive, long-term investments.

replenishment, resulting in reduced network

Every drop of recycled water represents

of purple pipes – meaning less capex and

an investment in economic continuity and

consequently lower tariff – and water

prosperity, environmental restoration

security at the origin of water supply. This

and conservation, and shared human

way all users can use drinking water, and we

survival.

leverage existing distribution networks.

About the Author Mr. Marcio Jose is the CEO of Aquapolo Ambiental S.A., the largest water recycling facility in Latin America, where he leads its team towards achieving excellence in operational efficiency and sustainability by innovating and working on disruptive solutions.

He has a large experience in several sectors like capital goods, petrochemical, defense and utilities, having worked in Brazil and USA for companies like ABB, Braskem and Mectron before Aquapolo.

Mr. Jose is a member of the Water Positive Think Tank and representative of ALADYR – Latin America Desalination and Reuse Association in Brazil, working to influence and promote desalination and reuse solutions and legislation. Marcio is also a co-leader on the Water Chamber in the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development, working with companies responsible for 48% of Brazilian GDP.

Marcio is graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi and an Executive MBA from Saint Paul Business School and New York Institute of Finance. He is a Chartered Professional within the Brazilian Business Administration Federal Council.

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 38

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

THE WATER TRANSITION: INVESTING FOR ABUNDANCE BY 2036 By Mr. Rod Naylor, Global Leader Water at GHD For generations, we've relied on natural

longer a distant environmental risk. It is a

water systems to underpin our economies,

growing economic reality.

our communities and our quality of life. When demand increased, we built another

I believe we are entering a “water transition”,

dam, extended another pipeline or tapped

much like the energy transition before it.

another aquifer. It was a model that served

We must move on from simply finding new

us well, but one that relied heavily on the

sources from the same limited water systems.

continued generosity of nature.

The challenge now is to create renewable, regenerative and ultimately more abundant

That assumption no longer holds.

water that allows communities, economies and the environment to prosper together.

Around the world, governments, utilities and businesses are discovering that our understanding of water has evolved from just an environmental issue or a utility service. It is fundamental economic infrastructure. Without secure water, there is no resilient economy, no thriving community and no pathway to long-term prosperity. This shift in thinking is profound. It should fundamentally change how we invest over the next decade.

Businesses can recover from many disruptions, but cannot operate without water. Neither can communities.It drives manufacturing, mining, agriculture, energy production, technology, housing and the communities that support them.

We are already seeing the economic consequences of water insecurity. GHD's

If that becomes our intention, then the

Aquanomics report estimates that droughts,

investment decisions we make between

floods and storms could reduce global GDP

now and 2036 will need to be grounded in a

by up to USD 5.6 trillion by 2050. That is no

whole new mindset.

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Water underpins the economy

That new mindset begins by recognising one simple truth: water is not just “infrastructure”. It is an “economic imperative”. Water does not simply support economic growth. It is becoming one of its defining constraints. Businesses can recover from many disruptions, but cannot operate without water. Neither can communities. It drives manufacturing, mining, agriculture, energy production, technology, housing and the communities that support them. When water systems become unreliable, the consequences extend far beyond the water sector. Productivity declines, investment stalls, insurance costs rise and economic opportunity

shifts

elsewhere,

while

populations follow out of necessity.

Western Corridor Recycled Water Project Construction Qld

The best outcomes won’t come from the biggest projects

One of the biggest misconceptions in water Investors, insurers and major industries

is that bigger projects automatically deliver

are increasingly assessing water security

better outcomes. That is not necessarily the

in much the same way they assess energy

case, although bigger budgets do allow us

security, recognising that access to reliable

to do more.

water is becoming a prerequisite for long-term growth. Water risk has always

The most successful investments over the

existed, but today it is becoming visible on

next decade are unlikely to be those that

corporate balance sheets, in investment

simply build more infrastructure. They will be

decisions and in national infrastructure

the ones that create the greatest long-term

planning.

value for the communities, industries and ecosystems they serve.

This changes the investment conversation. The question is no longer, "How do we access

There is no universal solution. Desalination,

more water?" It is, "How do we invest in water

reuse, water efficiency and nature-based

systems that enable long-term prosperity?"

solutions all have a role to play. Water

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making better use of the assets we already have, integrating new sources into existing networks

and

designing

infrastructure

that can evolve as climate, population and economic conditions change. Capital should flow towards investments that increase flexibility and resilience as much as overall capacity. The greatest value by 2036 will come from water systems designed to adapt to tomorrow's conditions, not simply optimise today's.

Water systems must move from extraction to regeneration

For decades, the conversation has centred on finding additional sources of water drawn from the same natural systems. That made efficiency and nature-based approaches

sense when natural systems appeared

help us make better use of the resources

capable of meeting growing demand. Today,

we already have. Desalination and water

that assumption is increasingly difficult to

reuse go a step further by creating new,

sustain.

climate-resilient sources of water beyond the limits of naturally available freshwater

This means the challenge is not supplying

supplies. The best outcome is determined by

more water. It is making water renewable.

local geography, the economy, governance

We must move beyond the traditional

and, ultimately, the people the system is

linear

designed to serve.

nature, using it once and returning it in

model

taking

water

from

a diminished state. Instead, we need In other words, water solutions need to be

systems that replenish, recover and

hyper-local and adaptive.

regenerate the resources on which they depend. Just as the energy transition

The objective should not be to build

reduces our reliance on finite fuels, the

the biggest project or adopt the latest

water transition must reduce our reliance

technology. It should be to strengthen the

on continually drawing down natural

overall system. In many cases, that means

water systems.

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This is not an argument for one technology

Renewable water is ultimately about

over another. Desalination, potable reuse,

accountability.

water recycling, efficiency and nature-based

accountable for the water we use and the

solutions all have important roles to play. Some

water we need, ensuring future generations

help us use finite water resources more wisely.

inherit systems that are more resilient than

Others, particularly desalination and potable

the ones we rely on today.

reuse, increase the volume of renewable water available to the system by recovering or creating new climate-resilient supplies.

need

become

The bottom line

By 2036, success will be measured by

Together, they create water systems that are

the resilience of the water systems we've

more secure, more resilient and ultimately

created and the prosperity they enable.

capable of supporting long-term prosperity.

Renewable,

adaptive

water

systems

should become the foundation on which Because of this, the investment question

communities,

changes once again. Success is no longer

generations can thrive.

measured

simply

the

volume

economies

and

future

additional water we create. It is measured

The real investment challenge is not

by how effectively we reduce pressure on

deciding where capital should flow. It is

natural systems while strengthening the

deciding the future we want that capital to

long-term resilience of the communities and

create.

economies that depend upon them.

About the Author Rod Naylor is Global Leader, Water at GHD, where he leads the firm's global strategy on water security, resilience and the transition towards renewable water systems. A chemical engineer with experience across Australia, New Zealand,

the UK and the USA, he advises governments, utilities and industry on the policies, investments and infrastructure needed to support long-term economic prosperity in an increasingly waterconstrained world

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 44

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

WHAT THE INDUSTRY MUST DELIVER BY 2036 FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL STANDPOINT: TORAY'S PERSPECTIVE By Toray Industries, Inc. Toray is deeply honored to contribute to

industry must deliver solutions that provide

the Summer 2026 edition of IDRA Global

more water with less energy and reduced

Connections. We congratulate IDRA on its

environmental impact.

continued efforts to raise awareness and promote dialogue across the global water industry, and we are pleased to share our perspective on this question. As a global membrane supplier, Toray has been devoted to membrane technology for more than half a century, in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders across the industry. Today, one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity is water scarcity,

next-generation membranes achieve significantly higher salt rejection, improved removal of neutral substances such as boron, and greater chemical resistance, all while maintaining high water permeability.

and our mission is to contribute to securing sustainable water resources for future For membrane technology to contribute

generations.

effectively, we must overcome a fundamental The world faces a widening gap between

trade-off:

water demand and supply. Population growth,

permeability and high selectivity. Through

climate change, urbanization and industrial

advances in polymer science and membrane

expansion

structure design, however, this trade-off is

are

placing

unprecedented

pressure on water resources. At the same time,

achieving

both

high

water

becoming surmountable.

energy and material costs continue to rise, while environmental regulations grow more

Recent Toray studies, including neutron

stringent. To meet these challenges, the water

scattering analysis, have provided new

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

insights into how water molecules move

Improved

through

These

enables some new desalination plants to move

findings suggest that water clusters within

from conventional two-pass reverse osmosis

membrane pores are connected by narrow

systems to single-pass operation, reducing

channels that influence permeability and

both capital and operating costs. This lowers

selectivity. By incorporating this knowledge

the cost of the RO process itself, on top of the

into

reduction in energy consumption per unit.

polyamide

next-generation

membranes.

membrane

design,

membrane

performance

also

water quality and energy efficiency can be The need for advanced contaminant removal

significantly improved.

is growing rapidly. Enhanced boron rejection flow

technology, developed mainly for seawater

modeling, and by combining quantitative

desalination, is helping meet increasingly

pore-size and structure analysis with digital

stringent

simulation of membrane-water interactions,

including for PFAS and other substances of

next-generation

environmental concern.

Building

these

advances

membranes

achieve

drinking

water

standards,

significantly higher salt rejection, improved removal of neutral substances such as boron,

The

and greater chemical resistance, all while

membranes, such as ultrafiltration. Toray's

maintaining high water permeability.

recently

same

concept

introduced

applies F-UF

other

membrane

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

series uses proprietary micropore control technology to achieve a highly uniform pore-size distribution. This finely tuned pore structure significantly reduces biopolymer passage, thereby suppressing downstream RO membrane fouling and improving overall system performance. Combining advanced UF and RO technologies optimizes treatment solutions for water reuse and increases the availability of fresh, safe water worldwide. Looking ahead, and beyond optimizing the performance of individual membranes, the combination of multiple membrane technologies delivers further synergistic benefits. This multiplier effect drives a substantial improvement in overall membrane process performance. However, superior membrane performance alone is not enough. To fully unlock the potential of membrane systems, the industry must address fouling control, especially biofouling, which remains one of the greatest barriers to stable and efficient RO operation. The Silt Density Index (SDI) has become the global standard for evaluating particulate fouling potential, but the industry has long lacked an equivalent indicator for biological fouling. What is needed is a biofouling-specific, quantitative indicator that complements SDI and provides a practical basis for pretreatment design, operational optimization and membrane protection. Toray's mBFR is designed to fill that gap, enabling a more proactive and data-driven approach to RO

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

system management. Reducing the effect

scarcity. Equally important is the willingness

of biofouling, which has long been the

of stakeholders to share knowledge, establish

greatest inhibitor of membrane performance

common practices and work toward collective

and its most unpredictable variable, allows

goals. Cross-sector collaboration between

membranes to reach their maximum potential

technology providers, utilities, industrial users,

while also supporting better data management

regulators, financial institutions and public

and performance forecasting.

authorities will be essential to accelerate innovation and expand access to sustainable

For that reason, we view mBFR not simply as

water solutions.

a proprietary technology, but as a framework that can support the broader water industry

Over the next ten years, our goal should

through a common approach to biofouling

not simply be to compete within an existing

management.

such

framework, but to create new value for

methodologies can improve plant reliability,

society. Through continued progress in

extend membrane life, reduce resource

membrane science, data-driven operation

consumption and ultimately create value

and cross-sector collaboration, the global

across the entire water sector.

water community has an opportunity to

Wider

adoption

deliver more resilient, sustainable and This highlights a broader point: technological

accessible

innovation alone will not solve global water

generations.

water

solutions

for

future

About the Author Satoshi Shimoyama. Born in Osaka, Japan in 1960.

Toray Membrane Middle East. Returned to Japan in 2021

Completed graduate studies in law at Waseda University

as a Board Member of Toray International. From 2022

and joined Toray Industries, Inc. in 1984. From 1995 to

to 2026, served as Corporate Vice President of Toray,

1999, served as Director of Marketing at Toray’s New

responsible for the Water Treatment & Environment

York office. In 2006, moved to the Water Treatment

Division, and from April 2026, Advisor to the Division.

Division as Manager of the RO Products Department,

For over 20 years, I have been dedicated to advancing

becoming General Manager in 2011. Appointed General

water membrane technology and expanding global

Manager of the entire Water Treatment Division in 2017.

business to help address the world’s growing water

In 2019, transferred to Saudi Arabia as President of

scarcity challenges.

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EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT 50

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

BEYOND BUILDING PLANTS: DELIVERING WATER SECURITY THAT LASTS By Mr. Rajiv Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, VA TECH WABAG LIMITED

Water Security Will Define the Next Decade

Rivers, lakes and groundwater are under

is not whether we can build more water

The next decade belongs to Manufactured

The defining challenge of the next decade infrastructure. It is whether we can deliver water security that lasts. For decades, the global water sector measured success by the number of treatment plants commissioned, kilometres of pipelines laid and millions of litres of capacity created. While these remain important metrics, they are no longer sufficient. Climate change, rapid urbanisation, industrial expansion and growing water stress are fundamentally reshaping the sector. Water has moved beyond being a utility service. It is now strategic infrastructure that underpins public health, climate resilience, food security and economic growth. As

unprecedented stress, making it imperative to develop reliable alternative sources. Water - water produced through reuse and desalination.

