In September 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House), citing the Oman Observer newspaper, reported that Oman's Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) had launched two tenders for desalination units of up to 10,000 m³/day at isolated sites without a grid connection, in Mahout (Wusta) and in Musandam governorate. Private companies were to build, own and operate them under the BOO model PAEW had introduced in 2015, with PAEW purchasing the water. Bids were due on 16 October. PAEW owned some 40 small plants totalling 45,000 m³/day.
The report showed Oman applying private operator models to remote communities as well, although in 2015 small units supplied only 11 of almost 300 million m³ of desalinated water.