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ACS will design and build the Al Hamra Jazeerah desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates

15-01-2016
The Cobra Group, head of industrial division of theACS Group, along with Utico Middle East, the leading public services supplier of the Gulf Cooperation Council, created the Al Hamra Water Company in 2008, destined to be the world’s largest desalination company financed exclusively with private funds. ACS, through the Cobra Group, will have a stake of 40%, whereas Utico Middle East will control the remaining 60%. 

With an anticipated investment 719 million  UAE  dirham (195.7 million dollars), will be one of the largest foreign direct investment in the United Arab Emirates in recent times and certainly the most important in an infrastructure project of this type.

The facilities to be built will be located in the area of Hamra Jazeerah, in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. Al Hamra Water Company, has picked Tedagua  to perform the EPC contract (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) of a seawater desalination plant that will generate 100,000 m3/day of drinking water to service the the needs of Ras Al Khaimah and its surrounding area. These state-of-the-art facilities will have the lowest power consumption in the region, allowing at least 33,280 tons of CO2 to be saved annually. These factors will contribute to reduce the plant’s impact on climate change, in addition to providing high quality water to all consumers.

The plant is planned to begin supplying drinking water in June 2017 and become fully operational in 2018. Most of the water produced will be supplied to the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA), a company responsible for supplying of water and electricity to Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and other coastal cities.

Owing to the desert conditions, water in the UAE is obtained through desalination plants that produce more than the 80% of the total water consumed, meaning that the country is the second-biggest producer of desalinated water in the MENA region, behind Saudi Arabia. The investment of ACS, through the Cobra Group and Tedega as its affiliate specialising in engineering, construction and operation of water treatment plants, is a clear vote of confidence in the growth of the United Arab Emirates, with this new facility representing part of a strategy to expand the groups presence in the Middle East.