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Desalination and the Middle East: research, practices, implications, and prospects
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  • Published: 12 January 2026

Desalination and the Middle East: research, practices, implications, and prospects

  • Noman Khalid Khanzada1,
  • Raed A. Al-Juboori1,2,
  • Yazan Ibrahim1,
  • Muzamil Khatri1,
  • Farah Ejaz Ahmed1,
  • Alicia Kyoungjin An3 &
  • …
  • Nidal Hilal1,4 

npj Clean Water , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Energy science and technology
  • Engineering
  • Environmental sciences

Abstract

Growing reliance on desalinated water, a vital resource for sustaining life, has greatly accelerated the worldwide endeavor to develop safe and sustainable desalination methods. The Middle East, well-known for its substantial oil reserves and hot weather, constitutes 46.9% (60.1 million m3/day) of contracted and 41.8% (28.96 million m3/day) of the current total operational desalination capacity worldwide (i.e., 128 million m3/day and 69.3 million m3/day, respectively). As a result, the region accounts for 50.68% (52.83 million m3/day) of the world’s brine production (104.2 million m3/day). This immense dependence of the Middle East on desalinated water has made desalination research imperative in academia and the region’s industries, hence making remarkable advancements in the field. This study encapsulates the six decades of desalination progression in the Middle East, sharing specifics of the facilities with “online/presumed-online” status. It shares desalination chronicles, capacity/user distribution, cumulative capital/operational expenditures trend, brine production/management practices, policies related to desalination/water security in the region, and plans. Also, it provides a comprehensive overview of the research and development (R&D) activities pertaining to desalination, highlights the top institutions/organizations actively engaged in research, classifies the investigated areas, and shares details of the funds supporting research and development in the region for advancing desalination.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study were obtained from Scopus, Google Patents, and DesalData. Data extracted from Scopus and Google Patents are available through their respective platforms, subject to their terms of use. DesalData is a proprietary database accessible only through a paid subscription (https://www.desaldata.com). The authors are unable to share raw data extracted from DesalData due to licensing restrictions. Processed or aggregated data used in the analysis are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and Tamkeen for funding the NYUAD Water Research Center. This work was supported by NYUAD Research Institute Award (Project CG007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research Center, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Noman Khalid Khanzada, Raed A. Al-Juboori, Yazan Ibrahim, Muzamil Khatri, Farah Ejaz Ahmed & Nidal Hilal

  2. Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Raed A. Al-Juboori

  3. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Alicia Kyoungjin An

  4. NYUAD Research Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Nidal Hilal

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N.K.K. conceived the idea for the review paper and wrote the first draft. R.A.A.-J., Y.A., M.Z., F.E.A., and A.K.A. provided the content for multiple sections and edited the multiple versions of the paper. N.K.K. and N.H. finalized the paper.

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Khanzada, N.K., Al-Juboori, R.A., Ibrahim, Y. et al. Desalination and the Middle East: research, practices, implications, and prospects. npj Clean Water (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-026-00554-x

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  • Received: 04 November 2025

  • Accepted: 02 January 2026

  • Published: 12 January 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-026-00554-x

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