Unlike

rainfall-dependent

sources, manufactured water offers reliability, predictability and resilience against climate variability. Treated used water should no

The future lies not in simply creating infrastructure, but in building resilient assets that consistently deliver operational excellence, environmental sustainability and long-term value.

governments across the world invest heavily in strengthening water infrastructure, our collective focus must evolve from creating

longer be viewed as a disposal challenge but as

assets to delivering long-term outcomes.

a dependable resource capable of supporting

From Freshwater to Manufactured Water

preserving precious freshwater for drinking

solely on conventional freshwater resources.

unprecedented opportunity to integrate water

The future of water security cannot depend

industries, agriculture and cities, while and domestic use. Countries across India, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia have an

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

reuse and desalination into mainstream water

approaches promote greater accountability,

planning. Those that successfully diversify

optimise lifecycle performance and ensure

their water portfolio today will be significantly

that infrastructure continues to create

better prepared for tomorrow's challenges.

value long after construction is completed.

From Building Plants to Delivering Performance

Having delivered more than 6,500 water and wastewater treatment plants across the globe, we have witnessed this transformation

The water industry is witnessing an

firsthand. The future lies not in simply

important

project

creating infrastructure, but in building

delivery. Historically, success was measured

resilient assets that consistently deliver

by engineering excellence and timely

operational

commissioning.

sustainability and long-term value.

transformation

Increasingly,

however,

success is defined by how efficiently an asset performs throughout its lifecycle. This evolution is accelerating the adoption of integrated delivery models such as

excellence,

environmental

From Automation to Operational Intelligence Technology

will

become

the

defining

Design-Build-Operate (DBO), Hybrid Annuity

differentiator over the coming decade.

Models (HAM) and long-term Operations

However, the objective is not automation for

& Maintenance (O&M) partnerships. These

its own sake. The real value of digitalisation

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

lies in reducing lifecycle costs, improving

economic value. Wastewater is no longer the

reliability and enabling better decisions.

end of the water cycle. It is the beginning of a

Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, predictive

new one.

analytics and IoT are transforming how treatment plants are designed, operated and maintained. As experienced water professionals become increasingly scarce,

The Three Pillars That Must Guide 2036

As we look towards 2036, I believe our

digitalisation will also help bridge the growing

collective efforts should be anchored on three

skills gap. By building frameworks based on

enduring principles.

reusability and repeatability, organisations can leverage the expertise of a few specialists

ʞ Conserve Water: Freshwater is finite.

across multiple projects and geographies.

Expanding water reuse and desalination

The future lies in combining human expertise

will help create dependable alternative

with digital intelligence, allowing AI to

sources while preserving rivers, lakes and

manage routine operations while engineers

groundwater for future generations.

focus on innovation, optimisation and critical decision-making.

ʞ Protect

From Wastewater Treatment to Resource Recovery The

wastewater

treatment

plants

the

Environment:

Water

infrastructure must go beyond compliance. It should recover resources, minimise pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions of

tomorrow will be fundamentally different

and maximise circularity, ensuring cleaner ecosystems and healthier communities.

from those of today. They will no longer function merely as pollution control facilities

ʞ Power

Economies:

Reliable

and

but as resource recovery centres. Modern

uninterrupted water supply is fundamental

plants are increasingly designed to recover

to economic progress. From advanced

clean water, generate renewable energy,

manufacturing

produce Bio-CNG, recover valuable nutrients

to green hydrogen, renewable energy

and minimise greenhouse gas emissions. This

and data centres, dependable water

transition reflects the broader shift towards a

infrastructure will become as critical as

Circular Water Economy, where every output

power and transportation in enabling

is viewed as a resource rather than waste.

sustainable growth.

Such an approach delivers multiple benefits simultaneously:

conserving

freshwater

and

semiconductors

The Measure of Success

resources, reducing environmental impact,

By next decade, our success should not be

improving energy efficiency and creating new

measured by the number of treatment plants

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

we commission or the kilometres of pipelines

power. The future of water will not be

we construct. It should be measured by the

defined by the infrastructure we build, but

freshwater we conserve, the wastewater

by the resilience we create. Ultimately, our

we transform into valuable resources, the

responsibility extends far beyond building

carbon emissions we avoid, the communities

plants. It is about delivering water security

we strengthen and the economies we

that lasts.

About the Author Mr Rajiv Mittal is the Chairman and Managing Director of

•Masterminded the Management Buyout of WABAG

VA TECH WABAG Limited, a pure play Water Technology

India in 2005

Indian Multinational headquartered in Chennai and

•Orchestrated historical Reverse Acquisition of erstwhile

with a global presence, focusing on emerging markets.

parent WABAG Group from Siemens in 2007

Through his professional career spanning over 4

•Successful listing on the bourses [BSE and NSE] in 2010

decades, Mr Mittal has dedicated himself to the water industry with a special focus on sustainability. His vision

Global accolades in Mr Mittal’s illustrious career:

to ensure water security and comprehensive sanitation

•Recognised among Asia’s Most Promising Business

at an affordable price in collaboration with Governments

Leaders 2025–26 by the Times Group – 2026

and Urban Local Bodies has helped transform the lives

•Top personalities to Watch by the Enterprise World

of millions across the globe.

Magazine - 2024 •Conferred with IWA Fellow by the International Water

Under his visionary leadership, WABAG:

Association - 2022

•Evolved into a true Indian multinational, ranked among

•Global Asian of the Year by AsiaOne Magazine - 2022

the Top 3 Global Water Players by GWI for benefiting

•World Top 20 Most Transformative Leaders in Water

around 96 million people globally

Sector by GWI - 2021

•Emerged as the preferred partner for achieving water

•Top 3 Most Influential Global Water leaders by WWI

sustainability, leveraging alternative water sources:

(UK) in successive years - 2017 & 2018

Desalination & Water Reuse to boost water supply

•Top 100 CEOs of India and 4th in the Infra & Engineering

•Pioneered the concept of wastewater treatment with

Sector by BT-PWC - 2018

power neutral model and re-demonstrated at the 140

•Lifetime Achievement Award by Indian Desalination

MLD sewage treatment plant under Namami Gange at

Association

Varanasi

desalination industry and entrepreneurial excellence -

•Expanded its global footprint with presence across 4

2015

continents and projects in over 25 countries

•‘Eminent Engineering Personality’ Award by the

•Reinforced its technological excellence: R&D centres in

Institution of Engineers India - 2018

India and Europe and over 125 IP Rights

for

contribution

the

water

and

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT © Médiathèque VEOLIA - Alexandre Dupeyron

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

BUILDING THE WORKFORCE FOR WATER SECURITY: THE TALENT IMPERATIVE FOR 2036 By Mrs. Anne Le Guennec, CEO Water Technologies Zone, Veolia When we talk about water security, we tend

emerging contaminants and public health

to focus on infrastructure, technology and

concerns. This gives us a clear view of what

investment. But water security depends just

lies ahead.

as much on the people who design, build and operate these systems. Who will they be in the next decade, and how do we attract and develop them?

The scale of the challenge A

generation

experienced

water

professionals is retiring, just as systems become more digital, more technical and

We are at a critical inflection point. Reliable

more complex. The skills gap is widening as

access to water is no longer guaranteed in

demand is accelerating. Today, more than 2

many regions. Water scarcity, pollution and

billion people lack access to safely managed

resource competition are intensifying, with

drinking water, and industries can incur

direct consequences for economic stability,

losses exceeding €1 million per hour when

industrial

water-related disruptions halt production.

performance

and

community

resilience. Water security has become a strategic priority for governments, businesses

and local stakeholders. It can no longer be

managers and digital experts who combine

viewed in linear terms; it must be understood

technical expertise with adaptability and

as a circular resource.

commitment. But recruiting talent is only half

need

engineers,

operators,

project

the battle; the greater challenge is retention With 215,000 experts across more than

for these essential jobs, which meet critical

50 countries, Veolia is the global leader in

needs.

environmental services and operates the world's largest water workforce. We are deploying water reuse, desalination and advanced treatment solutions that are

The skills we need — and those we don't yet know

The water sector is evolving faster than ever,

reshaping how communities and industries

making it impossible to predict with certainty

secure their water, addressing water scarcity,

which skills will be most critical in 2036. What

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

is clear is that adaptability will be the most

data-intensive work, it frees employees

valuable one.

to focus on higher-value activities such as analysis and decision-making.

We need people who can learn continuously, anticipate

To support this shift, we have developed

tomorrow’s requirements. This means moving

VeoliaSecureGPT, a secure internal platform

beyond linear career paths and creating

that gives employees access to AI tools in

environments where employees can develop,

a controlled environment. Introduced three

pivot and expand their capabilities over time.

years ago and updated annually to reflect the

It also requires breaking down silos and

latest advances in AI, it enables us to keep

encouraging collaboration across functions.

pace with best-in-class capabilities.

In the United States, for example, where

AI is not a magic bullet; it is a tool and a catalyst

the challenges facing the water sector are

that must generate measurable environmental,

particularly pressing, we have created the

operational and human value. It amplifies

Veolia Academy, a free national training

human capability rather than replacing it.

work

across

disciplines

and

initiative that prepares the next generation of water professionals.

AI as an enabler

What makes people stay

Purpose plays a critical role in attracting and retaining talent. Contributing to environmental

In this context, AI is a practical tool for

and

bridging the gap between current capabilities

preservation, reuse and desalination is a

and future needs. By handling repetitive,

strong motivator that resonates deeply with

water

security

through

resource

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT

those entering our sector. People also expect to be supported and treated with respect. They want to see clear investment in their development and a workplace where health and safety are non-negotiable.

The path forward

The next decade will place increasing pressure on resources. Water stress will intensify,

regulatory

requirements

will

tighten and technology will continue to

At Veolia, we invest in continuous development through structured training programs and tailored development plans. We also recognize that diversity strengthens our ability to respond to complex challenges. Building inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve is a priority. Through our global Veolia Cares program, all employees worldwide benefit from the same health benefits, mental health support and financial assistance, reinforcing our commitment to their wellbeing.

evolve rapidly. The systems we build must be resilient and sustainable. Meeting these challenges will depend not only on innovation, but on the people behind it. Our employees are our greatest asset. We are committed to building the talent pipeline that will secure water for the next decade and beyond. Because achieving

environmental

security

depends on the people who are building it today and those who will follow.

About the Author Anne Le Guennec joined Veolia in 1998. An engineer and

Middle East, and CEO of Veolia’s waste recycling and recovery

graduate of the University of Technology of Compiègne in

activities in France.

France, she has built a career of more than 25 years across Veolia's three core businesses — water, waste and energy —

In 2023, she was appointed CEO of Veolia’s worldwide

developing deep expertise in the Group's integrated approach

water technologies activities, a €5 billion business spanning

to environmental solutions.

more than 50 countries, and joined the Group’s Executive Committee. Under her leadership, the Water Tech zone is

Anne has held numerous operational and executive roles

positioned as a strategic growth booster, driving innovation

across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, leading major

to strengthen environmental security and tackle the world’s

business

transformation

most pressing water challenges. Anne is married and has one

initiatives, including as CEO of Enova by Veolia, a joint venture

son. She is passionate about her work and photography, and

that

enjoys running and golf.

development,

technical,

and

provides energy management services across the

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT 60

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

BRINE VALORIZATION – PARADIGM SHIFT IN DESALINATION By Mr. Nikolay Voutchkov, CEO – Water Globe Consultants, LLC Brine valorization (BV) is the next step in the evolution of desalination technology which opens a new horizon for wider use of desalination as a baseline source of drought-proof and environmentally and fiscally sustainable water supply. Over the past decade, the desalination industry has developed a number of brine concentration and mineral extraction technologies which enable the generation of commercially valuable products from brine and create four key paradigm shifts in desalination.

Paradigm Shift 1 - Integrated Desalination and Brine Mining

salts. Monovalent streams are concentrated

that produce only drinking water, BV

250,000 mg/L before crystallization. The BV

Unlike conventional desalination plants plants are designed for multi-commodity output. The process uses nanofiltration to separate monovalent and multivalent

via osmotically assisted reverse osmosis, reaching concentrations of 200,000 to system recovers nearly all minerals, returning only 14% of the volume and 8% of the mineral mass back to the sea (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Paradigm Shift 1 - Integrating Desalination and Brine Valorization Systems

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Paradigm Shift 2 - Selective SWRO Membrane System

Recently developed multifunctional mineral-selective SWRO elements combine water production with the separation of specific target minerals. These membranes use "ionophores"—specialized molecule structures—to streamline water transport and selectively concentrate specific ions (e.g., K, Li, Mg, or Rb) in the permeate. Different racks within a single SWRO system can be equipped with different selective membranes to adjust mineral production based on market demand. Figure 2 illustrates SWRO configuration with selective membranes.

Figure 2 – Paradigm Shift 2 - RO system for separation and recovery of minerals from seawater

The mineral-selective membranes open up the opportunity to harvest multiple valuable minerals from the source seawater by installing several different selective membranes in the different racks of the same SWRO system (see Figure 3).

Figure 2 – Combining Selective RO Membranes for Specific Minerals in One SWRO System

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Paradigm Shift 3 - Membrane Mineral Crystallization (MBC) The MBC system is a low-energy alternative to traditional thermal crystallizers, which use 75% to 80% of the total energy of brine valorization plant. MBC needs nearly 10 times less electrical energy than thermal

systems. It leverages forward osmosis using a highly soluble draw solution, magnesium chloride (MgCl2), to extract water from the brine and to form high-purity crystals on the membrane surface. Figure 3 summarizes the key differences between thermal and membrane crystallizers.

