< PreviousINDUSTRY TRENDS 20 Utilities Middle East / July 2020 www.utilities-me.com As the world’s population grows, the number of people facing water scar- city issues is expected to rise, with some estimates pitting the number of people experiencing water shortages to be at 60 percent by 2025. With 97 percent of the world’s water in oceans, seawater desalination represents a major opportunity for alleviating water stress across the globe. But the process can be expensive and time consuming due to the complexity of the treat- ment process. At most plants, electrical energy accounts for about 35 to 40 percent of total oper- ating costs, which is why sustainable, energy-effi - cient desalination is at the forefront of research into developing clean water technologies. Today, more than 20,000 desalination plants are operating in 150 countries, according to data Emirate’s total CO2 emissions. Given the fast growth of global desalination capacity, devel- opment of clean-energy driven, energy-effi - cient freshwater generation, particularly seawa- ter desalination, is more urgent than ever now- adays.” In an eff ort to generate both energy and water using a renewable energy process, Professor Wang and a team from KAUST have developed a system that captures heat shed by solar panels to be used to generate clean drinking water. “Among all renewable energy, solar energy has the highest natural abundance and lowest geo- graphical limitation,” Wang said. “Solar power generation by photovolta- ics (PV) occupies the central piece in the global fi ght against climate change. PV panels, how- ever, suff er from an over-heating problem during from the American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers. The two main types of desalination pro- cesses are membrane (reverse osmosis, or RO) and thermal, which includes multi-eff ect distil- lation (MED) and multi-stage fl ash distillation (MSF) technology. “Any proper water treatment process, espe- cially desalination, consumes energy,” Peng Wang, professor of environmental science and engineering at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Uni- versity of Science and Technology (KAUST), said, underscoring the importance of develop- ing a clean-energy driven desalination protocol across the globe. “For example, in Saudi Arabia, around 10 per- cent of the [country’s] electricity is used for sea- water desalination. In Abu Dhabi, the desalina- tion sector contributes more than 22% of the With 97% of the world’s water in oceans, seawater desalination represents a major opportunity for alleviating water stress across the globe. Energy-efficient processes seek to streamline desalination processes to address future water security concerns TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DESALINATIONINDUSTRY TRENDS www.utilities-me.com July 2020 / Utilities Middle East 21 daytime, especially in arid and semi-arid regions where solar irradiation is high. In summer, PV panels in these areas can be 104° F hotter than the ambient air. Therefore, there is a huge amount of heat produced and wasted on PV panels daily.” Wang’s research team has developed a strat- egy of photovoltaic-membrane distillation (PV- MD), which turns the extra heat generated from PV panels into a power source to drive a multi- stage membrane distillation (MD) process to pro- duce fresh water from seawater. In the PV-MD system, the MD component is attached directly onto the back of commercial PV panels and the heat produced by the PV panels fl ows into the MD component naturally. While the heat fl ows through the multistage MD, the latent heat from vapour condensation is collected and reused to drive multiple cycles of water evaporation, leading to a high freshwater production rate. “The beauty of PV-MD is that the water desali- nation [process] on the backside of the PV panel does not aff ect regular electricity generation by PV, achieving simultaneous and effi cient gener- ation of electricity and fresh water on the same panel,” he said. “The two processes — electricity generation and water desalination — are solely driven by solar energy.” While solar energy can bring desalination pro- cesses forward in their quest to obtain sustain- ability, looking at battery power could also help alleviate some of the energy-effi ciency issues in the process, as is shown by research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the past several years, university researcher Kyle Smith has proven his growing expertise in the fi eld of water desalination through various proj- ects. Smith’s latest work involves deionization devices that can reversibly store and release cat- ions using a class of materials commonly used for rechargeable batteries: intercalation materials. This work in particular addresses the challenge of cycling intercalation materials with fast rates of electron, ion, and fl uid transport, features that are diffi cult to achieve simultaneously in a single system. “The process that we are developing uses bat- tery-type materials to absorb and release ions from water,” Smith said. His team fabricated opti- mized electrodes containing insulative Prus- sian Blue analog particles, and used them in an experimental cation intercalation desalination (CID) cell with symmetric electrodes. Results of the experiment showed a nearly 10-fold increase in the rate of