Metito is a Dubai-headquartered water company that invests in, develops, builds and operates desalination, drinking water and wastewater treatment plants, largely through public-private partnerships and long-term concessions. Its plants serve municipalities, industrial complexes and oil and gas operators in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and Europe, and the group's industrial water treatment work for refineries, petrochemical plants and power stations places it among the water suppliers to the energy sector.
Origins and technology firsts
The business was founded in 1958 in Beirut by Lebanese entrepreneur Farouk Ghandour, joined in 1966 by his brother Mutaz Ghandour, who is chairman. It says it was the first company to introduce reverse osmosis desalination for drinking water outside the United States, in 1972, and it opened manufacturing in Houston and an engineering and design centre in Wimbledon, London, in 1977. Metito Utilities' key shareholders are The Arab Energy Fund, a multilateral financial institution focused on the MENA energy sector, and Zamil Group Investment Company, the investment arm of the Saudi Zamil Group.
What the group operates
Metito Utilities works through project finance structures including build-operate-transfer, build-own-operate, build-own-operate-transfer and takeover-operate-transfer, and also sells consulting and management contracts and long-term operations and maintenance services. Two platforms extend its reach:
- Africa Water Infrastructure Development, or AWID, launched in 2023 with British International Investment to develop climate-resilient water projects across Africa
- DouroECI, a Portuguese business acquired to add water network monitoring and management capability
The group reported more than 25 years of PPP experience and more than 40 projects delivered across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Rwanda and Serbia. Between 2008 and 2018 it built a wastewater business in China that at its peak managed 1.8 million cubic metres a day of treatment capacity before being sold as a capital recycling transaction in 2017.
Landmark plants
Metito's reference list is dominated by large plants. It commissioned the first public-private partnership wastewater treatment plant in the Middle East and North Africa, at Dubai Investment Park, with 56,000 cubic metres a day of capacity, and the first PPP bulk water treatment plant in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Kigali, Rwanda, at 40,000 cubic metres a day.
In Egypt it delivered the Galala seawater reverse osmosis plant at 150,000 cubic metres a day and took part in the New Delta agricultural drainage reuse scheme, rated at 7.5 million cubic metres a day, which the company describes as the largest of its kind in the world. In Saudi Arabia it built desalination capacity for NEOM at 125,000 cubic metres a day, floating barge desalination units of three times 50,000 cubic metres a day, an independent wastewater plant at Dammam of 200,000 cubic metres a day expandable to 350,000, and a Jubail seawater reverse osmosis plant of 1 million cubic metres a day. Its largest project to date is a 500,000 cubic metre a day seawater treatment plant for ADNOC in Abu Dhabi, and it also built a 400,000 cubic metre a day desalination plant in Chennai, India, and the Al Wakrah and Al Wukair wastewater PPP in Qatar at 150,000 cubic metres a day.
Recent contracts
In December 2025 a consortium led by Metito Utilities, co-led by Etihad Water and Electricity and SkyBridge, was awarded the Hadda independent sewage treatment plant project in the Makkah Province of Saudi Arabia. In September 2026 the company won the operation and maintenance contract for the Dubai South sewage treatment plant from Dubai World Central Corporation; the plant, near Al Maktoum International Airport, treats 10,000 cubic metres a day using membrane bioreactor technology with ceramic membranes. Metito also operates the Zrenjanin water and wastewater PPP in Serbia, where the plant opened to public visits in 2026 and received a city award in 2025.
People and contact
The company markets itself as Metito Utilities and maintains offices across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe, listed on its global footprint pages together with its project portfolio. General enquiries go to a single group address, [email protected], and the group publishes news releases through its media centre.