Water in United Arab Emirates

The UAE has little rain and no perennial streams. Its renewable water comes to about 14 m³ per person a year.^1 2 The country’s supply comes from desalinated seawater, groundwater lowered and salinised by over-pumping, and treated wastewater.^3 2 Large reverse osmosisReverse osmosis A membrane method of desalination: salt water is forced against membranes under high pressure, so fresh water passes through and the salts stay behind. Thermal plants instead use heat to turn seawater into vapour and condense it as fresh water. Source: Desalination, Encyclopædia Britannica plants are replacing older thermal ones.⁴ The Water Security Strategy 2036 aims to cut demand and reuse almost all treated water.⁵

In the UAE’s interior, water has long moved underground. At Hili, in Al Ain, UNESCO lists one of the oldest examples of the aflaj, an irrigation system dating back to the Iron Age.⁶ A falaj carries water from an underground source through a tunnel to a basin where the community can reach it.⁷ FAO’s 2008 profile reported that all the country’s aflaj tunnels were dry and that a system of borehole support had been developed;² Al Ain Oasis is still watered by wells and its ancient falaj system.⁸ On the coast, desalination goes back to 1960, when a local businessman shipped a small unit into Abu Dhabi.⁹ FAO records the first desalination plant as installed in Abu Dhabi in 1976, with a capacity of 250 m³ a day.² By 1981 the first large units were running at Umm al-Nar in Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali in Dubai and Layyah in Sharjah,⁹ and by the early 2020s national capacity stood at about 8.9 million m³ a day.¹⁰

Desalination has not ended the pumping. Groundwater still provides almost half of total supply,³ and in April 2025 Abu Dhabi banned well drilling in protected zones.¹¹ Demand stays high, at about 520 litres per person a day.¹² Abu Dhabi banks desalinated water in the Liwa aquifer as a strategic reserve,¹³ though one analysis estimated that the country’s reported reserves would cover only about four days of consumption.¹² The 2026 war tested that supply: the Fujairah F1 power and water complex was reportedly damaged but kept operating,¹⁴ and by late April 2026 no significant disruption had been reported.¹²

One interactive map of United Arab Emirates's water, built from real geodata. Climate & drought maps the aridity gradient (WorldClim) with warming projections. The Water risk layer's WRI Aqueduct indicators, covering overall water risk, water stress and flood risk (plus groundwater decline where the trend is significant), shade every river sub-basin by its 0–5 risk score. Demand shows where the population, and the water demand, concentrate. Infrastructure brings the physical system together: rivers, dams (FAO AQUASTAT), treatment plants, desalination and the major conveyors. Shared waters outlines the aquifers that the United Arab Emirates shares with other countries, each drawn in full across the border; hover an outline for the countries that share it. Hover any sub-basin or marker for detail; sources are cited under each view.

The UAE covers about 83,600 km², including about 5,900 km² of islands.² Abu Dhabi emirate makes up almost 87% of the mainland.² FAO describes three zones: the north-eastern mountains, the sand desert and the coast. Desert covers 80% of the country.² Six emirates face the Gulf, a shallow sea with many islands and coral reefs, and Fujairah faces the Gulf of Oman.² About 85% of the population and more than 90% of infrastructure sit on the coast.¹⁷

Rainfall

Mean annual rainfall is about 78 mm. It ranges from under 40 mm around Liwa to 160 mm in the north-eastern mountains, and falls on only 9–19 days a year.² More than 80% falls between December and March.² Summer rain is orographic, forming over the mountains.²⁰ Extremes are growing. In April 2024 the National Centre of Meteorology reported up to 250 mm of rain, the highest ever recorded in the country.¹⁷ Khatm Al Shakla near Al Ain received about 256 mm in 24 hours.²¹

In the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal’s ERA5 reanalysis, averaged over the whole of United Arab Emirates, about 47 mm of rain falls in a year (1991–2020). Station records and national averages use other sources and baselines, so their figures can differ (the text cites a mean of about 78 mm a year from FAO). About 63% of the rain falls in January, February and March, and 7 months average less than 5 mm. At such low totals, percentage changes in rainfall between decades mean little in absolute terms.