Figure 3 – Paradigm Shift 3 – Membrane vs. Thermal Crystallization of Minerals

Paradigm Shift 4 - Green Chemicals Production

can be used to generate chlorine dioxide

by producing necessary process chemicals

managed by balancing magnesium and

The BV system enables "circular" desalination onsite from the brine itself. Magnesium

for final disinfection, replacing externally sourced sodium chlorite. Scaling can be calcium content in the source water rather

hydroxide [Mg(OH)2]and calcium carbonate

than using costly commercial antiscalants.

[CaCO3] produced from the brine can

Figure 4 illustrates the circularity in

replace commercial coagulants used for

generating

pretreatment

chemicals from brine.

and

water

stabilization.

desalination

plant

process

Sodium chloride manufactured on-site

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Figure 4 – Paradigm Shift 4 – Generation of Desalination Plant Chemicals from Brine

Economic and Strategic Value of Brine Valorization

As seen from Figure 5, the annual revenue

fundamentally alters the financial profile

US$22 million/year compared to the value

The

integration

brine

valorization

of desalination projects. (see Figure 5). BV allows to produce high-purity sodium chloride at cost of 25 to 35 US$/dry ton of NaCl while the current market price of this salt is 65 to 120 US$/dry ton of NaCl. High purity NaCl is widely used by

from drinking desalinated water sales at typical unit cost of water of US$0.65/m3 is of high purity (99.6%) NaCl – US$65 million/ year.

Summary and Conclusions Continuous advances in membrane brine concentration and mineral crystallization

This industry

technologies over the past five years are

ultimately produces liquid PVC, which is

shifting the paradigm of desalination from

the second most important product of the

being the costliest fresh water supply

petro-chemical industry besides oil. The

technology that has the potential to

two source materials needed to produce

offset its production costs by extraction of

liquid PVC are oil and NaCl salt.

commercially viable minerals and metals

the chlor-alkali industry.

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Figure 5 – Integration of Desalination & BV Plants (Paradigm Shift 1) Offers Path to Lowest Cost of Water

The

thereby reducing the impingement and

BV technology addresses the three

entrainment of marine organisms by

main

50%.

from

the

desalination

environmental

brine. challenges

The reduction in crystallization

desalination: energy use, marine impact,

energy

and

the

elimination

and brine disposal. By operating at 86%

chemical

transportation

recovery, the BV system requires half

onsite production significantly lower

the intake water of a conventional plant,

greenhouse gas emissions.

via

"green"

About the Author Nikolay Voutchkov is Executive Director of Water Globe

project development company. Between 2019 and 2025,

Consultants, LLC (WGC) a US consulting company in the field

Mr. Voutchkov was Executive Director of the NEOM Water

of desalination, brine valorization and water reuse. For 11

Innovation Center and Senior Expert of the Saudi Water

years prior to establishing WGC, Mr. Voutchkov was Chief

Authority. He is Fellow of the Water & Energy Nexus Center of

Technology Officer of Poseidon Resources, a private US

the University of California, Irvine.

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT 66

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY: A FIRSTPERSON TECHNICAL HISTORY OF THE RED SEA–DEAD SEA AND AQABA– AMMAN DESALINATION PROJECT A technical and historical perspective based on direct project involvement spanning more than four decades. By Leon Awerbuch, CEO, International Desalination Consultancy Associates, LLC

Introduction

The project includes a seawater reverse

Minister Jafar Hassan, officially approved

providing 300 million cubic meters of drinking

The Jordanian cabinet, chaired by Prime a $203 million grant agreement with the U.S. government on March 17, 2026, to fund the Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project (AAWDCP), also known as the National Water Carrier. This critical step marks the transition to the final stages of financial closure for the project. In addition to the United States grant, financing for the AAWDCP is being supported by a consortium of international financial institutions and development agencies. The project is structured as a public-private partnership (PPP), with equity participation led by Meridiam (90%) and SUEZ (10%). The financing structure combines grants, concessional loans, development finance, commercial lending, and private equity participation.

osmosis

desalination

plant

Aqaba,

water annually and fulfilling nearly 40% of Jordan’s water needs, a 438-kilometer pipeline to convey water to Amman, and a 281 MWp solar PV power plant.

Early Conceptual Origins (1979)

Since the mid 1970s, when the Inter-Sea Project was first conceived by Israel and Jordan, the focus was on the production of electricity. Israel investigated various tentative alignments from the Mediterranean, and Jordan considered a route from the Red Sea. The origins of what is today known as the Aqaba–Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project can be traced to 1979, during discussions in Israel regarding the construction of a peaking power plant along the shores of the Dead Sea.

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

At the time, I was serving at the United States

systems, though it was ahead of its time in

Embassy in Tel Aviv as a U.S. Engineering

terms of implementation readiness.

Manager on a joint 10 million gallon per day (MGD) multi-effect distillation (MED)

The idea was pursued initially by Mekorot in

desalination project in Ashdod. While the

1982, through an SWRO desalination plant

prevailing concept focused on hydropower

utilizing hydrostatic pressure in conjunction

generation using the significant elevation

with the Inter-Sea Canal. This was followed

difference (Figure 1), I proposed an alternative

in 1993 to 1995 by the Israeli Ministry of

in a memorandum:

Energy and Infrastructure (IL-MOE), which initiated an economic reassessment of Dead

ʞ Utilize hydrostatic head to drive reverse

on a new concept of integrated production

osmosis desalination. ʞ Produce

freshwater

Sea Hydro Power (DSHP) schemes based

the

primary

objective. ʞ Recover hydraulic energy from the reject brine stream. ʞ SWRO process hydraulic losses were estimated at approximately 20 meters of head.

of desalinated water and hydropower, including alternative alignments from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.

Transfer and Expansion in Jordan (1980s–1990s) In

1995,

trilateral

Jordanian–Israeli–

American committee initiated a formal Red Sea–Dead Sea feasibility study, managed through the World Bank framework and funded by the Government of Italy. Harza Engineering Company was commissioned to perform the feasibility study, while Bechtel and Mekorot later reviewed and analyzed the resulting recommendations. In

1996,

Harza

Engineering

Company

developed a large-scale Red Sea–Dead Sea canal and tunnel concept (Figure 2): Figure 1. Sea elevation and hydrostatic head concept.

ʞ 8-meter diameter tunnel. This approach integrated desalination with

ʞ Gravity-driven conveyance.

energy recovery and anticipated later

ʞ Integrated hydropower.

developments in modern energy recovery

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Figure 2. Red Sea–Dead Sea canal and tunnel concept.

However, the design required enormous

from tunnel and canal concepts to phased

capital investment and carried substantial

pipeline systems (Figure 3).

construction and environmental risks that limited its practical feasibility. In addition, long-distance

seawater

This shift:

conveyance

through open canals introduced operational

ʞ Reduced upfront capital requirements.

challenges associated with algae growth,

ʞ Enabled staged implementation.

biofouling, water quality deterioration, and

ʞ Lowered geotechnical risk.

environmental impacts.

ʞ Improved financial feasibility.

The 1997 Bechtel Study: A Practical Reframing

The 1997 Bechtel study represented a

In 1997, I was able to secure for Bechtel the

project. By replacing the large tunnel and

review of the Harza study, commissioned by

canal concept with a phased pipeline-based

the Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation,

conveyance system, the project shifted from

Munther Haddadin. At that time, I served as

an ambitious regional vision to a technically

Bechtel Country Manager for Jordan, Israel

and

and Kuwait, based in the Cairo office, and as

program.

major inflection point in the evolution of the

financially

buildable

infrastructure

Program Manager for the study. Earlier Red Sea–Dead Sea concepts included Our work led to a fundamental restructuring,

replenishment of the Dead Sea using

with one key recommendation: a transition

seawater or desalination reject brine to

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

a parallel seawater and brine pipeline to reduce the Dead Sea decline. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on December 9, 2013 between Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel at the World Bank in Washington DC, in which all parties agreed to start implementation of the first phase of the RSDS project on a BOT basis. This was not implemented.

Figure 3. Pipeline-based conveyance replacing the large canal and tunnel concept.

partially offset the continuing decline of the lake. Current estimates indicate that the Dead Sea experiences an evaporative and hydrological deficit on the order of 700 to 800 million m³ per year, contributing to an observed lake level decline of approximately 1.0 to 1.2 meters annually. Some broader basin-wide analyses, including diversion of historic inflows and industrial consumption, place the total system water deficit at approximately 1.7 billion m³ per year (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Aqaba desalination with bypass pipeline for seawater and brine.

Evolution Toward Jordanian National Coastal Desalination

Jordan ultimately decided to pursue the project alone, as a national priority. As

The SWRO desalination and conveyance

seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) matured

configuration from Aqaba to Amman, in

in scale and efficiency, and demonstrated

the early versions around 2012, included in

its ability to deliver effective large projects

addition to the desalinated water pipeline

incorporating renewable energy in the GCC

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

region, the optimal configuration became clear: ʞ Desalinate at the coast in Aqaba. ʞ Convey treated water inland to Amman. ʞ Simplify objectives to focus on water supply reliability.

In 2023, I was selected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct a detailed technical review of a nuclear

This evolution ultimately led to the AAWDCP configuration.

desalination study prepared by the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC). The study evaluated the deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to support desalination

The AAWDCP: Project Configuration and Scale

systems, including both SWRO and Multi-

The Aqaba–Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project represents the realization of decades of technical evolution and strategic simplification. The project is being developed by a consortium led by Meridiam and SUEZ under a public-private partnership structure.

ʞ A large-scale SWRO desalination plant with a capacity of approximately 851,000 m³/day (300 million m³/year). ʞ A 438-kilometer conveyance pipeline with four pumping stations. ʞ Delivery of water to Amman at an elevation of approximately 1,000 meters. of

Effect Distillation (MED). Key conclusions included a critical and growing need for sustainable water supply in Jordan, strong technical viability of nuclearpowered desalination, and competitive longterm economics when reliability and energy security are taken into account.

Key technical characteristics include:

ʞ Integration

Integration of Nuclear Desalination: A Forward-Looking Assessment (2023)

281

MWp

solar

power component to support energy requirements. The project is expected to supply a significant share of Jordan’s municipal water demand and represents one of the largest desalination and water conveyance systems in the world.

SMR-based desalination offers continuous 24/7 energy availability, high reliability for base-load desalination, the lowest environmental footprint among firm energy sources, and the potential for hybridization with solar PV. Nuclear-powered desalination using SMRs could eventually provide Jordan with a long-term pathway toward energysecure and climate-resilient water production, independent of fossil fuel price volatility and intermittent renewable generation.

The AAWDCP: Execution Phase (2026)

The project has now reached a defining milestone:

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

ʞ Approval of a $203 million grant from the

ʞ Exploration

SMR-based

nuclear

desalination (2023).

United States. ʞ Completion of final technical and legal

The AAWDCP represents the convergence

agreements. ʞ Anticipated financial close in Q3 2026.

of these developments into a practical and

ʞ Expected operational date: 2029.

executable solution. Looking forward, the

ʞ Project metrics:

integration of nuclear desalination technologies

ʞ Capital cost: approximately $4.3 billion.

offers a pathway to further strengthen long-

ʞ Lifetime cost: approximately $5.8 billion.

term water and energy security in Jordan.

Conclusion

The AAWDCP demonstrates how long-term

Over more than four decades, this project

infrastructure

has evolved through continuous technical

successive

refinement:

desalination technology, economics, and

ʞ Integration of desalination and energy

regional cooperation. What began as a

concepts advances

hydropower-oriented

concepts (1979). ʞ Transition from tunnel and canal to pipeline

evolve in

through

engineering,

inter-sea

concept

has now matured into one of the world’s largest integrated desalination and water

systems (1997). ʞ Adoption of coastal SWRO desalination.

conveyance projects.

About the Author Mr. Leon Awerbuch is President and Chief Technology

the Association: co-author of the IDRA Constitution,

Officer of Leading Edge Technologies Ltd. (LET), Leon

President from 1989 to 1991, Chairman of six World

Awerbuch has worked in desalination for more than 40

Congresses, head of IDRA's Technical Programs for 22

years, including 35 years at Bechtel leading desalination

years, and today a Director of the Association and Dean

R&D, design, engineering and EPC programmes. He

of the IDRA Desalination Academy. He received IDRA's

holds 28 patents and has published over 90 technical

Life Recognition Award at the 2007 World Congress in

papers. His service to IDRA spans almost the life of

Gran Canaria.

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT 74

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

WHY AI ADOPTION STALLS IN WATER OPERATIONS By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts A water organization can buy an impressive artificial intelligence system, run a successful pilot, and still receive little operational value. The missing ingredient usually has less to do with model performance than with whether people incorporate the tool into real decisions. The Water Research Foundation has invested in an AI adoption framework for water and wastewater utilities, while a separate foundation project warns that rapid AI advances often outpace real-world implementation in water operations. The sector increasingly understands the technical opportunity. The harder question concerns human behavior. That distinction matters across desalination,

a platform, searches for use cases, and asks

water reuse, and advanced treatment.

employees to adapt. That sequence reverses

A forecasting tool, digital twin, anomaly

the logic of adoption. The Water Research

detector, or generative AI assistant produces

Foundation’s work on intelligent water

value only when engineers, operators,

systems emphasizes a maturity framework

maintenance teams, and managers trust

that embeds digital tools in everyday utility

it enough to use it, understand its limits,

practices, which makes workflow redesign

and know who remains accountable. The

central to the transformation.

