In September 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House), citing the Saudi Gazette, reported that the Saudi desalination agency SWCC and the Japanese funding body NEDO intended to jointly construct a reverse osmosis facility in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi cabinet approved the agreement on 26 September 2017. Firms from NEDO's Mega-ton Water Project, which sought to cut energy and chemical use in desalination and thereby costs, were to take part. The report gave no site, capacity or cost.
The report showed that Saudi Arabia wanted to bring Japanese research on more efficient reverse osmosis into its own projects to lower desalination energy use and costs.