Global IssuesGULF: Search On For Green Options to Forestall Water Shortage
Realising that achieving water security in the future is not an option but a necessity, oil-rich Gulf countries are striving to find new environment-friendly and more economical ways of producing freshwater.
Rapid modernisation, combined with other factors, has led fresh groundwater sources to dwindle and fossil fuel-supported desalination to become more expensive in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
‘‘The water situation in the (Gulf) region is worsening because of several factors, including population increase, industrialisation, growth of tourism and wastage,’’ said Dr Mohammed Raouf, programme manager of environment research at the Gulf Research Centre, a Dubai-based think tank.
In the UAE, the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD), which is studying new renewable alternative energy sources to produce water, has launched two pilot projects to produce desalinated water from brackish and saline groundwater using solar energy.
According to the EAD, the real challenge is to increase the efficiency of solar energy collection system and reduce environmental impact.
Efforts are also under way to install 30 small-scale solar-powered desalination plants, which would first provide animals with watering holes in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi’s desert. The plants are scheduled to be functional next year.
The Gulf region has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. Its combined population is tipped to grow by 33 percent in little over a decade — from nearly 40 million people in 2008 to 53 million in 2020.
Raouf told IPS that it was alarming that nearly all international scientific reports on climate change were also predicting adverse impacts on the water situation because of temperature rise, inadequate rains and precipitation rates.
The Gulf is projected to become warmer by 3 to 5.9 degrees Celsius during this century. With desalination plants meeting between 85 and 99 percent of water requirements in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, and their share in Saudi Arabia and Oman (currently at about 50 percent) expected to increase, uninterrupted water supplies are a major concern.
The ‘Arab Human Development Report 2009’ points to deepening 'development fault lines' in the region that partly lie in the ‘‘fragility’’ of the political, social and economic structures as well environmental weaknesses, including water pollution and scarcity.
While nearly two-thirds of global desalination plants are located in the region, the International Desalination Association estimates that about 14 billion of 20 billion U.S. dollars of global investment in desalination plants over the next five years will be in the Middle East.
In terms of cost of production, Saudi Arabia, for example, uses around 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to operate about 30 desalination plants, which naturally impact the price of both water and oil.
With prices of fossil fuels having increased by about 300 percent since 2000, fossil fuel-powered desalination plants are being seen as neither sustainable nor economically feasible in the long term.
As part of efforts to identify potential technologies that will produce clean water and energy, the Saudi government announced in April the establishment of a scientific centre for civilian nuclear and renewable energy.
It is also implementing a plan to build environment-friendly solar-powered desalination plants that can reduce water and energy costs by 40 percent.
Research collaboration with computer giant IBM has led to the installation of the world’s largest solar-powered desalination plant in the kingdom. Expected to start operations in 2012, this plant will produce 29.9 million litres of water a day, serving 100,000 people.
Calling for better water management, environmentalist Raouf said that ‘‘apart from harvesting every drop of rainwater, efforts must also be made to protect reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. Simultaneously, available resources must be protected and conserved through the involvement of the public and non-government organisations, as well as consider privatising water supply.’’
Accordingly, in the realm of conservation, the UAE’s EAD has launched an ambitious ‘‘Watersavers’’ campaign this month. This entails installing water- saving devices for free in all households in Abu Dhabi.
In a region that is estimated to have the highest per capita consumption of water, such an effort is expected to help save 75 billion litres of water annually when all the 220,000 houses are fitted with more than half a million water-saving gadgets by 2013.
Complementing this effort is the commitment made by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority to attain 10 percent energy savings as well as 20 percent water usage cut this year.
The Federal National Council, UAE’s legislature, has warned that limited groundwater levels are plummeting while rainwater reserves are vanishing at alarming rates.
Noting that nearly 75 percent of rainwater stays on the surface without seeping, the UAE’s members of parliament have urged the government to repair dams and rain drain networks in order to conserve rainwater. Already, plans are underway to beef up the existing 114 dams in the UAE by building 68 additional dams.
For its part, Oman has launched a protection programme that will prevent further deterioration of several hundred ‘aflaj’ (ancient irrigation systems). Around 170 contracts were awarded in the first four months of 2010 to protect about 3,000 ‘aflaj’ and natural spring systems.
Among others, the focus on ‘aflaj’ — which are believed to be over 2,000 years old and in constant danger of cave-ins within the underground channels, leading to blockages and even complete destruction — reflects the momentum toward addressing water security concerns in the region.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service