Hassyan Nears 90% Completion Ahead of 2027 Desalination Plant Start-up
Key Facts
Construction of Dubai’s Hassyan seawater desalination plant was about 90% complete at the start of January 2026, while DEWA is targeting completion of all its phases in the first quarter of 2027. This comes more than two years after the authority announced on 3 October 2023 that it had signed a 30-year water purchase agreement and shareholders’ agreement with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power for the project’s first phase. The plant uses reverse osmosis technology, and its first phase was designed to produce 180 million imperial gallons of desalinated water a day. Construction progress puts the project at an advanced stage ahead of the announced completion date, but does not change the agreement date or make it a new deal in October 2026. DEWA said when it announced the signing that the two agreements covered the first phase of the Hassyan seawater desalination project.
Before the two agreements were signed, ACWA Power had been selected as the project’s preferred bidder in August 2023. DEWA said the investment at the time was AED 3.357 billion, equivalent to $914 million, while the desalinated water bid was priced at $0.36536 per cubic metre. ACWA Power submitted a tariff of $0.365 per cubic metre in its bid and said the project would raise its total water desalination capacity to 7.6 million cubic metres a day. The two parties’ announcements give the tariff figures in different formats, with each figure remaining attributed to its source. These figures do not include a publicly announced estimate of the returns or cash flows the project will generate for ACWA Power.
On 17 April 2024, DEWA announced the project’s financial close, with an investment of AED 3.377 billion, compared with the AED 3.357 billion cited in the August 2023 announcement selecting the preferred bid. The authority described the project as the world’s largest of its kind using reverse osmosis technology under an independent water producer model. It also said Hassyan was a key element in its plan to strengthen Dubai’s water desalination capacity. In its financial close statement, DEWA linked the initiative to Dubai’s Integrated Water Resources Management Strategy 2030, which focuses on improving resource use and adopting innovative technologies and solutions. It also said water security was a national priority under the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036.
When it signed the agreement, DEWA’s stated goal was to raise desalination capacity from 490 million imperial gallons a day in 2023 to 730 million by 2030. Hassyan’s first-phase capacity of 180 million gallons a day adds to the authority’s announced expansion plan. The project is part of Dubai’s water resource management plans, while the announced strategies for 2030 and 2036 set the local and national time frames associated with water security. DEWA later announced that the plant’s construction was about 90% complete on 2 January 2026. The authority set the first quarter of 2027 as the target for completing all phases of the plant.
ACWA Power’s current project page lists the company’s effective stake at 20.4% and sets 15 February 2027 as the commercial operation date. According to the project page, the current ownership stake differs from the percentage cited in the signing disclosure. In the market, ACWA Power shares closed at 158.2 Saudi riyals on 28 October 2026, compared with 157 riyals in the previous session on 27 October. The close comes after the agreement was announced in 2023, so it does not by itself establish a link between the share movement and the contract. Commercial operations remain scheduled for February 2027, according to the date listed by the company, while DEWA said all phases of the plant are due to be completed in the first quarter of the same year.