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Intelligence

Technology briefs and monthly market briefings

Technology briefs explain what a water technology does and who pays for it, and are reviewed whenever the site is updated. Market briefings are published monthly and draw on our own procurement tracking. Both cite their sources in numbered references on the page.

Briefings are published monthly. Last update: 20 October 2026.

The latest briefing

Aerial view of a circular water tank and plant buildings at an industrial site in Libya
October 2026

MENA Water Market Briefing, October 2026

Turbid seawater stops most of Israel’s large desalination plants, Jordan’s water carrier wins United States financing approval, Riyadh East draws five bids and Tunisia’s Sousse plant comes on line.

Read the briefing

Technology briefs

UtilitiesDigital

Finding leaks from orbit: how network loss became a data problem

Satellites, acoustic loggers and smart meters have made leakage easier to find and measure. The water they recover is already treated and inside the network.

DesalinationResources

Brine: desalination's second product

On the 2019 global census, the region makes 48% of the world’s desalinated water and 70% of its brine. What the stream is, what the rules say about it, and how far brine mining has really got.

DesalinationFinance

The machines that halved the price of seawater

Between 2018 and 2020 the winning bid for desalinated water nearly halved, to 27.7 cents. The technology stack behind that number, why the record was never financed, and what has happened to prices since.

DesalinationDigital

Green hydrogen's water bill

Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt are backing large projects that make hydrogen from water. The volumes are modest; the specification, the source and the cooling choice matter more.

DigitalUtilities

Water for the machines: data centres in the desert

The Gulf is announcing AI campuses at gigawatt scale, with little said about water. What cooling actually draws, what operators disclose, and the column they leave blank.

GroundwaterInfrastructure

Banking water underground: the region's other reservoirs

Open reservoirs lose water to the desert sky. Recharge dams, infiltration basins and injection wells store it underground, and Abu Dhabi banked an emergency reserve in its dunes.

AgricultureDigital

Drip irrigation and the efficiency trap

Morocco alone had equipped about 794,000 hectares with drip and other localised irrigation by the end of 2023. Field efficiency is not saved water, unless someone caps the pumping and measures what crops consume.

ClimateDigital

Cloud seeding: what the rain-makers can and cannot buy

Morocco, the UAE and Saudi Arabia all fly national cloud-seeding programmes. What the science supports in cubic metres, what the programmes claim, and why the April 2024 storm became a governance lesson.

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