Heat

On the coast, summer temperatures reach 46 °C with humidity up to 100%, and winters run 14–23 °C. The interior reaches about 50 °C in summer and around 4 °C in winter.² In summer, the Indian monsoon low and the thermal low over the Empty Quarter dominate the weather.²⁰ From mid-June to mid-August, Al Samoom winds push daytime temperatures above 48 °C.²² The May record is 51.6 °C, set at Sweihan in 2025.²² In early August 2026 Owtaid in Al Dhafra reached 50.1 °C.²³ The NDC notes that the UAE is warming significantly faster than the global average.¹⁷

The same reanalysis gives a mean temperature of 28.0 °C for 1991–2020 and a warming of about 0.48 °C a decade over 1971–2022. Station records and national reports use other sources and periods, so their warming rates can differ.

Projections and the coast

In the World Bank’s CMIP6 ensemble, days above 35 °C rise from about 183 a year in 1995–2014 to about 241 by 2080–2099 under high emissions.²⁴ Downscaled national modelling projects summers 2–3 °C hotter by 2060–2079, with humidity about 10% higher.²⁰ A study cited in the NDC found that up to 6% of the populated and developed coastline could be lost by 2100.¹⁷ Rising seas threaten critical infrastructure, including desalination plants and power stations.¹⁷

Projected change for United Arab Emirates

The table gives the CMIP6 multi-model median from the same World Bank portal, as change against 1995–2014. Projections cited in the text may use other models, scenarios or baselines, so their figures can differ.

Manufactured water

Renewable water totals only about 150 million m³ a year, and there are no perennial streams.² The fresh aquifers lie in alluvial fans at the foot of the Oman and Ras Al Khaimah mountains. Their upper and lower layers each run 200–800 m thick.² In the western desert, the Dammam and Umm er Radhuma aquifers hold highly saline water.² GCC-Stat figures reported by Al Jazeera in March 2026, without a year, put annual UAE supply at 4.8 billion m³: 41% desalinated and 46% groundwater, with the rest from rain and treated wastewater.²⁵ FAO AQUASTAT’s split for 2023 is charted below. Estimates of desalination’s share vary with definitions. A March 2026 CSIS analysis reported that desalination met 52.1% of UAE total water demand, without giving a year.¹⁴ The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure’s groundwater guidance manual (March 2025) gives this share of total water supply, also without a year: groundwater 46%, desalination 42%, treated water 11% and surface water 1%.³ Reuse of treated wastewater had reached 77% when the third NDC was published in November 2024, against a target of 95% by 2036.¹⁷ Abu Dhabi’s aquifer-storage scheme is described under Infrastructure.

Supply by source

Before desalination, Abu Dhabi lived on hand-dug wells and aflaj, and FAO’s 2008 profile found the falaj tunnels dry, with borehole support in place.² Desalination took their place (see Infrastructure).

Groundwater and the farm boom

In 2003 Abu Dhabi emirate used 3,382 million m³. Irrigation of farms, forestry and amenities took 83%, municipal supply 15% and industry under 2%.² In FAO’s 2008 profile, which gives no year for the figure, more than 70% of total water withdrawal was groundwater; AQUASTAT’s 2023 split is under Water resources.² Between 1994 and 2003 the national agricultural area more than tripled, to 260,732 ha, with 76,556 wells in use.² Over-abstraction lowered water tables, and seawater intrusion grew along the coasts.²

Abu Dhabi has moved to restrain pumping. In January 2019 its environment agency launched a groundwater atlas built on an inventory of more than 118,000 wells, aiming to halve farm water use.²⁶ In April 2025 it banned well drilling in protected zones under the 2016 groundwater law.¹¹

Demand and price

UAE residents were said to use 550 litres a day in 2014, against an international average of 170–300 litres.²⁷ A 2026 analysis by Arab Center Washington DC, citing UNESCO, reported 520 litres per person per day.¹² Abu Dhabi’s tariff reform of January 2015 made Emiratis pay for water for the first time. Low-use expatriate rates rose from Dh2.2 to Dh5.95 per 1,000 litres.²⁷ From January 2017 Emiratis paid Dh2.09 per 1,000 litres in the lower band and Dh2.60 above it, and expatriates Dh7.84 and Dh10.41.²⁸ The same rates were set out again in the schedule for 1 January 2025.²⁹

Use by sector

Withdrawals over time

FAO’s AQUASTAT puts the United Arab Emirates’ freshwater withdrawals at 900 million m³ in 1980 and 2,503 million m³ in 2022. Agriculture’s share of total water withdrawal was 73.9% in 1984 and 47.4% in 2022.¹ AQUASTAT’s 2023 values are 2,156 million m³ and 43.1%. The World Bank series charted below still carries earlier estimates for 2022, 2,265 million m³ and 51%.