World Bank’s Digital Water program treats digital transformation as an organizational

A stronger approach begins with operational

challenge involving governance, human

friction. Where do teams lose time, repeat

resources, skills, cybersecurity, and culture.

analysis, struggle to retrieve procedures,

That framing points toward the core problem.

miss early warning signs, or hand off

Water organizations often manage AI as a

incomplete information? Leaders should

technology installation when they need to

select one recurring problem, map the

manage it as a change in work.

current process, and then decide whether

The Technology-First Trap

AI can improve a specific decision or task. A narrowly defined tool for shift handoffs,

Many AI efforts begin with a vendor

maintenance preparation, alarm review,

demonstration or a senior leader’s mandate

membrane-cleaning analysis, or technical

to “do something with AI.” The team selects

document retrieval gives employees a clear

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Operational

practical case for frontline adoption through

Leaders sometimes interpret skepticism

participation must carry real influence.

Operator Trust Infrastructure

as resistance to innovation. Operators may instead be applying the caution that keeps critical systems reliable. Research on operator trust helps explain the dynamic. People often lose confidence in an algorithm more quickly after seeing it make a mistake, even when the algorithm performs better overall than a human forecaster. In a water setting, one visible error can therefore define the tool’s

involvement rather than persuasion. Yet Research on employee participation during organizational change found that tightly controlled participation can create new resistance when employees feel leaders invited feedback without allowing it to affect the change. Plant teams need permission to say that a recommendation looks wrong, that the

reputation long after developers correct it.

underlying data seem weak, or that the tool adds

Trust grows when employees can test the

Business School research on psychological

system, challenge its outputs, and see how

safety and learning shows why speaking up

the organization responds when it fails. OECD

matters in uncertain work. Leaders build trust

workplace research found that training and

by rewarding careful challenges, reviewing

worker consultation were associated with

overrides without blame, and treating near

better employee outcomes, supporting a

misses as learning opportunities.

steps without improving the outcome. Harvard

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

Fear of Replacement Adoption

Distorts

Employees also evaluate what AI means for their status, expertise, and future. General workplace surveys show persistent job-loss concerns around AI, even when workers report performance benefits. Research on organizational change also found that greater job security reduced resistance through stronger commitment to the change. Water leaders should address that concern directly.

They

should

explain

which

responsibilities remain human, which repetitive tasks the tool may reduce, how the organization will use saved time, and what new skills employees can develop. Vague assurances invite suspicion. Specific commitments give employees something concrete to evaluate and a basis for trust. The goal should involve making expertise more scalable, rather than making experts feel disposable.

Governance Cannot Wait Until Deployment Some

organizations

delay

governance

because they fear slowing innovation. That choice can slow adoption instead. Employees hesitate when they cannot tell who owns the output, what data the system uses, when they may override it, or who carries responsibility after an error. The NIST framework makes AI governance a continuous function that connects technical design with organizational values, roles, training, documentation, and accountability.

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

For a water organization, governance should

teach detection, decision, and documentation,

distinguish among decisions an AI system

rather than a menu of features.

may inform, recommend, approve, or execute. It should define acceptable data sources, testing thresholds, escalation paths, fallback

Pilots Often Hide Weak Adoption

A pilot can meet every technical target while

procedures, and review schedules. NIST also

revealing little about whether the organization

highlights the need to define roles for human

can sustain the change. Leaders frequently

oversight in real operating environments.

measure accuracy, speed, or projected

Clear boundaries can support adoption

savings

because employees know where the tool’s

workflow penetration, override patterns, error

authority ends and their own judgment

reporting, and employee confidence. Those

begins.

behavioral indicators show whether the tool

Training Must Follow the Work

A product demonstration shows what a tool can do. Adoption training shows how a person should use it during a real shift, project, or decision. The Water Research Foundation is developing guidance to equip the water workforce with the skills, policies, procedures, and tools needed for technology-enabled decisions. That combination matters. Skills without procedures create inconsistency,

while

ignoring

repeat

usage,

has become part of the operation.

The water sector does not lack promising AI applications. It lacks enough adoption systems that connect technology with trust, workflow, governance, and professional identity.

while procedures without practice create compliance on paper. Water

organizations

should

begin

The World Bank’s utility program uses

shadow mode, with the AI producing

readiness assessments, tailored instruction,

recommendations

and peer learning to support practical digital

retain full control. Teams can compare

training. Water organizations can apply the

recommendations with actual decisions,

same logic by training employees inside the

investigate disagreements, and improve

target workflow. Ask them to compare the

both the system and the workflow. A Water

AI output with their own judgment, identify

Research

failure modes, document a challenge, and

DC Water and HRSD describes advanced

practice the fallback process. Training should

systems as a way of augmenting human

while

Foundation

project

employees

involving

TECHNICAL VIEWPOINT

expertise, which offers the right standard

used in the World Bank’s digital water

for any form of control room AI. The system

journey. It also fits the human-centered

should make qualified people more capable

frameworks behind my work on responsible

before anyone considers increasing its

AI adoption at work. People support change

autonomy.

when leaders give them a meaningful role,

A Better Adoption Sequence

Start with one painful workflow and one

credible safeguards, useful training, and evidence that the new process improves their work.

accountable owner. Bring experienced users into design before configuration hardens.

The water sector does not lack promising

Define the decisions the tool may influence

AI applications. It lacks enough adoption

and the decisions people must retain. Test in

systems

shadow mode. Review errors, overrides, and

with trust, workflow, governance, and

unexpected behavior with the frontline team.

professional

Train employees on the revised workflow.

treat operators as co-designers, clarify

Measure both operational performance and

human authority, and measure behavior

actual use. Scale only after the organization

alongside performance, AI can move from

can explain why the tool works, where it fails,

a successful demonstration to dependable

and how employees should respond.

daily practice. That transition, rather

that

connect

identity.

technology

When

leaders

than the sophistication of the model, will This sequence resembles the maturity

determine whether water organizations

assessments and customized roadmaps

capture lasting value from AI.

About the Author Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral scientist called the

AI consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, and wrote

“Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, helps tech-

eight books, including The Psychology of AI Adoption

forward leaders stop overpaying for AI while boosting

at Work: From Resistance to Results (Georgetown

engagement and innovation. He serves as the CEO of the

University Press, 2026).

The Kingdom and the Vision 2030 and Beyond: Saudi Water in the 21st Century PART 2 OF THE KINGDOM AND THE SEA Part 1 told the story of how a salvaged condenser on a Jeddah beach grew into the largest desalination enterprise on earth. Part 2 is the story of what happened next: how the Kingdom rebuilt the model that built the Kingdom.

The Kingdom and the Sea

By the year 2000, Saudi Arabia had solved a problem no nation had solved at such scale. It manufactured its own water. But the machine that performed this feat was showing its age. It was state-owned, thermally driven, and powered by burning hydrocarbons that carried a rising cost, both economic and environmental. The population was climbing toward 40 million. Riyadh alone would grow to seven million people, all of them living more than 400 kilometers from the nearest coastline. The question of the twentieth century had been whether the sea could sustain a nation. The question of the twenty-first would be whether the model could sustain itself. The first answer came quietly, in the language of contracts rather than concrete. In 2002, a government resolution established a framework for private participation in water and power, and in 2003 a new company was created as a joint venture between the Saline Water Conversion Corporation and the Saudi Electricity Company. Its job was unglamorous but pivotal: to buy water and electricity from privately built plants and sell them onward. The Water and Electricity Company, as it was then called, was the thin end of a very large wedge. The first wave of independent water and power projects followed at Shuaibah, Jubail, and Shuqaiq, coming online at the end of the decade. For the first time since the Kingdom's earliest distillation units were commissioned in the 1920s, water infrastructure was being financed by someone other than the state. The state, meanwhile, was still building at a scale nobody else could match. In 2014, SWCC brought online Ras Al-Khair on the Gulf coast, a $7.2 billion complex producing more than a million cubic meters of water a day alongside 2,400 megawatts of power, the largest hybrid desalination plant ever constructed. It was a

monument to the old model at the very moment the old model was about to be retired. In April 2016, the Kingdom announced Vision 2030, a national transformation program that reimagined the role of private capital in every sector of the Saudi economy. Water was no exception. In 2017, a Cabinet resolution transferred the offtaker company to the Ministry of Finance and expanded its mandate to cover every form of water in the Kingdom: desalinated, treated, untreated, and purified. Renamed the Saudi Water Partnership Company, it became the single buyer at the center of an entirely new market. The National Water Strategy 2030 that followed set the targets: private delivery of new capacity, a circular water economy reusing the great majority of treated wastewater, and more than SR204 billion, some $64 billion, in private investment across five asset classes by the end of the decade.

A century and two decades after a salvaged condenser was dragged ashore at Jeddah, a plant up the same coast was producing drinking water for less energy than any facility in history. What happened next was less a policy shift than a technological rout. For fifty years, the workhorse of Saudi desalination had been multi-stage flash distillation, the thermal process that boiled the sea using fuel the Kingdom had in abundance. But membranes had been improving relentlessly since the Jeddah reverse osmosis plant of 1979

The Kingdom and the Sea

confirmed that RO could beat thermal on cost. Now the gap became a chasm. Reverse osmosis required a fraction of the energy, and energy was the entire economics of desalination. Thermal plants began to be decommissioned or converted, and every new plant tendered was a membrane plant. The numbers tell the story with unusual clarity. According to the Saudi Water Authority, conventional desalination facilities typically consume between four and five kilowatt-hours of electricity for every cubic meter of water they produce. In March 2021, Guinness World Records verified that a compact SWCC reverse osmosis unit at Jubail had cut that figure to 2.271. The record then passed to the Shuaibah 5 plant on the Red Sea coast at 1.7 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter. On 2 February 2026, a mobile reverse osmosis unit within the Yanbu production system recorded 1.55 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter, verified by Guinness World Records as the lowest energy consumption for a reverse osmosis water separation step. The unit produces 20,000 cubic meters a day within a footprint of less than 3,000 square meters. A century and two

decades after a salvaged condenser was dragged ashore at Jeddah, a plant up the same coast was setting the global benchmark for efficiency. The private market matured just as quickly. The Jubail 3A plant, the first in the Kingdom to integrate solar photovoltaic power directly into a desalination project, was completed in 27 months and delivered water at a tariff of $0.41 per cubic meter, among the lowest ever recorded anywhere. Solar arrays followed at Jubail 3B, Shuaibah, and Rabigh 4, and energy caps became standard clauses in tenders. The sector that had once been the Kingdom's most conspicuous consumer of hydrocarbons was becoming one of its proving grounds for renewables. And the partnership model kept expanding into asset classes nobody had thought to privatize. The Rayis-Yanbu pipeline, commissioned in 2024, became the Kingdom's first independent water transmission project: 42 kilometers of privately financed conveyance moving 630,000 cubic meters a day. The audacity of the 1983 Riyadh Water Transmission System, twin pipelines carrying 830,000 cubic meters a

The Kingdom and the Sea

day across 467 kilometers of open desert, had become a repeatable commercial product. Near Makkah, the Juranah reservoir became the first privately financed strategic water storage facility in the country, 2.5 million cubic meters held in reserve for the residents of the Holy City and the pilgrims who swell its population every year. A century after the Kingdom's first distillation units were ordered so that arriving pilgrims could drink, the Hajj was still shaping Saudi water infrastructure. Only the financing had changed. The deepest transformation, though, was institutional. In 2022, the Cabinet directed that SWCC's production assets be transferred to the Water Solutions Company, owned by the Public Investment Fund, with transmission assets corporatized separately. Then, on 7 May 2024, in the fiftieth year since the royal decree that created it, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation ceased to exist as an operator. Cabinet Resolution 918 transformed it into the Saudi Water Authority, the Kingdom's regulator, planner, and guardian of water security. The institution built to desalinate seawater and pump it to every region of the Kingdom had completed its mandate so thoroughly that its final act was to hand the machinery to others and become the referee.

Its final act was to hand the machinery to others and become the referee. Consider what that half-century delivered. An organization founded in 1974 to run a handful of coastal plants ended its operational life as the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, responsible for roughly a fifth of global output, supplying a nation of more than 30 million people in which, according to the Saudi

The Kingdom and the Sea

Water Authority, some 70 percent of drinking water comes from the sea. It held Guinness World Records for scale and then, in its final years, added records for efficiency. It trained the engineers, filed the patents, and built the research institutes that now push the technology forward. And it did all of this while the water kept flowing, every day, without interruption, to cities that would die without it. The Kingdom's leadership of the international community deepened along the same arc. The association established in 1973, and reconstituted in its modern form on the first day of 1985, had grown into the International Desalination and Reuse Association, the global home of the industry Saudi Arabia had done more than any nation to build. Saudi figures helped shape it from the outset. In November 2026, forty-one years after the first IDA World Congress convened in Bermuda, the Congress comes to Riyadh for the first time, hosted by the Saudi Water Authority under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture. The international community that Saudi representatives first addressed in the mid-1970s is coming to the Kingdom that helped make it a global movement. There is unfinished business, and the Saudis are candid about it. Demand keeps rising. The National Water Strategy targets a near doubling of independent desalination capacity by the early

2030s, alongside vast expansions in transmission, storage, and wastewater treatment. Reuse remains the sector's next frontier: the strategy calls for treating and reusing the great majority of the Kingdom's wastewater, converting what was once discharge into a resource for industry and agriculture. The transfer of production assets to the Water Solutions Company continues. And the ambition to lead in technology, not merely scale, will be tested every year as membranes, energy recovery, and brine valorization advance worldwide. But step back far enough, and the through-line from 1907 holds. A city that could not water its pilgrims turned to the sea because there was nothing else to turn to. A young Kingdom decided that water security and national survival were the same thing, and never once changed its mind. It built with oil money when oil money was the tool available, and it rebuilt with private capital, membranes, and sunlight when those became the better tools. The constant was never the technology or the financing. It was the conviction. The old Kandasa broke down within two decades of coming ashore. The idea it planted has now outlasted a century, two industrial revolutions in desalination, and the complete reinvention of the institutions built to carry it. In a land without freshwater, the sea itself was the solution. It still is.

