Dubai’s DEWA completes construction of first stage of world’s largest aquifer storage and recovery project

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has completed the construction of the first stage of the Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project for desalinated water.

Subsequently, it has started the operations and testing stage. The full scale of the ASR project is capable of storing up to 6,000 million imperial gallons (MIG) of water as a strategic reserve once completed by 2025, making it the largest ASR project in the world to store potable water and retrieve it in case of an emergency.

This will secure the emirate with an additional source of potable water strategic reserve of 50MIGD for 90 days in emergencies, while ensuring the quality of the stored water, official news agency WAM reported.

.@DEWAOfficial completes construction of the first stage of the Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) strategic project for desalinated water and has started the operations and testing stage. #Dubai https://t.co/2ssmsscEPa pic.twitter.com/vfubiforrn

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) March 13, 2022

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, said that the new project supports DEWA’s efforts to increase the storage capacity of Dubai to reach 7,212 MIG in 2025 compared to the present storage capacity of 822 MIG. “Besides the ASR project, DEWA is working on a 120 MIG reservoir in Al Nakhali and another 60 MIG reservoir in Al Lusaily,” added Al Tayer.

The ASR project increases the sustainable production of water in Dubai, using clean solar power to desalinate seawater using the latest reverse osmosis (RO) technologies. Excess water is stored in aquifers and pumped back into the water network when needed.

The production capacity of desalinated water of DEWA is currently 490 MIGD, including 63MIGD using sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) technology. By 2030, SWRO will help expand its production capacity to 303 MIGD, increasing it to 730 MIGD of desalinated water by 2030.