Aqua Engineering said today it would lead a consortium to build a large desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates.

Aqua, a unit of Austria's Christ Water Technology, will get $84 million of the $121 million contract in Sharjah in the UAE.

Christ said this is the largest order in the company's history.

"This project is the first stage of a total of five plants planned of similar size giving us good chances for follow-up orders," said Aqua managing director Johannes Laimer.

Aqua will be responsible for the delivery and assembly of the seawater reverse osmosis membrane plant, which is expected to take three years to construct.

The company said the plant will produce 91,000-meters-cubed of drinking water per day when complete.

Aqua's deal comes on the same day Spain's Acciona announced that one of its joint ventures will build a desalination plant in Umm Al-Quwain in the UAE (see Acciona ventures get desalination contracts).

In June, France's Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies said it received a contract to design and build one of the world's largest desalination plants in Saudi Arabia, which borders the UAE (see Veolia awarded huge desalination contract in Saudi Arabia).

That plant is expected to provide 800,000m3 of drinking water per day to Jubail and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Aqua supplies plants for the treatment of drinking water, waste water and desalination of seawater for small communities up to large cities.