Activating EtihadWE water and electricity in Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah or Umm Al Quwain is free online and AED 50 at a service centre. EtihadWE gives the service one working day and activates supply within 24 hours of the deposit being paid. You need an Emirates ID and an attested tenancy contract.
What you will not find easily is the deposit. Search for it and Google hands you a utility that stopped existing in 2020. The first organic result for etihad we ajman today is a six-year-old Facebook post that begins “FEWA's website…”, three of the results call the company Federal Electricity & Water Authority, and four of the nine questions Google suggests underneath still say FEWA. EtihadWE's own site does not appear in the organic results at all.
So people turn up at a counter in Ajman Industrial Area with a tenancy contract and no idea whether they need AED 500 or AED 5,000 on them. Every figure below was read on 8 October 2026 from EtihadWE's own pages and its own published Services Guide, with the date of each source stated, because one of them is four years old and it matters.
Who supplies water and electricity in Ajman, RAK, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain?
Etihad Water and Electricity, written EtihadWE, supplies all four. On its own About page the company states it was “established in 2020 under Federal Decree-Law No. (31)” and that it “builds on the legacy of the Federal Electricity & Water Authority” — FEWA, the authority it replaced. EtihadWE is wholly owned by the Emirates Investment Authority.
FEWA has not existed for more than five years, and searchers have not caught up. The numbers are stark: in the UAE, fewa is searched roughly 14,800 times a month against about 6,600 for etihadwe, and fewa bill runs about 4,400 a month against roughly 70 for etihad we bill. The retired brand still carries most of the demand.
Which towns does EtihadWE cover outside the four emirates?
EtihadWE's service area is wider than the four emirates in the headline. The company runs customer centres at Dhaid, Al Madam, Al Manama and Masafi, all of which sit inside Sharjah emirate, and at Dibba on the east coast.
A Sharjah address is therefore not automatically a SEWA address. Sharjah city and its coastal strip are billed by SEWA, while the central and eastern parts of the emirate are billed by EtihadWE on the federal schedule in this guide. Check which utility issues the bill before you budget a deposit, because the two publish different amounts and different documents.
One more detail explains a lot of the confusion about the legal boundary. FEWA was itself created in 1999 under Federal Law No. 31 of 1999, and EtihadWE in 2020 under Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2020 — the same number, twenty-one years apart. Pages across the web fuse the two into one instrument, which is how “Federal Decree Law 31” ends up attached to the wrong year.
What is the EtihadWE deposit for a new tenant?
EtihadWE's published Services Guide sets the deposit by meter type, not by the size of the property or the rent. For an ordinary flat or villa in the Northern Emirates that means a single-phase electricity meter and a 15 mm water meter. The two rows that cover almost every home are these:
So a standard permanent household connection for both services comes to AED 1,500. Larger meters carry higher deposits on the same schedule, rising into five and six figures for high-voltage supplies, which is why a commercial unit is not comparable to a flat.
How do you pay the EtihadWE deposit?
A deposit is not a fee, and EtihadWE's guide is explicit about what it is: “the amount paid by the customer to EtihadWe against the consumption of electricity and water, which is equivalent to part of the pre-determined consumption value according to the type of meter or tariff.” You get it back, which the move-out section below covers.
Monthly bills are a different matter and EtihadWE takes them almost anywhere: its customer centres, kiosk machines, eleven UAE banks, Al Ansari and Al Fardan exchanges, Emirates Post, the smart app and the website. The restriction applies to the connection deposit alone.
What documents does EtihadWE need to activate a connection?
For a property where the previous account has already been closed — the normal situation for a new tenant — EtihadWE calls the service Service Activation and lists the documents on the service page itself.
- A municipality-approved tenancy contract — not the unattested copy your landlord signed. In Ajman that means a Tasdeeq-attested contract, and attestation is a separate step with its own fee.
- A UAE PASS account. EtihadWE's site states that mandatory login using the national digital identity began on 1 September 2023, so the online route needs it.
- A working mobile number on the account. EtihadWE sends the deposit demand and the refund notice by text message, and the guide warns the supply depends on paying the deposit as soon as that message arrives.
- Signatures that match your Emirates ID and passport exactly — the guide calls out mismatched signatures as a cause of delay.
Attestation is the step that catches people out, because EtihadWE will not accept the contract without it and the municipality is a different authority with a different queue. Our guide to the Ajman tenancy contract and Tasdeeq sets out what Ajman charges and what it asks for.
How long does an EtihadWE connection take?
EtihadWE publishes two different numbers for the same service, and both are useful because they measure different things.
