An adequate water supply and infrastructure are critically important to the health and economic development of all societies. They are even more critically important for countries of the Middle East for a number of reasons.

First, the Middle East is the world’s driest region, which presents daunting issues of its own. Most countries of the Middle East (with some exceptions including Iran, Iraq, and Syria), consume more fresh water per year than is available from renewable sources. Some countries, moreover, are experiencing significant population growth coupled with increased urbanisation and industrialisation that place tremendous additional stress on available water supplies and infrastructure.

 

Industry sources estimate that there are more than of $100-billion in current and planned water and wastewater projects across the Gulf region through 2020. This article will take a closer look at those projects and the underlying infrastructure that drives them.

 

Over the past 40 years and longer, water projects in the Middle East have focused on five major areas of infrastructure including dams, wells, pipelines, seawater desalination plants, and water treatment facilities.

 

The number of significant dams in the Region is in the hundreds.  Iran has the most dams, followed by Syria, and then Saudi Arabia. In the northern and eastern parts of the Middle East, dams on major river systems like the Tigris, Euphrates, and Karun are a major source of hydroelectric power. Iran currently has an active program to significantly increase the number of dams in the country to meet increased needs for both water and electrical power.  

 

In countries such as Saudi Arabia with no continuously flowing rivers of significant size, dams are built in wadis to capture brief but torrential rainfall in winter months, and make it available for use throughout the year. In Saudi Arabia, despite extensive dam construction, more than one half of the Kingdom’s water still needs to be provided by seawater desalination.    

 

Problems associated with some dams in the Region include basic infrastructure issues, aging hydro-electric generators, and reduction in reservoir capacity due to silting.    

Wells have played a critical role in the supply of water throughout the ages in the Middle East. In some areas, water from natural and manmade wells provided virtually the only source of water for survival of nomadic desert tribes for thousands of years. In recent times, programs to develop deep-aquifers have been implemented to supply the water needs of interior cities such as Riyahd and others. Major projects including the Bowaib Water Project and the Wasei Water Project were undertaken for that purpose. Exploration for new deep aquifers continues in the Middle East. In June of 2009, a reportedly large aquifer at a depth of 225 to 320 meters was discovered in southern Yemen near Al-Ghaliah. The first in a series of wells reportedly provides water at a rate of 1800 liters per minute. New drilling is currently ongoing to further develop the potential of the aquifer.

 

Despite the long history of wells as a reliable source of water for human populations, well water today can rarely meet the agricultural, industrial, and domestic needs of the much larger populations in the Middle East. It is increasing realised that overuse of water from underground aquifers is not a long-term solution to the water problem. Deep aquifers in rain-starved areas  have extremely long replenishment cycles. Some of the deep ground water, known as fossil water or paleowater, has been trapped and sealed for thousands of years and is virtually irreplaceable in a practical time frame of reference.

 

Problems associated with usage of subsurface ground water include overuse (aquifer depletion), infiltration by salt water that contaminates the source water, and in some cases contamination with natural radioactive isotopes of radium, such as recently discovered in  fossil water from the Disi Aquifer in Jordan.

 

The Middle East includes the largest share of the world’s desalination capacity.  Saudi Arabia, which operates approximately 30 desalination plants, is the single largest producer of desalinated water. In terms of world ranking, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait hold the number one, three, and four positions, respectively. The United States holds the second position. In the United Arab Emirates, desalination plants currently provide nearly 70% of the country’s water. Similar percentages apply for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

 

Industry sources estimate an annual 6% increase per year in the requirement for desalinated water in the Middle East, compared to a global growth rate of approximately 3%. This is largely due to the increasing population and urbanisation/industrialisation in the Gulf region. The depressed worldwide economy has done little to slow the demand for desalination projects in the Gulf because of the pressing need for water at almost any cost.  

 

The latest desalination plant commissioning in the Gulf region occurred in April 2009 in Saudi Arabia with the opening of the Jubail II facility by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. The plant employs Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) technology, and is the largest of its kind in the world. The facility includes 27 units, with each capable of producing 29,630 m³/day of fresh water. The combined capacity of all units is 800,000 m³/day. The plant reflects an efficient design that uses waste heat from an adjacent power plant to drive the distillation process.

