Desalination of Sea Water PPP 060310

Costly need of GCC Countries and the UAE

Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi

JP MNZIM MD DPH MACP MRACGP DAB PhD

Abstract The earth’s surface is mostly covered by water, only one

percent of the total global water resources can be termed as fresh or drinkable while a considerable proportion of 97 percent is saline.

Many countries are therefore gratified to drain off out clean water from the oceans in a process known as desalination.

A World Bank report (2007) while raising the alarm on the undecided attitude of the GCC countries that are more concentrated on supply while ignoring the need to curb the demand warned that by 2050.

2Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA

05/03/23

The per capita water supply will be condensed by half if conservation and policy changes are not addressed.

The water problem has been further goaded by the rapid population growth among the GCC countries, by the unreasonably high average daily water consumption per capita which is one of the highest in the world averaging at between 300 – 750 liters daily.

A new system developed by a German-based ecological research firm has promised a ground-breaking procedure that would reduce the prevalent problem of unsafe waste from extracted seawater .

3Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

It is apparent that the future of the water supply in these countries is uncertain due to the over reliance on thermal technology.

This paper addresses the need to look at other sources of energy to power the desalination plants and to scrutinize the environmental concerns.


Introduction The Arabian Gulf region is immensely gifted

with some of the world’s foremost in demand energy deposits. Crude oil and Natural gas.

But is contrastingly scarce of the most valuable human resource, fresh water.

The region’s scorched surroundings is lying on top of the world’s major oil reserves.

It is also home to some of the harshest climatic conditions making it almost inhabitable.


The developmental gap relating the supply and demand for water within the GCC countries can be ascribed to the inadequate reachable surface water.

High population increase and urbanization development, Meager institutional planning, pitiable organizational strategies, water reduction and waning water quality, predominantly in shallow groundwater aquifers.

Understanding in the GCC countries divulge that desalination equipment has developed to a level where it can offer a consistent supply of water at a cost equivalent to that employed by conservative water sources. 6Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

Background and Main CharacteristicsThe Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf

(GCC) countries which encompass Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates inhabit most of the Arabian Peninsula sharing similar economic, social, and physiographical characteristics.

The fast population growth and fast socioeconomic evolution have not been equally matched by the availability of water resources.

On the other hand, need of closely controlled and well-organized use of the scanty water resources available has been cited as a contributory factor to the poor state of affairs (Dawoud, 2008).


The widespread prosperity generated from the rich oil revenues which accounts for a third of total GDP, three-fourths of government revenues and exports among the GCC economies.

The drastic changes are exemplified by the rapid rise in life expectancy by ten years between 1980 to 2000 to 74 years and literacy rates rising from 20 percent to 80 percent within the same period.

Equally by 2002, the standard per capita income reached a high of $12,000 while the cumulative GDP of the GCC countries was approximately $340 billion (World Bank & AGFUND, 2005).


However the heavy faith on oil revenues has rendered the GCC countries defenseless to the fickle oil market price swings.

Even though the earth’s surface is typically covered by water, only one percent of the total global water resources can be termed as fresh or drinkable .

Whereas a considerable proportion of 97 percent is saline.

Many countries are therefore appreciative to draw off out disinfected water from the oceans.


For the GCC countries, owing to their closeness to the Arabian Gulf, the ocean is their key resource for desalinated seawater to enlarge the shrinking supplies of potable water.

The irony is that the impact of the crucial desalination plants just leads to more salinity for the gulf waters as the remains salt water is streamed back into the ocean.

The brine, a surplus derived of the desalination processes, is composed of a highly intense salty solution that has double the salinity set up in the seawater (Barwani & Purnama, 2008).


Water Resources ease of use and Usage in the GCC CountriesThe World Health Organization (WHO) promotes for

a minimum of 150 liters daily for each individual in a household for any normal hygienic survival (Al-Gobaisi, 1999); (Marcuello, 2000).