Farming draws almost entirely on groundwater. FAO records 2.119 billion m³ withdrawn for agriculture in 2023, 43.1% of the national total of 4.919 billion (an FAO estimate for the share), against fresh groundwater withdrawals of 2.156 billion m³.³¹ The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure puts groundwater at 93% of agricultural irrigation water and agriculture at about 57% of national water demand in 2024, and says that Abu Dhabi groundwater is extracted free of charge with no fees.³ Well drilling controls and the groundwater atlas are under Water resources.

Methods and charges

Localised irrigation covered 93.7% of the 56,545 ha equipped in 2023.³¹ In the Northern Emirates, EtihadWE has applied a reduced farm water tariff since January 2022: 1.5 fils per gallon up to 600,000 gallons a month, 2 fils up to 1.5 million and 2.5 fils above, which more than 1,300 farmers had used by March 2025.^32 33

Crops and targets

In 2011 Abu Dhabi phased out subsidies for livestock feed crops that used about 60% of agricultural water, and the IEA notes that some emirates banned planting crops such as Rhodes grass.³⁴ The ministry’s manual cites a national programme to raise water efficiency in agriculture and buildings by 50%, and recommends incentives for drip irrigation and for treated and desalinated water as alternatives to groundwater.³ The government pages on the National Food Security Strategy 2051 and the Water Security Strategy 2036 give no irrigation target.^35 5

Treated wastewater

FAO’s database counts 0.630 billion m³ of treated municipal wastewater used directly in 2023, which includes landscaping.³¹ An FAO project in Abu Dhabi from 2015 to 2016 found treated water in the Al-Nahda pilot area fit for livestock drinking water, which the authority then allowed 143 farms to use, and noted that the emirate planned to increase its use in agriculture.³⁶ Other agricultural water projects are on the Agriculture & Food hub.

The first desalination plant opened in Abu Dhabi in 1976 with a capacity of 250 m³ a day.² Output grew from 385 million m³ in 1995 to 950 million m³ in 2005.² By the early 2020s national capacity stood at about 8.9 million m³ a day, most of it thermal.¹⁰

Utilities in each emirate procure the plants. Dubai’s DEWA reached 555 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) of installed desalination capacity in early 2026.³⁷ Reverse osmosis makes up 23% of that capacity, and DEWA plans 735 MIGD by 2030.⁴ Its first independent water producer, the 180 MIGD Hassyan seawater reverse osmosis plant, is led by ACWA Power with DEWA holding 60%, and reached financial close in April 2024.³⁸ Phase one was 90% complete by January 2026, with all phases due in early 2027.³⁹ Its first 60 MIGD came online in the first half of 2026.⁴

Tracked projects

Open the project database for United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates

In Abu Dhabi, the Taweelah reverse osmosis plant was designed to supply 909,200 m³ a day and was described in 2021 as the world’s largest seawater desalination plant.⁴⁰ TAQA and ENGIE developed the US$620 million Mirfa 2 plant, which became operational in 2026, and TAQA and GS Inima reached financial close on the US$444 million Shuweihat S4 plant in December 2023.^41 42 The new Al Nouf complex is planned as a major hub for power and water.⁴³ In the northern emirates, EtihadWE is developing the 60 MIGD Fujairah I plant for Dh1.046 billion, after the 150 MIGD Naqa’a plant.⁴⁴

Sewers, networks and dams

Dubai is extending its strategic sewerage tunnels, which carry sewage by gravity to the main treatment plants. Bids for phase two were sought in January 2026.⁴⁵ Treatment plants handled about 653 million m³ of wastewater a year around 2020, against a capacity of about 840 million m³.¹⁰ DEWA cut transmission and distribution losses from 42.5% in 1989 to 4.4% in 2025. DEWA’s Hydro Insight analyses more than 1.1 million smart water meters every 15 minutes.⁴⁶ Nationally, water loss had been reduced to 11% when the third NDC was published in November 2024.¹⁷ The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure manages 109 dams with a total storage capacity of more than 90 million m³, the government portal stated in October 2026.⁴⁷ FAO had counted 114 recharge dams and embankments in 2003, with 118 million m³ of capacity but only 12.3 million m³ stored.² An ongoing hydrological study in 22 basins across the northern and eastern coasts is being considered to reduce flood risks and maximise the benefits of rainwater; such studies would support the development of dams, channels, dikes and breakers.¹⁷

