ACWA Power, the world’s largest private company that specializes in desalination, won a tender that was announced by the Azerbaijani authorities in January 2025. As part of Azerbaijan’s first-ever public-private partnership and in collaboration with Turkey’s IC İçtaş İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., the company will build a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant on the Absheron Peninsula with a capacity of 100 million cubic meters of drinking water annually.
The plant, planned to be built in the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, is designed to address the increasing demand for drinking water in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and the adjacent regions of the peninsula, according to local media. Baku is home to several million residents.
The consortium will be responsible for the operation of the facility and the collection of revenues for 27.5 years, following which all rights will be transferred to the State Water Resources Agency of Azerbaijan.
It is important to mention that this is not the first significant infrastructure initiative ACWA Power implemented in Azerbaijan. The Saudi company has already constructed the 240 MW “Absheron-Khizi” wind power facility on the Absheron Peninsula, marking its entry into the local market in 2019.
The energy independence of Russia’s southern neighbors is being fortified through initiatives such as the installation of a high-voltage cable along the littoral of the Caspian Sea by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, desalination initiatives are associated with substantial environmental concerns.
Almost all Caspian region countries have made a critical error in their economic calculations by completely disregarding the potential ecological damage caused by human activity, according to environmental scientists. The Absheron desalination scheme is no exception. Even Baku’s clean water requirements are unlikely to be met by its capacity, let alone those of its suburbs and the rest of the peninsula, which collectively consume an order of magnitude more water. There is no mention of what happens to the extracted salt, and some say it will be dumped back into the Caspian. The plant works on the principles of reverse osmosis, in which the filters can remove up to 98% of mineral salts.
Nevertheless, the real question is whether the Caspian Sea, which is already experiencing a rapid decline, can withstand the additional salinity.
Scientists, who have long compared the Caspian to a refuse bucket, have issued a warning that the region’s environmental crisis is already having a significant impact on the countries that border the sea. The Caspian has receded so significantly in the last two decades that it has exposed 22,000 square kilometers of its former seabed.
The Russians contend that the shipping potential of the Volga-Caspian Canal is being diminished by the diminishing Caspian Sea. In actuality, the canal is only 4.5 meters deep, while the approaches to it from the sea are even shallower—just 4.2 meters. There are apprehensions that the northern, Russian portion of the Caspian Sea may ultimately lose its suitability for hydrocarbon extraction and navigation.
In the meantime, the port authorities of Kazakhstan have reported that the cost of sustaining navigational routes in the port of Aktau has increased significantly due to the shrinking sea, with expenses increasing by as much as 30% over the past five years.
In Azerbaijan, the cost of maintaining the Port of Baku has also increased significantly in a relatively brief period, resulting in similar issues.
According to official data, the region’s countries—Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran—experience an annual loss of $1 billion due to the Caspian Sea’s shrinkage.
This decline is attributed to both natural climate changes and human-induced factors by scientists who are conducting hydrological studies.
The degradation of coastal ecosystems, the disappearance of wetlands and deltas, which serve as habitats for numerous bird and fish species, is the result of the reduction in water surface area, according to the Russian Rosgidromet, a federal executive body responsible for the management of government property and the provision of government services in hydrometeorology and related areas. Habitat loss and disruptions in the food chain are putting rare species, including the Caspian seal and sturgeon, in peril.
Most around the region are acquainted with the environmental concerns that surround this distinctive, landlocked sea. This situation is reminiscent of the Aral Sea calamity, which has nearly vanished as a result of mismanagement of natural resources, short-sighted economic policies, and land use decisions.
To increase cotton production in Central Asian republics, an extensive irrigation system was built in the basins of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. This system effectively disconnected the Aral from its water supply. Consequently, the Aral Sea’s salt concentration began to increase swiftly, and its shrinkage eventually reached a point where both of Central Asia’s largest rivers—the Aral Sea’s sole sources of replenishment—ceased to flow into it, instead disappearing into the vast Kazakh steppes and semi-deserts.
However, environmentalists contend that the Caspian Sea is not yet at risk of experiencing the same fate as the Aral. The Aral was reliant on only two rivers—the Amu Darya and Syr Darya—whereas the Caspian is supplied with 80% of its water by 130 rivers, with the Volga, Ural, Terek, Sulak, and Samur being the largest.
However, there is no scope for complacency. The average water level of the Caspian has decreased by nearly three meters since 1995, reaching a level that is comparable to the 1977 minimum.
Currently, the average Caspian Sea level is approximately -29.5 meters below the global ocean level, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences. This implies that the Caspian has reached its lowest point in the past 400 years. It is challenging to anticipate future developments due to the difficulty of accurately calculating the primary determinants—atmospheric precipitation, river inflows, and evaporation. He also observed that the Volga continues to provide 90% of the Caspian’s inflow, and any further decrease in sea levels could potentially jeopardize several significant investment projects, particularly in the logistics sector.
The world is at risk of losing a unique natural complex and a vital source of invaluable resources sooner rather than later, and the regional countries should engage in serious international cooperation to save the Caspian Sea.