salt removal at similar energy consumption levels to past CID demonstrations. The use of such materials has the potential to reduce the environmental burden of desali- nation by leveraging the very high ion concen- trations that are achievable inside of these solid materials (approximately 4 moles of sodium per litre for Prussian blue analogs). “In principle, this high degree of ion storage can be used to get high water recovery in desal- ination, thus producing minimal brine that requires disposal or further treatment,” he said. “Such materials also have an ability to absorb particular ions in a selective way, which opens up opportunities for more effi cient water treatment processes where only specifi c contaminants need to be removed.” While the technology has until now only been tested on a small scale, Smith says the potential for scaling up to be used in large desalination plants is possible. Advances continue to be made in desali- nation technology, especially incorporating “smart” applications. Smarter systems designed to detect, anticipate, and manage desalination issues before they become signifi cant problems, as well as improvements in process control, monitoring, and response, have the potential to enhance day-to-day operations. Last year, Dubai Electricity and Water Author- ity (DEWA) announced plans to power the region’s desalination plants with solar power, and save approximately $13 billion between now, and 2030, with a capacity target of 305 million gallons per day. “Dubai is pushing for increased effi ciency in the production of water. We are already in the fi nal stages of a large scale integration of renew- able energy in our water production processes,” said Jamal Shaheen Al Hammadi, vice prresident of Clean Energy & Diversifi cation Business Devel- opment & Excellence at DEWA. “Photovoltaic reverse osmosis will now become the new trend as we aim for 100% renew- able energy desalination in Dubai. This supports our eff orts to boost water production in the emir- ate.” DEWA received 5 bids from Cranmore Part- ners from the UAE and UK; Synergy from India and the USA; Deloitte from the USA; Pricewater- houseCoopers from the UK, and Ernst & Young from the UK. “DEWA intends to desalinate all its water pow- ered by a mix of clean energy that uses envi- ronmentally sustainable energy by 2030. This means Dubai will exceed global targets for using clean energy to desalinate water,” said Al Ham- madi. In 2016, Suez, (now ENGIE) launched a pilot 100 cubic meters per day desalination plant in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi, as part of the utility’s drive to incorporate newer technologies. “The plant has been successfully tested to run 100% on solar power. This is an important step towards achieving our goals and a major break- through in the region’s desalination,” according to Pierre Pauliac, Middle East chief executive for Suez (ENGIE). “There is no longer any doubt we can now run a desalination plant on solar power. Our next step now is to take these fi ndings and apply them to industrial scale desalination. “I am very optimistic that in the next eighteen months we will have solar panels powering large scale desalination plants because we have tried it and it will work.” INDUSTRY TRENDS 22 Utilities Middle East / July 2020 www.utilities-me.com The global pandemic COVID-19 has dis- rupted businesses and lives world- wide. Many have been asking us about its impact on the water sector, and there are four areas where we are seeing the eff ects of this virus on our industry. These are incredibly uncertain times and the sit- uation is changing rapidly, but here are our current thoughts on the implications for water & waste- water utilities, impact on companies providing water equipment and technologies, changes in industrial sector demand for water solutions, and opportunities arising for investors. The challenge of resiliency for water & waste- water utilities Providing clean water – and safely treating waste- water – is a critical but often thankless task which many people take for granted. For water and wastewater utilities around the world, we see resiliency as their critical challenge, specifi cally being able to keep enough people at work over the response to the economic impact of the crisis. Water utility stocks are proving to be relatively resilient in these turbulent times. For example, the share prices of Severn Trent and United Utili- ties – two listed water companies serving around 15 million people in the UK – are within 1-2% of where they were three months ago, yet in the same time period the FTSE 100 has fallen 33%. So how might utility spending be aff ected by the COVID-19 crisis? Looking back to the recession of 2008-09, we saw utility operating costs relatively unaff ected by the recession. On the other hand, while capital expenditure was aff ected, there was a delayed impact as many larger municipal projects have relatively long timeframes. Importantly the 2008-09 recession was primarily a fi nancial crisis, and today, capital is both plentiful and cheap. The impact today is more likely to be delayed construc- tion timetables as utilities and companies post- pone projects and focus on keeping people safe. In months ahead, as governments may choose to take advantage of cheap capital to stimulate coming days, weeks and months to