Storage and the 2026 war

With its grid not connected to any neighbouring network (see Shared waters), Abu Dhabi’s answer is storage. Its aquifer-storage scheme banks desalinated water underground as a strategic reserve.¹³ The Liwa reserve, completed in January 2018, holds more than 26 million m³ of desalinated water in the aquifer, recovered through 315 wells.¹³ It was sized to supply one million people with 180 litres a day for up to 90 days.⁴⁸ Analysts disagree on what that buys. Arab Center Washington DC estimated in April 2026 that Abu Dhabi’s reported strategic reserves of 26 million m³, spread across the whole country, would cover only about four days of consumption.¹² The Water Security Strategy 2036 targets national storage of up to two days.⁵ The National describes the strategy’s aim as storage for more than 45 days in extreme emergencies.⁴⁴

The 2026 war tested the model. Early on, the Fujairah F1 power and water complex was reportedly damaged by missiles or falling debris, but kept operating.¹⁴ An attack on Jebel Ali port landed close to 43 desalination units.¹² By late April damage from Gulf desalination attacks remained limited, with no significant disruption to supply reported.¹²

Dams and reservoirs

Over-pumping has turned groundwater saltier. In the Western Gravel Aquifer around Al Ain, salinity ranges from 500 to 6,000 mg/L.⁴⁹ At Wadi Ham in Fujairah, heavier pumping at the Kalba well field drew seawater into the coastal aquifer.¹⁰

Algae, brine and the sea

Desalination turns seawater quality into a supply question. A harmful algal bloom lasted from August 2008 to August 2009.⁵⁰ At Fujairah 1, the reverse-osmosis plant shut for more than a week while thermal units kept running.⁵¹ Red tide stopped the Kalba plants again in March 2013, and the utility raised well production to compensate.⁵²

The Gulf hosts about half of the world’s seawater desalination capacity. Brine has raised mean basin salinity by only 0.43 g/kg, but by up to about 4.3 g/kg in the south-western Gulf near the Arabian coast.⁵³ A 2020 model study found basin salinity resilient to present brine discharge under the current climate.⁵⁴

The reported indicators

On the latest values each country reports for SDG indicator 6.3.1, United Arab Emirates’s 95% (2024) ranks joint 3rd of the 17 countries covered here that report it; years differ by country. The regional comparison is in the wastewater and reuse dashboard.

The UAE has no perennial rivers. Its shared waters are aquifers: with Oman along the eastern border, with Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the southern Umm er Radhuma–Dammam system, and, in IGRAC’s mapping, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain in its central part; none is covered by an agreement.^49 55 About 61,000 km² of the southern Umm er Radhuma–Dammam system lies in the UAE, which abstracts an average of 7.7 million m³ a year.⁴⁹ The Western Gravel Aquifer along the Oman border is heavily overdrawn around Al Ain, where water levels have fallen by up to 50 m, and efforts to launch joint management have failed.⁴⁹ In 2018 the UAE’s water grid was not connected to any neighbouring network.⁴⁸ In April 2026 GCC leaders asked for faster work on water interconnection and strategic reserves.⁵⁶

The record

Shared aquifers

• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (Centre): GulfBahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE · data good
• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (South): Rub' al KhaliOman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen · data moderate

Water is run emirate by emirate. In 2017 four authorities supplied water and power: ADWEA in Abu Dhabi, DEWA in Dubai, SEWA in Sharjah and FEWA in the northern emirates.²⁰ FEWA is now EtihadWE, wholly owned by the Emirates Investment Authority.⁴⁴ In Abu Dhabi a single buyer purchased all water and power from licensed producers.²⁰ The Abu Dhabi Department of Energy was set up under Law No. 11 of 2018.⁵⁷ Abu Dhabi Local Law No. 5 of 2016 regulates groundwater.⁵⁸ The federal Ministry of Climate Change and Environment was created in 2016.²⁰

Strategy

The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 aims to cut total demand by 21% and raise reuse of treated water to 95%.⁵ It also targets water productivity of US$110 per m³ and more national storage (see Infrastructure).⁵ The national demand management programme had cut water use by 513 million m³ when the third NDC was published in November 2024.¹⁷ In June 2026 Abu Dhabi launched a water and energy resilience framework with 15 strategic measures.⁵⁹ DEWA works to an Integrated Water Resources Management Strategy 2030.³⁹

The UAE’s challenge is no longer basic supply but resilience. Almost all its water is made or mined, and the coast that hosts its plants faces rising seas.^2 17 Days above 35 °C are projected to rise steeply under high emissions (see Geography & climate).²⁴

The strategy points to lower demand, near-total reuse and deeper storage. Reverse osmosis is replacing thermal plants, and smart networks are cutting losses.^4 46 Expect the UAE to remain the region’s reference market for what water technology can do when capital is not the constraint.