 

Desalination of seawater in the Gulf region is critical to the supply of fresh water. Nevertheless, it is not without environmental consequences. Many desalination projects in the Middle East use thermal desalination technologies such as MED because of the abundance of fuels to generate heat for the distillation process. This has resulted in hot waste-water discharges into the Gulf that are increasing the temperature of the surrounding waters. The briny waste-water discharges also include heavy concentrations of salts, along with other pollutants including chlorine, anti-scalants, and copper that are increasing the salinity of the Gulf and contributing to higher local concentrations of other chemicals. Improved handling of waste water from desalination plants is the subject of worldwide study by industry and governments.

 

There is significant cost – in economic and environmental terms - for desalination of seawater. As a consequence, the rapid growth in desalination capacity must be balanced with forward-looking water policies to encourage conservation and discourage water wastage.

Water transmission pipelines in the Middle East are a critical part of overall water infrastructure.  Seawater desalination plants are located along the coast, while much of the water is used far inland. In Saudi Arabia, more than 4,000 km of water pipeline are used to distribute water throughout the Kingdom. The Saudi capital city of Riyahd, located in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, is serviced by multiple pipelines with a combined length of more than 460-km originating at desal plants in the coastal city of Jubail.  The population of Riyadh currently stands at nearly 6-million people, which places enormous demands on water supply and water infrastructure in the Kingdom. Although the distances may be lesser in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, and other countries in the Gulf region, the importance of pipeline transmission of fresh water is equally important.  

 

Current projects include a new pipeline in Saudi Arabia to supply the city of Taif near the Red Sea, and a tender for (5) new water pipelines in Kuwait between Mina Abdulla and West Funaitees. There are numerous other projects throughout the Gulf region, including widespread maintenance of existing pipelines to eliminate leakage that has been cited as a significant contributor to water shortages.

 

Governments of the Middle East have recognised that the long-term solution to the water problem in the Gulf region cannot consist solely of supply side solutions including more dams, wells, and desalination plants. While these projects have their secure place going forward, it is widely recognised that major expansion of wastewater treatment programs is required to achieve the ultimate goal of water sustainability. Water sustainability balances total consumption against total production from renewable sources, and minimises or eliminates dependence on nonrenewable sources such as fossil water. This suggests that a much larger portion of water must be recycled to reduce the demand for new water sources. 

 

Wastewater recycling is practiced in many parts of the world, and is growing. Water from the treatment process is typically used for agricultural irrigation, landscaping, district cooling water, and other industrial uses. Technologies employed involve some form of membrane filtration such as micro, ultra, or nanofiltration.

 

Wastewater treatment is currently experiencing a surge in the Middle East because of the 6% per year increase in demand for water resources. The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority in the UAE has recently contracted to construct two waste water treatment plants in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain totaling approximately $91-million. There are numerous other wastewater treatment projects throughout the Gulf region totaling in the billions of dollars. The need to reprocess water has also caught on with international hotel chains in Doha, Dubai, Riyahd, and other cities that are implementing water reclamation programs for landscaping and district cooling water.  Some even capture condensate water taken from the atmosphere by air conditioning units for secondary use in landscaping and other non-potable applications.

 

District cooling using chilled water is gaining popularity in the Gulf region as a means to reduce the huge electrical load posed by conventional air conditioning. One drawback is the large amount of water required for circulation from a central chiller to surrounding buildings including hotels, hospitals, universities, government buildings, and other commercial institutions. The use of recycled wastewater for this application is an emerging opportunity that offers obvious advantages to using valuable and scarce fresh water from desalination plants.

A number of technology and policy challenges have been identified in this article. Among those challenges are the following:

·       Minimisation of environmental impacts on seawater from desalination plants

·       Minimisation of nonrenewable fossil water as a water supply solution

·       Repair of damaged pipeline infrastructure 

·       Expansion of waste water treatment to increase water reuse

·       Minimisation of pricing subsidies for water to encourage conservation

·       Adoption of water-saving appliances to reduce consumption    

 

Many of the issues described are being actively addressed with the billions in project dollars on infrastructure expansion and improvements in the Gulf region. To be sure, additional work is required. Difficult decisions will have to be made in the area of legislation and water subsidies to leverage the gains made possible by the latest technologies in water desalination and filtration. However, based on the ambitious embrace of technological innovation for water solutions – and on the ongoing critical need for water – it is possible that the countries of the Middle East may be the first to achieve true water sustainability.

Contact:

Thomas Tschanz

Senior Consultant, McIlvaine Company

Email: Thomas.Tschanz@mcilvainecompany.com

www.mcilvainecompany.com