Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) has announced that one of its subsidiaries, Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) has awarded projects worth $245 million to expand the company’s recycled water distribution programme.
In a statement, TAQA said that once completed, these new projects will have a combined capacity to transmit approximately 85 million gallons per day (mgpd) of recycled water – enough to irrigate more than 3.5 million palm trees.
The programme’s expansion will significantly increase the use of recycled water beyond municipal landscaping to include commercial and agricultural operations, it said.
Once completed, approximately 4,000 farms could benefit from the supply of recycled water, which would further support the programme’s objectives to optimise the use of desalinated water, prevent the depletion of ground water resources and divert more recycled water towards a wider range of uses, the statement continued.
Executive Director (Transmission and Distribution) Omar Abdulla Alhashmi said: “Our expanded recycled water programme directly supports TAQA’s vision for a future in which we are not only a sustainable, reliable and efficient supplier of water, but an organisation whose operations directly contribute to the realisation of the UAE’s broader sustainability and environmental goals.”
“We are particularly focused on the goals outlined in the national strategies for energy and water supply, which anticipate an increase in demand and the deployment of more clean technologies and sustainable methods of service delivery. The expansion of ADDC’s recycled water distribution programme plays a key role in TAQA’s transformative impact on Abu Dhabi’s utilities sector – across the value chain and for decades to come,” stated Hashmi.
“This phase of ADDC’s recycled water distribution programme builds on its announcement in January, when the company began transmitting a capacity of 4.4 mgpd of recycled water for landscaping irrigation on Saadiyat Island, through a new transmission scheme supplied from the existing network on Yas Island,” he added.
Managing Director Saeed Mohamed Al Suwaidi said: “ADDC’s recycled water distribution programme plays an integral role in meeting the objectives set forth in the UAE’s Water Security Strategy 2036.”
“By implementing practical and sustainable solutions that optimise desalinated water usage and protect our precious ground water resources, we will continue to reinforce the Emirate’s strategic approach to achieving water and environmental sustainability,” he stated.
The recycled water expansion announcement comes in the wake of TAQA’s successful transaction with ADPower on July 1, 2020, which created the UAE’s 3rd-largest publicly listed company by market capitalisation and a top-10 utility player in the EMEA region by regulated assets, Al Suwaidi said.
As part of the transaction, the majority of ADPower’s power and water generation, transmission and distribution assets, including ADDC, were transferred to TAQA in exchange for 106,367,950,000 new shares, he concluded.