Water is a major opportunity for the private sector in the future, as the region builds on the considerable role private power and water projects have played across the region over the past 15 years.

For future developments, water will be a priority as governments realise that they may not need to link their power production with water. “There are big seasonal changes between winter and summer, [so it is not] always a good idea to produce water and electricity together. So you get IWPs [Independent Water Projects] as opposed to IWPPs [Independent Water and Power Projects], which is the way Oman has chosen to go,” said Mark Lemmon, executive vice chairman, Mena Infrastructure, speaking at MEED’s Mena Water 2014 conference in Abu Dhabi on 29 September.

One market that may follow Oman’s lead is Abu Dhabi, which is investing in nuclear power. “As Abu Dhabi rolls out these large nuclear power plants I expect you will see a move to IWPs; they may not want to fire up a power plant to produce water in winter when the demand for power is low,” said Lemmon.

In the past, most private water projects have been linked to power generation. “If you talk about the utility sector overall, a lot of what we talk about is power, straight forward IPPs or IWPPs. I would say in terms of what has been produced, Oman and Abu Dhabi over past 15 years have been largely supplied by private sector models. So [regionally] it is considerably successful,” said Lemmon.

As projects have moved forwards, countries have developed the regulations and legislations needed to facilitate the delivery of these public-private partnership schemes. “Different countries are at different stages of implementing BOT [build operate transfer] models. Some have implemented legislation, others have not,” said Shri Maski, counsel, Ashurst – Dubai, also speaking at the conference.