The 24-hour clock is the one that governs when the lights come on, and it starts at the deposit, not at the application. Apply on a Thursday afternoon without settling the deposit and the supply waits for you, not the other way round.
How do you get your EtihadWE deposit back when you move out?
Through the clearance certificate, which is the move-out counterpart of activation and the document your landlord will ask for before releasing your rental deposit. EtihadWE charges nothing for it online and AED 50 at a service centre, and gives the service three working days.
The sequence EtihadWE publishes is short. You apply for the final bill and clearance, an officer visits and takes the final meter readings, the supply is disconnected and a “service disconnected” sticker goes on the meter, a text message tells you the amount due, and the certificate follows once the amount is paid.
The deposit is refunded after your outstanding amounts are settled, and the refund route depends on the sum. Amounts up to AED 5,000 are paid in cash at a currency exchange centre or into your bank account; amounts above AED 5,000 are paid by cheque to a bank account. The guide names Al Ansari Exchange as the collection point and says you will get a text message when the money is ready.
How do you contact EtihadWE?
One number covers all four emirates. EtihadWE's call centre is 800 3392, published on its own site and staffed every day, 24 hours. The same number takes WhatsApp on +971 800 3392, and the company's live chat service is called Faris.
Email reaches EtihadWE at cs@etihadwe.ae. Bills, accounts, clearance certificates, drawing approvals and new connection requests all run through the website and the smart app, and EtihadWE stopped issuing paper bills in October 2017 — the green bill arrives by email and text instead, so an out-of-date email address on the account means no bill at all.
Ajman is also the emirate where our guide to AC repair and servicing costs explains which faults belong to EtihadWE and which belong to your own unit — a dead unit with other appliances out on the same circuit is a supply problem, not a repair job.
EtihadWE also runs walk-in centres across Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Dibba, Dhaid and the surrounding towns, each with its own direct number, email and opening hours. Hours differ between centres and the list changes, so take them from EtihadWE's own contact page on the day rather than from a guide.
The utility is the cheap part of moving to the Northern Emirates
Activation is free online and the deposit comes back. The costs that do not come back are the movers, the deep clean your landlord wants before he signs off the inspection, the handyman who has to remount everything the last tenant took down.
And that is where the Northern Emirates market quietly takes money off people. Lead-generation sites sell your phone number to whoever pays the most for it, then take a commission on the job as well — and that commission is sitting inside the price you were quoted. You never see it, but you pay it.
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Frequently asked questions about EtihadWE connections
How much is the EtihadWE deposit in Ajman?
EtihadWE's Services Guide, Third Edition, published July 2021, sets the permanent-connection deposit at AED 1,000 for a single-phase electricity meter and AED 500 for a 15 mm water meter, which is AED 1,500 for both. The deposit is set by meter type rather than by emirate, and EtihadWE's current online fees page publishes no deposit figure.
Is FEWA the same as EtihadWE?
EtihadWE replaced FEWA. Etihad Water and Electricity states on its About page that it was established in 2020 under Federal Decree-Law No. (31) and builds on the legacy of the Federal Electricity and Water Authority. FEWA supplied Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah before 2020, and fewa.gov.ae no longer resolves.
How long does EtihadWE take to connect water and electricity?
EtihadWE gives its Service Activation request an expected time of one working day, and states that utilities are activated to the property within 24 hours after the deposit is paid. Submitting the request takes about three minutes online or ten minutes at a service centre in Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah or Umm Al Quwain.
What documents do you need for an EtihadWE connection?
EtihadWE lists an Emirates ID or passport and a tenancy contract approved by the Municipality for every applicant, a commercial licence if the account is commercial, and the husband's Emirates ID with the Family Book where the property is for UAE national women's housing. Online applications also require a UAE PASS login.
Can you pay the EtihadWE deposit by credit card?
No. EtihadWE's Services Guide states that deposits may be accepted by cash or cheque, provided the cheque is not postdated, and specifically not by credit card. Credit cards are accepted for monthly bills through the app, website and kiosks, but arriving at a service centre with only a card will not settle the connection deposit.
How do you get an EtihadWE deposit refund?
Apply for a clearance certificate when you move out, which EtihadWE provides free online or for AED 50 at a service centre within three working days. The deposit is refunded once outstanding amounts are settled: up to AED 5,000 in cash or to a bank account through Al Ansari Exchange, and above AED 5,000 by cheque.
Last updated: October 2026. Fees, documents and service times were read on 8 October 2026 from etihadwe.ae. Deposit amounts are from EtihadWE's Services Guide, Third Edition, created 28 July 2021, and are the most recent figures EtihadWE has published.