Sources and Acknowledgements This article draws on documentation from the Saudi Water Authority, including Cabinet Resolution No. 918 (1445H) and The Journey of Desalination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SWA / King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives); the Saudi Press Agency; Guinness World Records verifications of 2021 and 2026; Sharakat (formerly the Saudi Water Partnership Company) project and strategy publications; the National Water Strategy 2030 and Saudi Vision 2030 program documents; the General Authority for Statistics; ILF Consulting Engineers project records; IDRA institutional history; and reporting by MEED, Arab News, and Smart Water Magazine.

GLOBAL PRIZE FOR INNOVATION IN WATER

FROM SAUDI ARABIA TO THE WORLD Fourth Edition, 2026 An international platform established by the Saudi Water Authority to identify, celebrate, and accelerate breakthrough solutions to the world's most urgent water challenges.

2.1 B

people still lack access to safe drinking water

20-30%

projected rise in global water demand by 2050

Solving this demands bold innovation, global collaboration, and urgent investment at the scale of the challenge itself.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

A prize built to carry solutions into the field The Global Prize for Innovation in Water was established by the Saudi Water Authority in 2023 and is now in its fourth edition. It takes work at any stage, from a proof of concept in a university lab to technology already running at full scale. Applications close on 30 September and are reviewed in three stages, ending with a board jury. Cash awards run up to $100,000. Grand Prize winners and selected Impact Medal winners also receive up to $250,000 in piloting funding, which pays for the step most awards ignore: getting a proven idea into operation.

$2M+

awarded to 35 winners across three editions

THE AWARDS TRUCTURE

Covering solutions across the full value chain Track A · TRL 1–3

Track B · TRL 4–7

Track C · TRL 8–9

Early-stage research, concepts, and proof of concept

Prototypes, pilots, and pre-commercial deployment

Proven, deployed innovations, Special Mentions

SIX CATEGORIES ACROSS THE WATER SPECTRUM 1

Advanced Water Production and Desalination

Water Reclamation, Circular Economy, and Zero Liquid Discharge

Water Efficiency, Conservation, and Consumption Management

Digitalization, Automation, and Smart Water Management

Environmental Sustainability and Water Resource Conservation

Accessible and Cost-Effective Wastewater Solutions

Awards that accelerate impact GRAND PRIZES

IMPACT MEDALS

One for Track A (TRL 1–3) and one for Track B (TRL 4–7)

Six in Track A and six in Track B, across the six categories

2X $100K

12 × $50K

SPECIAL MENTIONS

PILOTING SUPPORT

Non-monetary recognition under Track C (TRL 8–9), with certificate

Post-award piloting for Grand Prize and select Impact Medal winners

Up to 6

Full timeline, entry steps, and contacts on the facing page.

Up to $250K

gpiw.net

ROADTOJEDDAH,2026EDITION

Join us in shaping the future of water Jun 4 to Sep 30 Application period

Oct 1 to 10

Initial evaluation

Oct 10 to 31

Technical evaluation and shortlist

Nov 1 to Dec 7

Dec 14

Board jury evaluation

Winners announced

APPLY IN FOUR STEPS

Create your account on gpiw.net

Begin a new submission online

Work through six sections, save as draft

Send your application by September 30

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A stage in Jeddah Attend the IDWS Conference among global leaderst

Funding and pilot support Up to $100K in prizes plus up to $250K to pilot and scale

A global ecosystem

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Connect with investors, policymakers, and institutions

Recognition before an international audience

DON'T MISS, APPLICATIONS CLOSE

30 September 2026 Award Ceremony at IDWS Conference 14 to 16 December 2026, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia gpiw.net Apply and learn more

Stella Chen stella.chen@gpiw.net

Arianna Basso arianna.basso@gpiw.net

Scan to apply

Three months from now, the global water community converges on Riyadh. Under the theme Driving Global Water Sustainability Through Innovation, the IDRA World Congress 2026 brings together the experts, decision-makers, and innovators building the future of desalination and water reuse, in the country building it at national scale.

Under the Patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture

Hosted and Organized by

THREE MONTHS TO RIYADH: THE IDRA WORLD CONGRESS 2026 IS SET November 1-5, 2026 The IDRA World Congress is three months away. The program is set, registration is open, and delegations from more than 60 countries are confirming their place. If you work in desalination, water reuse, or the wider water economy, Riyadh this November is where the year's most important water solutions conversations happen.

The peer-reviewed technical program is selected: more than 200 presentations across four daily parallel theaters.

The thematic program is built, running from the opening plenaries through the Global Water Thought Leadership Summit to the closing business forum.

Installed desalination capacity has grown 40%

The Water Regulation Forum has its

since 2020. Global water reuse capacity has

full-day agenda.

surged 52% over the same period. The market is in its fastest growth phase in history, and the policy, financing, and regulatory decisions needed to sustain that growth are all coming due at once. From November 1-5, 2026, the people making

More than 150 speakers across more than 120

those decisions will be in Riyadh.

organizations have already been announced, spanning

This is the first time the World Congress has been held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer of desalinated water and home to one of the most ambitious national water transformation programs on the planet. Delegates will be in a country building water infrastructure on an unprecedented, national scale.

From Taking Shape to Set

When we last wrote about the Congress in these pages, the program was taking shape. It is now set.

utilities,

developers,

regulators,

technology leaders, financiers, and the research institutions defining what comes next, with more announcements to follow through the countdown. The exhibition spans two hall, and we have sold out our first allocation. We are currently sourcing more space, as we have potential exhibitors enquiring. The sponsors page of this magazine tells its own story about the confidence the sector has placed in this edition. We are thankful for the trust and support of each of these organizations, and we look forward to a Congress that surpasses every expectation.

Five Days, One Venue, Unmatched Depth The Congress will be held at the King Faisal

pre-Congress workshops including the second

Convention

Riyadh,

edition of the Global Desalination Hackathon, the

bringing everything under one roof: the technical

Majlis Theater discussion program, two exhibition

and thematic programs, the Water Regulation

halls, the awards programs, and a social calendar

Forum, the Global Water Thought Leadership

built for the connections that outlast the week.

Center,

InterContinental

Summit, the Doing Business in Saudi Arabia forum,

Saturday, October 31

Sunday, November 1

Monday, November 2

Tuesday, November 3

Wednesday, November 4

Thursday, November 5

Exhibitor Registration Open and IDRA Golf Tournament

brings the Opening Ceremony, the opening of the exhibition, and the first full day of thematic and technical sessions, plus the Majlis Discussion Forum.

runs thematic and technical sessions alongside the exhibition through the day and closes with the Gala Dinner and the Industry and Sustainability Awards Ceremony.

Two Landmark Gatherings, One Month Apart

The timing is rare. Weeks after Riyadh closes, the 2026 United Nations Water Conference convenes in Abu Dhabi from December 8-10, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal: only the second UN Water Conference since 1977. Two defining gatherings, in the same region, with deeply overlapping communities, inside a single month. For the global water sector, November and December 2026 may be the most consequential weeks in a generation. IDRA, a trusted partner of the United Nations, has been engaged in the UN Water preparatory process throughout 2026.

opens the full-day Water Regulation Forum, training courses and pre-Congress workshops.

is headlined by the Global Water Thought Leadership Summit alongside the continuing technical program, and the exhibition.

hosts the Doing Business in Saudi Arabia business forum, the final technical sessions, and the Closing Luncheon with the Technical Program Awards Ceremony.

The Countdown Is On

Registration is open. The program is set. Exhibition and sponsorship positions are filling. Three months out, the only question left is whether you will be in the room. Riyadh is ready, are you? For registration, exhibition, sponsorship, and program information, visit idraworldcongress.org

SPONSORS CONFIRMED

The IDRA World Congress 2026 has secured commitments from leading organizations across the sector. Exclusive Titanium Sponsor

Exclusive Leaders Summit Diamond Sponsor

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsor

Innovation Sponsors

I&S Awards Sponsors

Leaders Summit Reception Sponsor

Thematic Sessions Sponsor

Leaders Summit Sessions Sponsor

Best Paper Awards Sponsor

IDRA is grateful for the confidence and commitment of each of these partners. Additional sponsorship opportunities remain available. Contact the Congress team for the full prospectus at sponsorships@idrawater.org.

THE PROGRAM IS SELECTED: THE TECHNICAL HEART OF WC26 More than 200 peer-reviewed presentations. Four daily parallel theaters. Delegates from more than 60 countries. The technical program of the IDRA World Congress 2026 is selected. The technical program has always been the backbone of the IDRA World Congress. It is where the science meets the engineering, where operational lessons are shared openly, and where the research shaping the next decade of desalination and water reuse is presented, challenged, and refined by peers. In Riyadh, that tradition continues at a scale that reflects the growth of the sector itself.

From 300 Submissions 200+ Presentations

The response to the call for extended abstracts told the story of the sector's global reach: more than 300 submissions from 184 organizations across 48 countries. That geographic spread means the program reflects not just the established desalination markets of the Gulf, Europe, and North America, but also the rapidly growing reuse and treatment sectors in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where water stress is intensifying and the demand for practical, deployable solutions is most urgent. Every submission passed through rigorous blind peer review by a panel of more than

60 expert reviewers drawn from across the global water sector. The result is a selected program of more than 200 presentations: the latest research and operating experience, chosen on merit, presented to the people who can act on it.

Four Days, Four Theaters

The technical program runs across four full days in four parallel theaters, giving delegates a dense, varied schedule and the freedom to move between topics according to their interests and expertise. Accepted authors present their work to an audience of scientists, engineers, policymakers, utility leaders, developers, and technology providers from more than 60 countries. Parallel technical deep-dives in the Majlis Theater extend the program further, including a dedicated session on brine valorization, advanced materials, and resource recovery. Technical Program Awards will be presented at the Closing Luncheon on the final day, recognizing the highest-quality contributions.

The Committee Behind the Program

The Technical Program Committee, responsible for shaping the overall program architecture, is co-chaired by distinguished professionals from industry and the host nation:

Mohammed Al Sheikh

Constanze Simmermacher

Global Principal for Desalination and Membrane Treatment

Deputy President for Local Content and Strategic Partnerships

Jacobs

Marshall Davert

Jantje Johnson

President and Founder

Executive General Manager, Pre-Contracts

OrangeBoat

Abergeldie Complex Infrastructure

Saudi Water Authority

Yvan Treal

Hoon Hyung

Commercial Coordination Director

Chief Executive Officer

SUEZ Engineering and Construction

NanoH20

Together with the broader committee and topic co-chairs, they have built a program that balances technical depth with practical relevance, ensuring the work presented in Riyadh speaks to both the research frontier and the operational realities of delivering water infrastructure at scale.

The Technical Topic Chairs

Topic 1

Eng. Tariq AlGhaffari

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3

Dr. Georg Herborg

H.H. Dr. Khaled Bin Bader Bin Salman

Mr. Mounib Hatab

Head of Innovation

Prof. David Warsinger

Dr. Fawaz AlGhamdi

Vice President of

Danfoss High Pressure

Associate Professor

Director, Institute for

to the CEO

Executive Director

Research & Promising

Pumps

of Mechanical

Water Management

Amiantit

Saudi Water Academy

Technologies

Engineering - School

and Treatment

Saudi Water Authority

of Mechanical

King Abdulaziz City for

Engineering

Science and Technology

Purdue University

KACST

Topic 4

Mr. Alistair Munro

Commercial Advisor

Topic 4

Topic 5

Topic 6

Topic 3

Dr. Tariq Nada

Dr. Abdulaziz AlQahtani

Mr. Gerry O’Toole Market Leader, Water

Eng. Mohammed AlQahtani

CEO

CTO

Mrs. Veronica Garcia Molina

Ryse Energy

ACWA

Senior Director, Reuse

Director General,

& Environment

Executive Director -

/ Food & Beverage

Water Studies and

Jacobs

IWPs & IWTPs Project

Xylem

Modeling

Delivery

Ministry of Environment,

Sharakat

Water and Agriculture

Six Topics, 40 Subtopics

The program is structured around six main topics that reflect the full breadth of the sector's current priorities.

Research and Innovation

covers the fundamental science driving the next generation of desalination and reuse technologies: material selection for robust and efficient systems, advances in membrane science, engineering optimization in plant design and process, intake and outfall systems, pre-treatment and post-treatment, and novel approaches and case studies in desalination and water reuse.

Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence

and

examines how AI, machine learning, digital twins, and smart sensing are reshaping how water systems are designed, operated, and optimized: smart infrastructure and metering, usage optimization, data-driven decision support, smart water management across treatment and distribution, non-revenue water reduction and leak detection, and cybersecurity and data governance in water systems.

Direct and Indirect Potable Reuse Regulations

addresses the governance frameworks that will determine how quickly potable reuse can scale globally: contaminants of emerging concern including PFAS and micro-plastics, indirect versus direct potable reuse, cost-effective detection and measurement, and how regulations and permitting differ across and within countries.

Circular Water Economy and Net Zero, Environmental Sustainability and Climate Adaptation addresses the intersection of water infrastructure and the broader sustainability agenda: water footprint assessment, stewardship and protection of water sources, closed loop water systems, zero liquid discharge and brine valorization, sludge treatment and disposal, long-term environmental impacts of brine discharge, environmental impact assessments, and water solutions in the oil and gas industry.

