In November 2015, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Qatar had added 144,000 m³/day (144 Ml/d) of desalination capacity. Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) inaugurated Ras Abu Fontas A2, a multi-stage flash plant costing US$504 million. At the same site near Al Wakra, work started on A3. Mitsubishi and Toyo Thai held the EPC contract, and Mitsubishi passed the desalination units to Acciona Agua. A3 was designed for 164,000 m³/day of drinking water and was Qatar's first large reverse osmosis scheme for public supply.
The report marked Qatar's move from thermal distillation towards large-scale reverse osmosis, and the project was also Acciona Agua's first desalination job in the country.