be able to treat and distribute the clean water which billions of people depend upon. What gives us optimism is that utility leaders combine a lifetime of dedication to protecting human health with strong problem-solving capa- bility, honed after years of juggling resources to address the multiple challenges that operating ageing infrastructure brings. In terms of demand changes, while people will (hopefully) wash their hands much more fre- quently, the increase in demand for water is likely to be minimal and well-within the capacity of the system. All the cleansers and sanitisers being used will end up in wastewater treatment systems, where we expect biological treatment systems to continue to function well. In some countries – like Bahrain – the govern- ment has stepped in to cover the cost of water bills, protecting their utility from any potential reve- nue shortfall. Some 90 US cities and states have also suspended water shutoff s for unpaid bills in While people will (hopefully) wash their hands much more frequently during the era of covid-19, the increase in demand for water is likely to be minimal and well-within the capacity of the system, say experts at Amane Advisors THE WATER SECTOR IN THE ERA OF COVID-19INDUSTRY TRENDS www.utilities-me.com July 2020 / Utilities Middle East 23 their economy and invest into infrastructure, we may see increased spend on pumps, pipes, valves and water technologies. For example, in the US, utility capital invest- ment actually increased during the 2008-09 crisis. However, the impact of public procurement proj- ects being halted during the crisis hit the water industry a couple of years later, with a subse- quent drop of 12% and 11% in water and wastewater CAPEX respectively between 2009 and the 2011- 12 period. Disruptions to companies providing water equipment and technologies The supply chain in the water sector is very broad, from technology start-ups to global multi-nation- als; from companies making individual compo- nents to those supplying or building complete solutions; from deep sector specialists to broad generalists. For all of these companies we see two core chal- lenges – fi rst, keeping their own people safe and protecting manufacturing and supply chains, and second, dealing with a potentially signifi cant pause or decline in demand. What was initially viewed as a supply chain dis- ruption in China has rapidly spread to become a global disruption. We know our clients are work- ing very hard to protect their staff and, in doing so, to keep manufacturing and assembly sites open so that they can continue to produce their goods and supply services. Industrial sector demand for water solutions turns conservative We look at industrial demand both in terms of what is being bought (i.e. products, solutions, services, etc.), and which industrial segment is buying. Broadly speaking, we expect expenditure on services such as legionella testing or outsourced O&M) to be fairly resilient, as long as companies continue to operate. Spend on consumables may fall roughly in line with the reduction in industrial output, as when you produce fewer goods you also treat less water or wastewater and hence need fewer replacement membranes for example. Capital expenditure is more likely to see a sig- nifi cant pause or decline. Capital expenditure on water and wastewater systems is typically driven by one of two basic needs: fi rstly, expansion of treatment capacity to provide additional vol- umes of water and/or wastewater treatment; or secondly, replacing ageing assets and/or install- ing upgrades to provide better quality and con- sistency of water or wastewater treatment. In the latter case, a portion of wastewater investments may be required to meet regulatory requirements. In uncertain times we expect industrial & com- mercial companies in general to look to conserve cash and defer capital expenditure where possi- ble. The decision to defer replacing or upgrading water or wastewater assets is a relatively easy one to make, and we expect many companies – espe- cially smaller businesses with lower cash reserves and shorter timeframes in mind than some of the larger multi-nationals – to pause capital projects. During the 2008-09 crisis we saw overall invest- ment in the US in industries such as Microelectron- ics and Pulp & Paper fall by 25%, and as ~10% of all capital expenditure in these industries is on water & wastewater, it will clearly have a direct reduction on the water equipment expenditure. In addition, management time today will be occupied by planning to protect their own staff and to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and com- panies may look to restrict access to their manu- facturing sites as they look to decrease the likeli- hood of a full shut down on their own sites. In the 2008-09 fi nancial crisis we saw the market for ion exchange resins – commonly used in industrial water treatment – fall by more than 2-3x the change in GDP, before recovering much more strongly than GDP in 2010-11, as companies chose to defer purchasing new resins and instead chose to run their existing resin assets for longer, potentially at a higher operating cost. In terms of specifi c industries: • Power is typically fairly resilient, with expendi- ture on water only falling ~5% in the 2008-09 crisis, due to strong underlying demand for