Energy and Energy Efficiency

focuses on the critical relationship between water production and energy consumption: solar, wind, wave, salinity gradient, hydropower and gravity-based systems, geothermal applications, nuclear power in water treatment, hybrid renewable projects, mega projects leveraging renewable energy, breakthroughs in energy recovery, energy and chemical efficiency optimization, hydrogen transition, and pathways to carbon neutrality in the water sector.

Project Implementation, Success Stories and Lessons Learned is where the real-world experience lives: seawater desalination, reuse for industry and irrigation, industrial water treatment across microelectronics, mining, pharmaceutical, oil and gas and chemicals, food and beverage water innovation, and building water security for cities and rural communities.

What This Program Represents A peer-reviewed technical program of this scale is the product of hundreds of hours of volunteer work by committee members, reviewers, and session chairs. It represents the collective knowledge of a global community that is growing rapidly, both in size and in the sophistication of its work. For

delegates

deciding

whether

attend,

the technical program alone makes the case. This is where the most important research and operational insights in desalination and water reuse will be presented this year. If your work touches this sector, this is the room to be in. The full technical program is published at idraworldcongress.org.

SAUDI WATER AUTHORITY LAUNCHES GLOBAL WATER REGULATION FORUM TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF WATER GOVERNANCE WITH IDRA AS STRATEGIC PARTNER A new annual global platform established by the Saudi Water Authority, with the International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA) as Strategic Partner, to debut alongside the IDRA World Congress 2026 in Riyadh from 1–5 November.

As water security becomes one of the world’s

Congress 2026, hosted by SWA in Riyadh from 1 to

defining challenges, effective regulation has

5 November under the patronage of the Ministry of

emerged as a critical enabler of resilient and

Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA).

sustainable water systems. The Forum brings together water regulators, Responding to that need, the Saudi Water Authority

policymakers, and industry leaders to advance

(SWA), with the International Desalination and

regulatory excellence and foster international

Reuse Association as the Strategic Partner,

collaboration. It serves as a premier venue for the

has established the Water Regulation Forum,

exchange of best practices in policy and legislative

a new annual global platform dedicated to

development,

advancing regulatory excellence and international

regulatory frameworks, and the strengthening of

cooperation across the water sector.

governance across the global water sector.

The inaugural one-day edition of the Forum will take

Saudi Arabia offers a fitting home for the Forum.

place on November 1, alongside the IDRA World

The Kingdom operates one of the world’s largest

the

promotion

innovative

integrated water systems and is the world’s

never mattered more. As Strategic Partner, IDRA

largest producer of desalinated water, accounting

is proud to help build the Water Regulation Forum

for more than 22 percent of global desalination

alongside the Saudi Water Authority, and to bring

capacity. It produces over 16.2 million cubic meters

together the regulators and decision-makers who

of water every day, delivered through a network

will shape the future of the sector."

exceeding 14,000 kilometers of transmission pipelines. This scale, built in a country with no

The launch of the Forum comes at a pivotal

perennial rivers and among the world’s lowest

moment

levels of renewable freshwater resources, has

countries expand desalination, scale water

positioned the Kingdom as a global reference for

reuse, respond to climate pressures, encourage

large-scale water management.

private-sector

for

the

global

water

participation,

and

sector.

accelerate

digital transformation, effective regulation has H.E.

Abdullah

bin

Ibrahim

Al-Abdulkarim,

become increasingly essential.

President, Saudi Water Authority, said: The Forum will focus on five priority themes:

“The Kingdom has built one of the world’s most advanced and integrated water systems, and with that comes a responsibility to share what we have learned. The Water Regulation Forum reflects Saudi Arabia’s commitment to strengthening international cooperation and bringing together the global regulatory community to exchange

ʟ ʟ ʟ ʟ ʟ

International best practices in water regulation. Policy, legislation, and sustainable sector regulation. Innovation and digital transformation. Integrated water resources governance. Operational efficiency and service reliability.

knowledge and advance the governance that underpins water security worldwide.”

The initiative reflects Saudi Vision 2030’s ambition to position the Kingdom as a global leader in water

As the Strategic Partner, IDRA brings its global

innovation, sustainability, and governance.

network of water leaders, its technical depth across desalination, reuse, and governance, and

By convening the world’s regulatory community in

its international convening power to the Forum.

Riyadh, the Saudi Water Authority is establishing a

Working alongside the Saudi Water Authority,

premier international platform for the exchange of

IDRA helps shape the Forum's agenda, connect

knowledge, solutions, and expertise that will shape

the world's regulators and decision-makers, and

the future of water regulation and governance

establish it as the leading global platform for

worldwide.

water regulation. The IDRA World Congress 2026 will take place Shannon McCarthy, Secretary General, IDRA,

from 1–5 November 2026 at the King Faisal

said: "Regulation

Convention

where

water

solutions

Center,

InterContinental

Riyadh.

succeed or stall. As the world scales desalination

Registration and further information are available

and reuse, the frameworks that govern them have

at idraworldcongress.org.

DOING BUSINESS IN SAUDI ARABIA: VISION 2030 AND BEYOND Thursday, November 5, 2026 The Congress closes the way the Kingdom's water sector operates: with business. A high-level half-day forum gives international companies, investors, technology providers, EPC contractors, manufacturers, and infrastructure developers direct access to the people shaping the world's most ambitious water market. Organized by SWA, IDRA, Sharakat and Synergy Consulting, the forum provides strategic insight into opportunities in the Saudi water sector as the Kingdom advances toward Vision 2030 and its long-term water security and economic diversification goals beyond it. The program focuses on project pipelines, localization strategies, industrial investment, financing, public-private partnerships, innovation, and successful case studies, while facilitating direct engagement with Saudi ministries, authorities, utilities, investors, and leading international water organizations.

The Morning, Session

Session

Saudi Water Market Outlook and Strategic Project Pipeline. Upcoming desalination and reuse projects, strategic transmission and storage infrastructure, industrial and mining water demand, renewable-powered desalination, and the procurement and PPP opportunities behind them. Localization,

Manufacturing

and

Industrial

Growth Opportunities. In-country manufacturing incentives, localization requirements and procurement frameworks, joint ventures and technology transfer, industrial cluster development, and workforce development, with focus sectors

Curated in Partnership with

spanning membranes, pumps and rotating equipment, pipes and valves, chemicals and treatment systems, and digital water technologies. Financing, PPPs, and International Investment Opportunities. Infrastructure financing models, PPP frameworks and tendering, sovereign and private investment, export credit and investment support, blended and development finance, and the long-term investment outlook beyond 2030. International

Case

Studies

and

Strategic

Partnerships. Localization success stories, international-Saudi joint ventures, renewable desalination projects, water reuse implementation, and the practical lessons of scaling operations in the Kingdom. The forum concludes with an executive roundtable, "Positioning Saudi Arabia as a Global Water Innovation Hub Beyond 2030," before the Congress recap and the Closing Luncheon, where the Technical Program Awards Ceremony and facilitated VIP B2B networking send delegates home with recognition and new connections. If your organization is evaluating entry into the Saudi water market, or expansion within it, this is the most concentrated half day of access the sector offers.

WHAT THE SCIENCE MAKES POSSIBLE: THE THEMATIC PROGRAM The technical program is where the science lives. The thematic program is where the strategy, policy, capital, and leadership questions that surround it get answered, across high-level plenaries, the Global Water Thought Leadership Summit, the Majlis Theater, and a closing arc that runs straight to the UN Water Conference.

Day One: Framing the Agenda

Built by a Thematic Committee of senior leaders from across the sector and co-chaired by figures from SWA, IDRA, and the industry's leading companies, the thematic program is designed to foster dialogue between the scientific community, industry operators, financiers, innovators, regulators, and decision-makers, ensuring that new knowledge translates to real-world implementation.

The Congress opens by framing water as one of the defining challenges of the decade, sitting at the intersection of climate resilience, food security, public health, economic stability, and geopolitics. The Opening Ceremony, curated by IDRA and SWA, is followed by the Saudi Water Story: the Kingdom telling its own account of the scale of its desalination and reuse program and the transformation underway across the sector. The ceremonial passing of the World Congress flag to the 2028 host marks the tradition continuing. The afternoon turns to the sector's two defining equations. First, capital: how the next generation of public-private partnerships mobilizes private investment for universal access in an era of high rates and shifting risk. Second, energy: how running desalination on variable renewables rewrites plant economics, just as industry and data centers begin pulling on the same water and power. The day closes with the industry's biggest growth story: scaling water reuse from proven solution to mainstream practice, curated with the WateReuse Association, drawing on decades of operating proof from Windhoek to Singapore to Spain.

Day Two: The Global Water Thought Leadership Summit

Tuesday belongs to the Global Water Thought Leadership Summit, convening a wide net of global influencers, youth, and senior executives from utilities, the private sector, finance, legal, project development, and technology for candid, high-level discussion of the commercial and strategic challenges facing the global water community. The Summit opens with From Crisis to Action: water as a leadership test as much as a technical one, and what must change now to turn commitments into delivery. From there, the day moves through AI and water, from digital twins to autonomous plant control and the cybersecurity questions that come with them; a high-level dialogue on power, policy, and influence; and a sequence of formats designed to widen the conversation beyond the industry: short talks from athletes and explorers who operate at the limits of human endurance, a communicators' lab on changing the public narrative on water, rapid-fire Voices of Impact talks, and a Youth and Future Leaders Forum built to produce real output from the next generation. A lunchtime Innovation Showcase spotlights breakthrough technologies and startup solutions, and the day closes with the Young Leaders Program evening reception.

Day Three: Deep Dives and the Road to the UN Water Conference

Wednesday opens with the Congress's flagship bridge to the UN Water Conference: a Riyadh-to-Abu-Dhabi roadmap toward a unified global position on desalination and reuse for SDG 6, curated with UN Water, paired with the hard technical questions of water for food in scarce regions. Sessions follow on scaling water reuse in the United States, curated by the WateReuse Association; financing water infrastructure across the MENA region, curated with the World Bank and the Arab Fund and building on IDRA's 2026 Kuwait roundtable; and a panel platforming the women leading across the water sector, in utilities, technology, finance, and policy. A data-led market overview closes the working day before the Gala Dinner and the Industry and Sustainability Awards.

Day Four: From Dialogue to Deals

The thematic arc lands where it should: the Doing Business in Saudi Arabia forum, the Congress recap, and a closing luncheon built around recognition and B2B connection. The IDRA World Congress 2026 is designed to go beyond dialogue and discussion. It is a global platform dedicated to transforming knowledge into implementation, and innovation into measurable, real-world impact.

Running in parallel throughout, the Majlis Discussion Forum gives the Congress its most distinctive room: a space for the franker, closer conversations that a plenary stage cannot host, including dedicated technical deep-dives.

The Committee Behind the Program

The Thematic Committee, responsible for shaping the strategy, policy, and leadership arc of the Congress, is co-chaired by senior figures from the host nation, IDRA, and the sector's leading organizations:

Thematic Committee Co-Chairs

Mohammed Al Sheikh Deputy President for Local Content and Strategic Partnerships

Eng. Khaled Al Qureshi Chief Executive Officer Sharakat

Michael Bjorn Vice President

Nizar Kammourie CEO

Danfoss

SAWACO Water Group

Dr. Samir J. Serhan

Corrado Sommariva Shareholder & Founder

Saudi Water Authority

Shannon McCarthy Secretary General IDRA

100

Chief Executive Officer ACWA

Sustainable Water and Power Consultants

Thematic Committee Members

Devesh Sharma

Jad Daoud

Dr. Tariq Nada

Chief Executive Officer

Funding & Investment

Chief Technical Officer

Mohammed Halawani Chief Executive Officer

Aquatech

Future Pipe Industries

ACWA

International Water Distribution Co. (Tawzea)

Rami Ghandour

Imad Makhzoumi

Fady Juez

Leon Awerbuch

Chief Executive Officer

CEO & Chairman

Managing Director

President and Chief Technology

Metito Utilities

ENOIA

Metito

Officer Leading Edge Technologies Ltd. (LET)

Ghassan Ejjeh

Jose Diaz-Caneja

Naoll Cyrille Mary

Bill Malarkey

Senior Vice President

Chief Executive Officer

Infrastructure Pre-Investment

Partner-Regulated & Infrastructure

Besix

Acciona Infrastructure

IFC

Roland Berger LP

Simon Baker Vice President, Wastewater

Yvonne Zhou

Mohammed Abdullatif

Managing Director and Senior

Manager- Water Specialist

Market Sector Lead

Partner

Advisor

AECOM

Boston Consulting Group

Saudi Aramco

Together, they have built a program that connects the scientific community, industry operators, financiers, innovators, regulators, and decision-makers, ensuring the strategic conversation in Riyadh is grounded in the same rigor as the technical one.

101

BEFORE THE OPENING CEREMONY: THE PRE-CONGRESS PROGRAM

The Congress starts working before it starts. Sunday, November 1 is a full day of training, workshops, regulation, and competition. SECOND EDITION OF THE GLOBAL DESALINATION HACKATHON Building on the previous edition, and in collaboration with ACWA, the Global Desalination Hackathon for Sustainable Water Solutions brings together high-potential talent and multidisciplinary teams to develop practical, scalable, and technically sound solutions that can move beyond concept stage into real-world application. Details and participation information are at idraworldcongress.org/ desalination-hackathon.

WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING COURSES TO BE ANNOUNCED Interactive pre-Congress workshops focus on emerging technologies, circular water systems, brine management, industry best practices, and the future of sustainable water management, delivered by leading practitioners from across the sector.

