Circulations and transformations of energy and water in Abu Dhabi’s hydrosocial cycle

Abstract Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is a rapidly developing state reliant on modern water production and distribution systems to support its economic growth and urban development. Whilst often conceptualized as a rentier state, its urban water sector has undergone major economic restructuring over the last decade, resulting in an increasingly important role for the private sector in developing new supplies. These supplies primarily comprise desalination and recycled wastewater, which require substantial capital investment, complex technology and energy supplies. This paper examines the production of water in Abu Dhabi, showing how the transformation and circulation of water have created new landscapes that bear little resemblance to the arid physical environment of the Arabian peninsula, and new patterns of water consumption that are increasingly divergent from traditional careful management. It demonstrates the central role of the energy sector in driving the production and circulation of water – for instance, by powering desalination plants, providing the investment capital for these complex facilities, subsidizing operations and consumer tariffs, and by negotiating access with neighbouring states. The paper argues that Abu Dhabi’s hydrosocial cycle cannot be understood in isolation of a consideration of energy, and, consequently, that the infeasibility of isolating water from wider physical, economic and social influences in complex contexts challenges previous approaches to the relationship between water and state power.