energy, how- ever the long-term shift to renewables (with min- imal need for water) will continue to depress demand for water treatment solutions • Sectors such as Food & Beverage and Pulp & Paper may see a small short-term increase in demand as manufacturers look to compensate for panic buying, however the mid to longer-term demand is likely to be broadly stable, with lower cyclicality than GDP • Oil & Gas has already seen signifi cant declines in the oil price (also in the face of overproduc- tion, independent of the pandemic) and this will likely aff ect decisions on large-scale capital pro- grammes, and we would expect greater cyclical- ity than GDP • Commercial and hospitality sectors are likely to be most aff ected by the COVID-19 crisis, with many pausing operations as people practice social dis- tancing Opportunities for investors amidst uncer- tainty The picture so far for equity investors is very mixed. As of March 19th, many water companies have seen falls in their share price which mirror the falls in standard indices, however as we noted above pure water utility stocks have been shown to be very resilient. However, these troubled times will also present many opportunities for investors, and especially for investors with ready access to capital and a long-term view, including sovereign funds, family offi ces and private equity fi rms. For larger corporates, this is an optimal time to look for the tuck-ins which help strengthen prod- uct portfolio, customer access or geographic reach. BEYOND COVID-19 In looking beyond and reimagining business models for a “new normal”, the future looks brighter for the power and utilities (P&U) sector than it does for many others. When the economy hits the upside of the seesaw, P&U companies will be among the first to rebound. As the eff ects of COVID-19 ripple across the globe, power, utilities & renewables (PU&R) companies are understandably focused on keeping their assets online and providing safe, reliable supplies of electricity and natural gas. Many Power, Utilities & Renewables (PU&R) companies are being proactive in helping their communities by deferring payments, suspend- ing shut-off s, and providing free supplies to unemployed people and hospitals. Overall, demand has declined but it has not collapsed. The most signifi cant impact is being felt in manufacturing and production centres where industrial demand has decreased, but there is an increase on residential customer demands. Owing to the decrease in demand, prices in electricity wholesale markets have decreased, along with LNG and CO2 prices. On the renew- ables side, many companies have been suff er- ing from disruption in the supply chain over the last two months. However the recovery of activity in China will reduce signifi cantly the impact in the near term. The energy sector has already felt the impact of Covid-19. The outbreak has contributed to a dampened demand for oil, resulting in plum- meting prices and declining production, espe- cially in the wake of the Russia-OPEC price war. According to the IEA Oil Market Report – April 2020, global oil demand is expected to fall by a record 9.3 mb/d year-on-year in 2020. Demand in April is estimated to be 29 mb/d lower than a year ago, down to a level last seen in 1995. Covid-19 has also accelerated the con- tinued drop of gas prices. A similar trend of falling demand and price reduction can be observed in the electricity sector. Europe has faced a record collapse in electricity prices. In many European coun- tries, power prices have turned negative. This is evidenced by the data from Nord Pool (Europe’s leading power market) and HUPX (Hungarian Power Exchange) regarding prices in the day-ahead market. Such a situation is considered normal in some countries during weekends or holidays, but now negative fi g- ures are also fi xed on weekdays. Unsurprisingly, the strictness of confi ne- ment measures correlates with drops in con- sumption: 25% in Italy, 20% in France, 12% in the United Kingdom. Another concern is the impact of the reduced demand on utility com- panies’ cash fl ows and the spill over eff ect this has on the energy sector. Many companies across diff erent sectors globally have ceased or decreased capital expenditures where possible, and the energy sector is no exception. For example, Distribu- tion System Operators (DSOs) are delaying most initiated projects, resulting in a substan- 24 Utilities Middle East / July 2020 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREwww.utilities-me.com July 2020 / Utilities Middle East 25 COVER FEATUREtial decrease in the procurement of goods and services. Non-critical investments have been suspended. The fulfi lment of investment pro- grams by Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and DSOs is also at risk. China, which is among the countries most heavily aff ected by the coronavirus, is the main global producer of many clean energy technol- ogies, such as solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. Since coronavirus has delayed deliv- eries from China, renewable energy compa- nies are not able to comply with deadlines for equipment installation. For instance, in India alone 3,000 MW of solar and wind energy projects face delays, due to the coronavirus lockdown. BYD, the world’s leading producer of rechargeable batteries, was unable to