Under the law, issued by UAE President and Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, ADSSC will take over all the assets in the sewerage sector, including treatment plants and pumping stations and networks. It will also be responsible for revenue collection, upgrading and expanding the network and maintenance. Its owner, ADWEA, will have the right to privatise the sector, something it has successfully done in the power and water sectors.

In a separate development, the Abu Dhabi government is also looking at privatising the entire waste management system, with studies being carried out on the commercial viability of bringing the private sector into waste collection and recycling, composting, landfills and medical and industrial waste disposal. The expectation is that the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) initiative will be in waste recycling.