FROM RESEARCH TO REAL-WORLD WATER SOLUTIONS: THE YLP TRANSLATION STAGE IDRA's Young Leaders Program initiatives run throughout the Congress week, reflecting IDRA's deep investment in the next generation. This year they are headlined by something new: The Translation Stage, a pitch competition built to bridge the gap between breakthrough research and real water solutions. The water sector urgently needs solutions that are not only innovative but practical and scalable. The Translation Stage creates a space where the next generation of innovators can develop translational thinking, gain mentorship, and showcase ideas with real-world potential. The initiative empowers PhD candidates and early-career researchers to present their work not just as academic research, but as scalable technologies for desalination, water reuse, water treatment, and sustainability challenges.

102

THE WATER REGULATION FORUM The full-day Water Regulation Forum anchors the pre-Congress Sunday. The full story is on the preceding pages.

AND THEN, THE WELCOME Sunday closes Reception

with

the

Welcome

HOW IT WORKS

KEY DATES

The program runs through a global open call, independent

expert

review,

online

preparation

workshops, and a live pitch competition held as a

Submissions are open now and close August 30.

pre-Congress workshop in Riyadh, with networking

and opportunities for selected finalists.

ʟ ʟ ʟ ʟ

Applicants submit a 500-word concept abstract

20, online preparation workshops

covering:

run

from

late

September

mid-October

The water-sector problem addressed, The proposed solution derived from their research, Its current proof-of-concept stage, a potential scale-up pathway,

ʟ ʟ ʟ

Finalists are notified September

The live pitch takes place in Riyadh during Congress week.

The intended end user, And; Take your research beyond the laboratory.

The expected real-world impact. Work-in-progress

submissions

are

welcome;

pilot-ready or commercially mature work is not

Join the next generation of innovators shaping the future of desalination, water reuse, and sustainable water technologies.

required or expected.

JOIN NOW WHO CAN APPLY Active researchers, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral

BEYOND THE STAGE

researchers within their first four years of research, worldwide, working on desalination, water treatment, reuse, or related sustainable-water technologies, with

The YLP presence runs all week: the Youth

research aligned to the Congress themes. One submission

and Future Leaders Forum within the Thought

per lead applicant, with co-authors permitted. Applicants

Leadership Summit, the YLP bowling tournament,

must be available to attend the Congress in Riyadh in

and the Water Changemakers evening reception,

person if shortlisted. Participation in The Translation Stage is separate from Congress registration.

connecting

emerging

professionals

with

the

mentors, networks, and platforms to accelerate their careers.

103

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE: THE IDRA INDUSTRY AND SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS The IDRA World Congress 2026 in Riyadh will bring together the global desalination and water reuse community for five days of knowledge exchange, collaboration, and forward-looking dialogue. Among the highlights of the event will be the presentation of the IDRA Industry and Sustainability Awards, recognizing the organizations, utilities, and projects that are setting new benchmarks in the fight against water scarcity. The

Awards

program

honors

outstanding

contributions made over the past two years, spotlighting innovation, leadership, and real-world impact across the water sector. Winners will be announced at the IDRA World Congress 2026 Gala Dinner in Riyadh on Wednesday, November 4.

Nominations Close August 20 IDRA is calling on its members to put forward nominations for individuals and entities whose work deserves recognition on the global stage. The nomination window closes on August 20, 2026, so now is the time to act. Nominations can be submitted by IDRA members only. However, the nominee does not need to hold IDRA membership. To nominate, send the name of the nominee, the specific award category, and a supporting statement of up to 800 words explaining how the nominee exemplifies the spirit of the award, along with references, to awards@idrawater.org:

104

Award Categories

The program spans two streams, each designed to capture a different dimension of progress in the water sector.

INDUSTRY AWARDS

1.The Excellence in Public-Private Partnership Award 2.The Pinnacle of Innovation Award for Most Innovative Utility in Water Management 3.The Breakthrough Innovation Award for Most Innovative Company, Utility, or Agency in Desalination Technology

SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS

1.Excellence Award for Most Resilient City 2. Most Innovative Water-Energy Nexus Project 3. Global Sustainability Leadership Award for Best Implementer of UN SDG 6: Water for All 4. Lowest Carbon Footprint in Desalination Award

4.The Visionary Leadership Award for Most Progressive Disruptive Policy in Water Reuse

5. Resilience in Action Award for Circular Water Resources

5.The Excellence in Water Reuse Performance

6. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Award

Excellence Award

Meet the Awards Committee

A distinguished panel has been assembled to oversee the evaluation and selection process for the 2026 Awards.

Dr. Shamma Al Malek

Strategic Planning Sector Executive Director (Acting), Department of Energy Abu Dhabi

Prof. Shadi W. Hasan

Director, Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology; Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Prof. Glen Daigger

Professor of Engineering Practice, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Hubert Fleming CEO

TurnClear

University of Michigan

Khalifa University

Dr. Amy Childress

Dean's Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the ReWater Center University of Southern California

Make Your Nomination Count

The Awards program is one of the most visible ways IDRA recognizes leadership and progress across the global water community. If you know of an organization, utility, project, or initiative that has made a meaningful difference over the past two years, this is your opportunity to ensure their work is celebrated on the world stage. Nominations close August 20, 2026. Submit yours to awards@idrawater.org.

105

THE COMMERCIAL HEARTBEAT: THE WC26 EXHIBITION The exhibition floor is the commercial heartbeat

companies looking to position themselves in front

of every World Congress, and this edition runs

of decision-makers from more than 60 countries

across two halls: a global exhibition of public and

can be placed on a wait list, in case we open more

private sector players spanning membrane and

exhibition space.

equipment manufacturers, developers, utilities, EPC contractors, and technology providers. Our

Exhibition inquiries: exhibits@idrawater.org

Exhibition space is currently sold out. However,

EXHIBITORS CONFIRMED TO DATE

106

MEDIA PARTNERS

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

IDRA IS A TRUSTED PARTNER OF THE UNITED NATIONS

107

Under the Patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture

‫اﻟﻤﺆﺗﻤﺮ اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ‬ 2026 ‫ﻟﺘﺤﻠﻴـــﺔ اﻟﻤﻴــــــﺎه‬

REGISTRATION IS OPEN

SECURE YOUR PLACE AT THE WORLD'S FLAGSHIP DESALINATION AND REUSE CONGRESS

108

RIYADH NOVEMBER

1-5 2026

Hosted and Organized by

‫اﻟﻤﺆﺗﻤﺮ اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻤﻲ‬ 2026 ‫ﻟﺘﺤﻠﻴـــﺔ اﻟﻤﻴــــــﺎه‬

Your WC26 Congress Pass includes:

PURCHASE YOUR CONGRESS PASS AT

•

Full access to the thematic and technical program across five days

•

The official Welcome Reception, Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony, and networking events.

IDRAWORLDCONGRESS.ORG

•

The exhibition floor with leading technology providers from across the global water sector

In three months, the global desalination and reuse community meets in Riyadh. Will you be there?

109

DOWNLOAD THE WORLD CONGRESS PREVIEW BOOKLET NOW

110

111

IDRANEWS

IDRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION FOR TERM 22, 2026– 2028, VOTING IS NOW OPEN

Michael Bjorn

VP, Head of Danfoss High-Pressure Pumps Danfoss A/S

112

Fady Juez

Rod Naylor

Managing Director Metipro Overseas Limited

Matteo Buzzetti General Manager Fisia Italimpianti

Global Water Lead GHD

Europe

CEO NanoH2O

To learn more about IDRA activities and upcoming events, visit www.idrawater.org

Asia Pacific

Hoon Hyung

Europe

Asia Pacific

The election results will be announced on September 15, 2026, and the newly elected directors will officially begin their two-year term on November

The IDRA Board of Directors is the governing body of the Association and works to advance sustainable desalination and water reuse solutions to address global water scarcity and strengthen water security. Representing leaders from across the international water sector, Board members serve as IDRA ambassadors, helping to expand the Association's global reach and impact.

Asia Pacific

Voting is now open to all eligible Class I and Class II IDRA members and will remain open through September 2, 2026. To participate in the election, you must be a current IDRA member. Renew/Join IDRA today to become eligible to vote and be part of the organizations that make up our global network.

5, 2026, following the conclusion of the IDRA World Congress in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

José Díaz-Caneja CEO Acciona Infrastructure

Satoshi Shimoyama Advisor, Water Treatment & Environmental Division Toray Industries

Europe

The International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA) is pleased to announce the nominees for its 2026–2028 Board of Directors (Term 22).

Pedro Almagro CEO Lantania Aguas

IDRANEWS

MENA

Mohamad Jaroudi

Nizar Kammourie

Imad Makhzoumi

North America

Deputy President for Local Content and Strategic Partnerships Saudi Water Authority

MENA

Senior Officer - Regional Lead Water Infrestructure IFC - World Bank Group

Mohammed Al Sheikh

Constanze Simmermacher

North America

Global Principal Desalination Jacobs

Devesh Sharma

CEO Aquatech International

IDRANEWS

Jon Freedman

Global Head - Policy & Stakeholders Veralto Water Quality Segment

Chairman & CEO Enoia Engineering Group

North America

CEO SAWACO Water Group

Jantje Johnson

President and Founder OrangeBoat

MENA CEO Tawzea

Johnny Obeid

Vice President Veolia Middle East

Mary Kanavoutsos Senior Vice President, International Strategy & Growth for Water AECOM

North America

Managing Director Future Pipe Industries

Mohammed S. Halawani

MENA

Naoll Mary

Executive Vice President Suez International

North America

Pierre Pauliac

MENA

Europe

LATAM - Carib.

IDRANEWS

Nikolay Voutchkov CEO Water Globe Consultans, LLC

113

Under the patronage of the Regional Government of Andalusia

IDRA SUMMIT ON WATER AND CLIMATE OCTOBER 2027, SEVILLE, SPAIN For sponsorship enquiries, please email sponsorships@idrawater.org 114

IDRANEWS

IDRA AT SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL WATER WEEK Two IDRA sessions in Singapore took up the question running through this edition: reuse works, so what will it take to build it at the scale the world now needs? In June, IDRA took a substantial presence to Singapore International Water Week. It anchored the visit with a Business Forum on what it actually takes to move water reuse from pilot projects to national scale, and the Secretary General co-moderated a second session on the regulatory frameworks that decide whether reuse gets built at all. Between them, the two sessions put a single question to the sector: the technology is settled, so what stands between proven reuse and reuse at scale?

THE BUSINESS FORUM The Business Forum was built to avoid the usual conference script. Rather than a panel of position statements, IDRA asked nine senior leaders each to take the room

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inside one real project and tell the version that rarely makes the paper: the risk they took, the moment it nearly failed, and the lesson they carried out of it. Secretary General

Shannon

McCarthy

connected

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the conversation across three dialogues,

Marcus Lim, Board Member of the

keeping the substance with the speakers.

Singapore

Water

Association.

This

high-level session will explore how The three dialogues traced the reuse

desalination and water reuse can be

challenge from strategy to delivery. The

scaled globally to address growing water

first examined how reuse becomes part

scarcity and climate risks. Featuring

of national water strategy rather than a

participation from leading private-sector

project bolted on beside it. The second

innovators, the discussion will highlight

turned to the harder, less technical

policy

problems: building public trust, and the

partnerships,

and

next-generation

industrial demand that makes reuse viable

technologies.

The

panel

at volume. The third took on financing, and

together:

the specific difficulty that reuse is harder to bank than desalination because the offtake is less certain. Leaders from PUB Singapore, Xylem, ACCIONA, Jacobs, Aquatech, GHD,

themes.

public-private brought

Rod Naylor, Global Water Lead, GHD

Constanze Simmermacher, Global Principal, Jacobs

AECOM, SUEZ and Almar Water Solutions carried the case studies across the three

frameworks,

Michael

Lesniak,

Global

Partnerships, Aquatech

Singapore was the right place to hold the conversation. No city has done more to make reuse an ordinary part of its water supply rather than an emergency measure, and its NEWater program remains the clearest proof anywhere that treated used water can be a mainstream national resource rather than a last resort.

Govind

Alagappan,

President,

Gradiant

THE LINE TO RIYADH Both sessions traced the same arc, from proven technology to the harder task of building it at scale. That through-line carries directly into the IDRA World Congress 2026,

LEADERSHIP DIALOGUES

convening in Riyadh in November under the

IDRA’s presence extended beyond the

theme “Driving Global Water Sustainability

Business Forum. Shannon McCarthy also

Through Innovation.” The conversation in

co-moderated

Singapore was a preview of the one the

“Leadership

Dialogues:

Shaping the Future of Water,” alongside

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sector will continue there.

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IDRA IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE ITS MEMBERSHIP WITH WATER STRIP A strategic initiative aligned with the Kingdom

water

reuse,

of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and the Ministry

technologies.

and

climate-resilient

of Environment, Water, and Agriculture's (MEWA) commitment to advancing innovation

As the leading global network for the water

and sustainability in the water sector.

and water reuse community, IDRA is honored to join Water STRIP and contribute its

Water STRIP will serve as a global hub for

international expertise, knowledge-sharing

innovation, bringing together government,

platform, and global partnerships to support

industry, academia, and research institutions

the initiative's vision of positioning Saudi

to accelerate advancements in desalination,

Arabia as a leader in water innovation.