complete tests of new models of rechargeable batteries due to the pandemic, and this has led to a reduction in delivery vol- umes of rechargeable batteries for the Euro- pean market. In many countries, customers have been advised by energy regulators and govern- ments to delay the payment of utility bills. Defaults on payments cause cascade eff ect and impact the whole sector. Although there is widespread tolerance of non-payment by end-users, policymakers did not explicitly defi ne if leniency towards non- payment would be applied further along the supply chain (to DSOs, TSOs, suppliers and pro- ducers). So far, none of the Contracting Par- ties of the Energy Community have explicitly defi ned who will bear the costs of fi nancing this debt. The waiving of interest and bans on dis- connection will most likely increase costs for DSOs. Consequently, their revenues will be decreased and, if the crisis continues, their fi nancial status will deteriorate. It is inevitable Crises create enormous risks for companies. They also generate opportunities. It is clear from the results of the latest EY Global Capital Confidence Barometer that power and utilities (P&U) executives are starting to look to the future, even as they address the immedi- ate needs of keeping their people safe and their compa- nies operating.” ” Arnaud de Giovanni, EY 26 Utilities Middle East / July 2020 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREthat all this would negatively impact the cash fl ow and short-term liquidity of DSOs. A lack of working capital to fi nance short-term liabilities for regular operation is expected within two to three months if the situation persists. Countries around the world are taking steps to support the energy sector and to miti- gate the negative eff ects of the crisis. There are myriad challenges that policy makers, regula- tors, TSOs and DSOs need to address to ensure energy security. Europe’s energy regulators have already taken special measures to ensure a safe and reliable energy supply by guaranteeing essen- tial services such as gas, heating and power, as well as measures aimed to ease fi nancial requirements on consumers who face eco- nomic diffi culties during lock down (bill-pay- ing measures for vulnerable consumers to avoid disconnections). In some countries, certain measures have also been taken to support the renewables sector. For instance, Poland’s government has developed a draft of the so-called Anti-Crisis Shield Act, which provides the President of the Energy Regulatory Authority with the right to extend deadlines for renewable energy pro- ducers for commencement of sales within the auction system. DSOs have implemented a number of orga- nizational measures related to the safety of personnel, ensuring maintenance activities, securing supplies, etc. The security and safety of dispatch centres is ensured by means of: isolated teams in dispatch centres with back- up teams in isolation on stand-by; restricted access to dispatch centres and to stand-by units; and standby teams composed of retired staff , in order to maintain the safety and pre- vent the exhaustion of key staff , and address the issue of the lack of qualifi ed and trained key staff . But as countries assess the damage caused by Covid-19 on their economies, experts believe that power and utilities (P&U) compa- nies are better prepared than most to address the immediate implications and see M&A opportunities in a post-pandemic world. “Crises create enormous risks for compa- nies. They also generate opportunities. It is clear from the results of the latest EY Global Capital Confi dence Barometer that power and utilities (P&U) executives are starting to look to the future, even as they address the imme- diate needs of keeping their people safe and their companies operating,” says Arnaud de Meanwhile, renew- ables producers, captur- ing a greater market share of total generation with assets that have guaran- teed tariff s, have been rel- atively shielded from the impact and will remain relatively healthy in the short- and medium- terms.” ” Arnaud de Giovanni, EY Giovanni, EY Global Power & Utilities TAS Leader. “Widespread containment measures imple- mented in response to COVID-19 have gener- ated signifi cant disruption to economic activ- ity. With the sharp slowdown in industrial and commercial activities, demand for electric- ity has dropped by approximately 15% to 20% across Europe, India and the US.” While dramatic, EY Global Capital Confi - dence Barometer results — which captured the sentiment of survey respondents between 4 February and 26 March 2020 — suggest that as an essential provider of electricity, gas and water, the P&U sector has been less signifi - cantly impacted than many other sectors, especially when compared with consumer- facing sectors, such as tourism, hospitality and retail. Among utility subsectors, however, there has been diversity regarding the impact. “Electricity and gas retailers were the fi rst to experience the negative eff ects of the pandemic. Household utility consumption increased as people spent more time at home,” says de Giovanni. “However, this couldn’t off set the sharp drop in industrial and commercial demand. Elec- tricity generators followed, with many seeing declines in revenues and pricing as supply chains and commercial businesses in many parts of