In October 2017, the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) announced plans to develop desalination plants as well as transmission and distribution systems to improve water quality in several areas of Sharjah. As TradeArabia reported, citing the state news agency WAM, SEWA had already installed 83 electronic sensors to measure pressure and flow in its networks, along with smart devices to locate leaks. The plans were presented when SEWA chairman Rashid Al Leem met a delegation from the French group Suez led by Pierre-Yves Pouliquen, Suez chief executive for Africa, the Middle East and India.
The report showed the utility treating new desalination capacity and distribution network monitoring as one task, since water from new plants only reaches households through a tight, well-controlled network.