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A G LO BA L TA R G E T FO R WAT E R R E U S E

Half of every drop. By 2045. The world reuses 11% of its municipal water today. The Scaling Water Reuse Initiative is building the coalition and evidence base to help make 50% a shared global ambition, informing discussions on the post-2030 sustainable development agenda. We don't have to fight over water. Cities are running

Less taken, less polluted, more for nature. Every drop

short. Industries face existential supply risk. Water is

reused is a drop not abstracted from a river, lake, or

becoming the next driver of geopolitical conflict. But

aquifer — and a drop not discharged as pollution. Reu-

unlike fossil fuels, water is infinitely renewable — every

se simultaneously reduces freshwater withdrawal and

drop we use can be used again. Reuse is what turns a

raises the quality of what returns to the environment.

contested resource into an abundant one.

Ecosystems gain on both ends.

Water security is now everyone's problem. The in-

Better sanitation for all. Wastewater management is

tensity of droughts and floods has doubled in twenty

a cost centre. Cities and countries spend on collection

years. Regions that never thought about water securi-

and treatment but rarely recover the investment, which

ty — northern Europe, the American Midwest, parts of

is why so much of the world still discharges sewage

East Asia — now face sudden, severe shortages. Rising

untreated. Reuse changes the equation: once treated

global temperatures don't just make dry places drier;

wastewater is a valuable resource, the case for investing

they make every place vulnerable.

in sanitation finally closes — particularly in the low- and middle-income countries where the gap is largest.

TODAY

BY 2045

of 613 km³ global municipal water supply — 67 km³/year reused

of 855 km³ projected municipal water supply — 428 km³/year reused

11% 118

50% IDRANEWS

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T H E T RA J EC TO RY

AS O F M I D -2 0 2 5

67 km3/yr

Progress towards 50% by 2045. 0

100

200

300

428 km3 target

Capacity gap - 361 km³/year Target-eligible reuse today - 67 km³ (16% of target)

In active pipeline - 13 km³ (+3%)

Environmental enhancement - 18 km³ (not within the target)

CA PAC I T Y G A P

361 km /yr 3

TIME REMAINING

G R OW T H R EQ U I R E D

TOTA L U P L I F T

20 years

9.7% p.a.

6.4x today

Sources: GWI DesalData / IDRA Desalination & Reuse Handbook 2025. China figures based on data published by MOHURD. Environmental enhancement (~18 km³/ year, largely China) is shown separately as it is not universally recognised as reuse and falls outside the proposed target scope.

T H E S T RAT EGY

Make reuse the first choice for water. Two parallel shifts get us there: changing how the world thinks about reuse, and changing how the economics work.

C H A N G I N G AT T I T U D E S

C H A N G I N G EC O N O M I C S

Build the case, build the coalition.

Raise the value, lower the cost.

A coalition of the willing across utilities, industry, finance, civil society and government — and a global target informing discussions on the post-2030 sustainable development agenda.

Move reused water into higher-value applications and reform pricing, while innovation, scale and smarter regulation bring the cost of producing it down.

F I V E WO R K I N G G R O U P S , O N E O B J EC T I V E

Tech Innovators Innovations that halve the cost of reuse

Industry & Supply Chain

Policies & Regulations

What a target means for water-intensive sectors

Frameworks that enable reuse, not restrict it

Project Finance Repeatable models across geographies

Cities, Utilities & Communications Making reuse work, and the public case for it

J O I N T H E C OA L I T I O N

scalingreuse.org IDRANEWS

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CONSULTANTS AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES INVITED TO 2026 INDUSTRIAL WATER REUSE INNOVATION AWARD The Global Industrial Water Reuse Innovation Award

water reuse. They are now also open to consulting

is presented by the International Desalination and

engineering firms and water technology companies

Reuse Association, WateReuse Association, the

supporting such efforts. Submissions to this award

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Veolia, Veralto, and the

can be either for a company’s water reuse project

University of Pennsylvania Water Center. The award

or for a company and their consultant or technology

recognizes top companies that incorporate, design,

provider’s reuse project. This award honors those that

and implement the best-in-class water recycling

enable and invest in industrial water reuse.

and reuse programs to improve water stewardship and achieve their water management goals or their

The Global Industrial Water Reuse Innovation Award

client’s water management goals.

program was developed as part of the National Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP), a multi-stakeholder effort

The award nominations should feature Fortune 1000

lead by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to

companies that are leading the way in industrial

advance the science, policy, research, communications

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regions against a 2015 baseline, toward a 50% target

It highlights what is possible for businesses and

by 2030, and Carlsberg's Danish brewery reduced

illustrated the associated benefits industrial water

water consumption by 500,000 m³ per year using

reuse holds for companies and the communities in

closed circuit reverse osmosis. Intel alone invested

which they operate across our nation.

approximately US $1 billion in facilities capable of recovering 98% of wastewater for reuse in cooling towers and surrounding community recharge.

Eligible nominees span: • Fortune 1000 companies implementing internal or on-site water reuse systems.

Nominations should include:

• Consulting engineering firms delivering reuse projects with industrial clients. • Water

technology

companies

• A statement of no more than 25 words explaining why the nominee deserves the award, for use in

enabling

industrial-scale reuse. • Partnerships including a company and its consultant or technology provider. Submissions are open now. Past recipients have included The Simplot Company, recognized for the membrane bioreactor system at its LEED Gold certified potato processing plant in Caldwell, Idaho, which treats an average daily flow of 2.3 million gallons of potato processing water, and Lucid Motors, recognized for the on-site closed-loop water reuse system at AMP-2, the first car manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, where recycled water also irrigates landscapes and green belts around the facility in line with Vision 2030 water sustainability objectives. Earlier recipients include Amazon Web Services, which is building capacity to use 800 million gallons of recycled water annually across its U.S. data centers by 2030, and Microsoft, which has contracted replenishment projects delivering more than 25 million

marketing. • A description of how the nominated company is recycling water or using recycled water. • A description of how the company uses recycled water for environmental replenishment. • The broader ESG goals supported by the company's water recycling efforts, and their timeline. • Evidence of progress toward those goals, including the metrics used to track it. • A comparison against average water consumption in the industry. • The impact on the local community in which the industry operates. • Any secondary benefits achieved beyond water use reduction. This award offers a coveted platform to highlight real-world impact: transforming industrial water use and accelerating global best-practice adoption. Nominations are submitted through the WateReuse Association at watereuse.org/news-events/awards/ industrial-award.

m³ in volumetric water benefit over their lifetime. Key dates: Other recognized companies include Kimberly-Clark,

• Nominations Open Here

Carlsberg, Apache, PepsiCo, and Intel. Kimberly-Clark

• Nomination Deadline: December 4, 2026

has already reduced water consumption by over

• Winners Announced: to be announced

40% at its manufacturing sites in water-stressed

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IDRA IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE YVONNE ZHOU

MANAGING DIRECTOR AND SENIOR PARTNER AT BCG, AS IDRA SPECIAL ADVISOR The International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Yvonne Zhou, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), as Special Advisor to IDRA. This appointment reflects IDRA's commitment to strengthening the connection between global water strategy, finance, and policy. As Special Advisor, Ms. Zhou will provide strategic guidance to advance IDRA's mission of integrating innovation, investment, and policy to secure a sustainable water future. Ms. Zhou brings more than two decades of consulting experience to the role. At BCG she serves as the firm's global topic leader for water, its global lead for climate and sustainability in the public sector, and the lead for agriculture, water, and the environment across the Middle East. Based in Riyadh, she has worked extensively with governments, infrastructure companies, development banks, and industry on green transformation, sustainable food and water, climate adaptation and resilience, and digital transformation. Her recent work has focused on advancing water security, sustainability, and resilience across the Middle East, helping shape strategies that position

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water as a driver of long-term economic growth and development.

"Her leadership at BCG, combined with a rare blend of global water strategy expertise and deep regional insight, makes Yvonne's appointment especially timely as we prepare to bring the global water community to Saudi Arabia for the IDRA World Congress, hosted by the Saudi Water Authority under the patronage of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture," said Shannon McCarthy, Secretary General of IDRA. "At a pivotal moment for our sector, as demand for resilient water solutions continues to grow, her guidance will help IDRA strengthen the connections between innovation, investment, and policy needed to accelerate meaningful progress worldwide." “It is a privilege to join IDRA at such a pivotal moment for the water sector," said Ms. Zhou. "Desalination and reuse are central to water security, economic development, and climate resilience. I look forward to helping IDRA advance practical, scalable solutions that bring governments, industry, and investors together." IDRA's Special Advisors include leaders from the public and private sectors, academia, and finance, representing a global network of more than 60 countries.

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MEET IDRA'S SPECIAL ADVISORS

Hon. Bruno Pigott Executive Director, WateReuse Association EPA

Dr. Mary M. Matthews

Water Lead a.i., Manager UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge

Hon. Camille Calimlim Touton

Founder of Rotunda, River & Range and Former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner USBR

H.E. Ahmed Al Rumaithi

Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy. DoE

Eng. Khaled Al Qureshi

Mr. Robert Okun

Mr. Luis Neves

Mr. Charles Iceland

CEO O Team

Dr. Nidal Hilal

Global Network Professor at NYU and Founding Director of the NYUAD Water Research Center. NYUAD

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CEO GeSi

CEO Sharakat

Research Scientist ISciences, LLC

Ms. Yvonne Zhou

Managing Director and Senior Partner BCG

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IDRA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS Web

BRAY INTERNATIONAL INC

Bray International, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of flow control and automation products. Founded in 1986 with the objective to become customers’ global flow control partner, the company has grown to operate in over 40 countries. Bray delivers world-class valve, actuator, and controls solutions that help industries enhance efficiency and eliminate costly downtime. The company specializes in corrosion resistant valves including lined valves and superalloys designed for harsh seawater conditions in desalination operations. Bray’s expertise in seawater desalination minimizes downtime, reduces operational expenses, and improves sustainability while ensuring delivery of high purity water. Their comprehensive portfolio covers seawater intake and pretreatment, reverse osmosis systems, and post treatment processes including brine management and remineralization. Bray’s vision is to become the most respected valve, actuator, and controls company worldwide, with employees and customers as their greatest assets. The company maintains an unrelenting commitment to quality, customer service, safety, and integrity, earning trust from clients globally since the beginning.

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IDRA WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS SHANGHAI TONGJIE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD

Web

Established in 2010, Tongjie Environmental Protection is a national high-tech enterprise and Shanghai specialized & sophisticated enterprise with over 20 years of expertise in water treatment. We specialize in industrial pure water, seawater desalination, high-salinity wastewater and oilfield produced water treatment systems. Equipped with independent R&D, manufacturing, engineering and after-sales service systems, we hold numerous patents and authoritative certifications. We provide professional OEM/ODM customized services, delivering energy-efficient, tailor-made water treatment equipment compliant with international working conditions and standards. Backed by 1,000+ successful projects, we guarantee stable quality and reliable delivery.

SUNTAR

Web

Suntar is a global leader in filtration, separation, and purification technologies. Headquartered in Singapore, we deliver innovative and sustainable water solutions across Data Centre, Industrial Water and Wastewater Treatment, Municipal Wastewater Treatment, Water Reclamation, Zero Liquid Discharge, Biopharmaceutical, Chemical, Metallurgy, Direct Lithium Extraction, Food & Beverage, and Leachate Treatment — serving global clients for 30 years. Suntar was first listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2003 before its privatization and relisting on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 15, 2019, under the stock code 688101. The company is actively enhancing its core business through strategic investments in technology, talent, research and development, product innovation, and marketing capabilities.

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Upcoming IDRA & Partner Events IAEA TECHNICAL MEETING ON THE PRODUCTION OF POTABLE WATER WITH NUCLEAR ENERGY IDRA Partner 25-27 August 2026 Vienna, Austria KOREA INTERNATIONAL WATER WEEK IDRA Participating 9-11 September 2026 Daegu, Korea WEFTEC 2026 IDRA Participating 26-30 September 2026 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA TECHNICAL MEETING ON POWERING AND COOLING DATA CENTRES USING SMALL MODULAR REACTORS IDRA Partner 28-30 September 2026 Vienna, Austria EURO-MEDITERRANEAN WATER FORUM IDRA Participating 29 September - 2 October 2026 Rome, Italy

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THE 44TH UN-WATER MEETING IDRA Participating 1-2 October 2026 Rome, Italy IWA WORLD WATER CONGRESS & EXHIBITION IDRA Participating 4-8 October 2026 Glasgow, United Kingdom SHARAKAT FORUM 2026 IDRA Participating 18-19 October 2026 Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia RETHINKING WATER IDRA Participating 20 October 2026 New York, NY, USA WETEX 2026 IDRA Participating 20-22 October 2026 Dubai, UAE CAIRO WATER WEEK IDRA Participating 25-29 October 2026 Cairo, Egypt

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Upcoming IDRA & Partner Events IDRA WORLD CONGRESS 2026 DRIVING GLOBAL WATER SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH INNOVATION 1-5 November 2026 Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia COP31 IDRA Participating 9-20 November 2026 Antalya, Türkiye UN 2026 WATER CONFERENCE IDRA Participating 8-10 December 2026 Abu Dhabi, UAE ABU DHABI WATER & POWER WEEK (ADWPW) IDRA Participating 8-10 December 2026 Abu Dhabi, UAE

2027 WATEREUSE SYMPOSIUM IDRA Participating 1-4 March 2027 Las Vegas, USA 11TH WORLD WATER FORUM IDRA Participating 22-28 March 2027 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia THE 16TH GULF WATER CONFERENCE IDRA Participating 2-5 May 2027 Muscat, Oman IDRA SUMMIT ON WATER AND CLIMATE October 2027 Seville, Spain

INNOVATION DRIVEN WATER SUSTAINABILITY (IDWS) IDRA Participating 14-16 December 2026 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

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