the world remain shuttered.” “Meanwhile, renewables producers, captur- ing a greater market share of total generation with assets that have guaranteed tariff s, have been relatively shielded from the impact and will remain relatively healthy in the short- and medium-terms.” Cautiously optimistic about economic growth within the sector and the M&A market, P&U executives have more confi dence than their global peers about returning to deal making post-crisis. www.utilities-me.com July 2020 / Utilities Middle East 27 COVER FEATUREavailability,” says de Giovanni. “Companies that can bridge their external growth invest- ments with equity while debt-fi nancing mar- kets are unavailable will have the advantage.” However, even among those with cash on hand, there may be few willing to pull the trig- ger on transformative deals. Instead, 42% of respondents said they will be looking at bolt- on acquisitions that complement current busi- ness models. For now, people safety, business continuity and liquidity are top concerns as P&U compa- nies plan for unexpected events. They devote a signifi cant amount of time on emergency plan- ning and the ability of their assets to remain operational, even in times of crisis. As a result, they were better prepared for COVID-19 from a business continuity and resil- iency standpoint than most. They are also better positioned to look at opportunities as resiliency turns to resurgence in a post-pan- demic environment. Widespread containment measures implemented in response to COVID-19 have generated significant dis- ruption to economic activity. With the sharp slowdown in industrial and commercial activities, demand for electricity has dropped by approximately 15% to 20% across Europe, India and the US.” Arnaud de Giovanni, EY In the fi rst six weeks of 2020, as stock mar- kets reached record highs, 48% of P&U respon- dents expected the M&A market to improve in the following 12 months. As COVID-19 advanced into a global pandemic, this rose to 59%. And it appears P&U executives expect to turn sentiment to action, with 58% of respon- dents surveyed after 19 February 2020 saying they will pursue M&A in the next 12 months. When asked whether their M&A strategy and outlook had been aff ected by COVID-19, 26% said it provided an opportunity to gain market share. This willingness for expansion may fuel the M&A pipeline. As the pandemic waxes and wanes in dif- ferent parts of the world at diff erent times, we expect P&U companies with the means to con- sider cross-border expansion. Respondents regard Canada, France, Brazil and India as top destinations for M&A activity. “Of course, all of this will hinge on credit “For now, we expect P&U companies to pri- oritize their people’s safety and continue to implement their crisis action plans, while reshaping strategies for recovery. This includes keeping cash on hand and reinforcing credit lines,” says de Giovanni. As P&U companies prepare for what hap- pens next, an acceleration of the transforma- tion agenda will be seen. Sixty-eight percent of P&U respondents said they have a signifi cant business and technology transformation pro- gram underway. So, while some companies may have pressed pause in favour of crisis management, in the near- to midterm, we expect it to be elevated back up the agenda as they look to strengthen their resilience and prepare for a resurgence. A number of utilities interviewed by EY pro- fessionals have spoken of their surprise at how successful remote working has been or how eff ective digital channels have become in their interactions with customers. Already, COVID-19 has P&U organisations re- evaluating their operating models in response to the crisis. Eighty-three percent said it is aff ecting decision-making around their global supply chains, 74% said it will change how the workforce is managed, and 72% said it will accelerate their speed to automation. Circumstances regarding the economic impact of COVID-19 continue to change by the day, making the future hard for any organiza- tion to predict. P&U companies are better pre- pared than most to address the immediate implications and turn their attention to plan- ning for the next and thinking beyond. Lessons learned from the 2008–12 M&A downturn show that it was an opportunity to make acquisitions of high-quality assets that would have fuelled faster growth in a recover- ing market. With more than half of P&U respon- dents intending to pursue M&A in the next 12 months, P&U companies seem to have an appe- tite to seize these opportunities to accelerate their recovery. While opportunities for resurgence will abound, P&U companies will need to be pre- pared for more lasting consequences. People are fi nding new ways to work, travel and entertain themselves. P&U companies will have to consider how these shifts in behav- ioural trends and customer experiences will impact them and the steps they’ll need to take to reimagine their business models for a new normal post-pandemic. 28 Utilities Middle East / July 2020 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREA SPECIAL REPORT FROM UTILITIES MIDDLE EAST How advancements in technology are transforming water network management p31 Water in the era of Covid-19 A look at the need to boost water security in the region and how to overcome the impact of Covid-19 p 33 RESILIENCY IN WATERNext >