BOSTON – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region’s wastewater market is scaling with more than US$40 billion of government investment slated for new treatment and collection systems. According to a new report from Bluefield Research, US$22.4 billion of wastewater treatment spending in the region is forecast from 2015-2020, representing a significant step toward bridging the region’s wastewater infrastructure gap and offering significant greenfield opportunities, particularly in the areas of wastewater treatment and re-use.
“The GCC market is showing signs of real momentum,” said Erin Bonney Casey, water analyst at Bluefield Research. “More than US$13 billion of projects are in various stages of development, and the region’s extreme water stress is driving new strategies, such as reuse, to address the growing water supply challenges in GCC countries.”
Central to government initiatives is an increased utilization of wastewater reuse systems that currently make up a small but growing share of the region’s water supplies. Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi (UAE) have set targets that will increase reuse capacity by 91% to 8.8 million cubic meters per day. Reclaimed water will be allocated to irrigation, landscaping, and industrial uses that would otherwise draw from valuable groundwater and desalinated water supplies.
GCC investment plans to address wastewater treatment requirements, and to boost re-use, are detailed in a new report just released by Bluefield Research, Municipal Wastewater & Reuse in the GCC, 2015-2020. The report analyzes market trends and how government wastewater treatment and infrastructure targets are enabling greenfield opportunities for companies across the water value chain.
Combined wastewater generation– currently 11 million cubic meters per day– exceeds installed collection network capacity by 5 million cubic meters per day and treatment capacity by 1.8 million cubic meters per day. The largest treatment gaps by volume are in the UAE and Kuwait, where installed capacity currently exceeds average daily demand by 1.2 million m3/d and 619,000 m3/d, respectively. These two countries have already slated a combined US$4.9 billion in wastewater infrastructure to compensate. Bluefield forecasts capital expenditures addressing network collection and wastewater treatment and reuse to be 54% and 46%, respectively.
“While desalination remains a primary solution for governments to address water supply challenges in the region, increased adoption of wastewater treatment and reuse represents another significant opportunity for solutions providers,” added Ms. Bonney Casey. “However, the expected demand for systems is not going unnoticed, as companies, both local and global, are maneuvering to land contracts in a highly competitive marketplace.”
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