The United Nations orders water scarcity as that of figures falling below 1,000 cubic meters per capita of average water supply yearly.

They GCC countries obtain two-thirds of their water supplies from the desalinated seawater and the region has stiffed over 65 percent of the world’s desalination plants (Hamid, 2009).


Water Resource and Agriculture Water scarcity not only forces food production

and economic growth, but it also presents a risk to the continued existence of all natural scheme.

The key water consumers are Saudi Arabia at 78 percent followed by the UAE at 14 percent.

There are three water sources available in the GCC countries series from groundwater to seawater desalination and recycled sewerage treated water (STW);


Groundwater SourceSome partial surface water is also found in the coastal zone along

the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf of Oman on the eastern shore.

They are also forced by the lack of any renewable annual freshwater resources.

The dilemma is further acerbated by the fact that the per capita freshwater resources is likely to decline by one-half to about 94cubic meters as early as 2030 based on a anticipated populace swelling.

With only Saudi Arabia having some major quantities (approximately 430 billion m3) of non-renewable groundwater in deep aquifers, that are reduced at an alarming rate, the GCC countries are confronted by vast fresh water crisis.


Desalination To cope with the limited water resources, the GCC countries

have resulted to produce water from the ocean in a desalination process of seawater for the past 20-30 years.

The desalination process chiefly employed is Multi-Stage-Flash (MSF) distillation, which has usually been viewed as the most cheap and financially feasible.

Other popular new techniques now considered include the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process as falling costs, improvement in reliability on membrane technologies and growth in the energy recovery have made it robustly gainful.

Although the fiscal cost of processing desalination seawater has been reduction globally, averaging $0.70 per cubic meter.


Cost of Desalination and Rising Population The GCC countries are also tackled by the enormous

investment expenditure critical to set up additional desalination plants due to the rapidly expanding urban population.

The GCC countries are mainly reliant on foreign workers, the growing economies will also accordingly need more pioneer toil force.

The water problem is more aggravated by the illogically high average daily water use per capita which is one of the peak in the world.

This is evident in Kuwait where people used to consume an average of 200 liters of water in the 1980s to the current use of 500 liters per capita.


Water from RainfallThe usual annual rainfall within the GCC countries

is a paltry 70 – 130 mm with the exemption of the Red Sea coastal region and Gulf of Oman which enjoy over 500 mm of rainfall yearly.

The scanty rain can be differenced with the great evaporation rates.

World Bank (2004) guesses indicate that per capita freshwater accessibility will turn down by one-half from 180 m3 to 94 m3, from as early as 2030 based on the forecasted inhabitants addition of 56 million (Table: 3).


This refuse has been witnessed from the prior reserves of 680 m3 in 1970 to 180 m3 by 2000 which averaged 60 m3 to 370 m3 within the area. (See Table: 2 & 3).

The water problem has also being more aggravated by the fast population growth, specially high in the town areas where more than 80 percent of the populations are dweller. (See Table: 2).


Country Area (km2) Average Annual

Rainfall (mm)

Groundwater Recharge

(MCM/Year

Non-Renewable Reserve (MCM)

Bahrain 652 30 - 140 110 Negligible

Kuwait 17,818 30 - 140 160 N/A

Oman 212,460 80 - 400 900 10,200

Qatar 11,610 20 - 150 50 Negligible

Saudi Arabia 2,149,690 30 - 550 3,850 428,400

UAE 83,600 80 - 160 190N/A


Country 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

Bahrain 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Kuwait 0.7 1.4 2.1 2.2 2.8 3.2 3.5

Oman 0.7 1.1 1.6 2.4 3 3.7 4.2

Qatar 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.8

Saudi Arabia 5.7 9.4 15.8 20.7 27.4 35.5 42.5

UAE 0.2 1 1.8 3.2 3.5 3.9 4.2

Total 7.8 13.5 22.3 29.8 38.1 47.9 56.219Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

The Arabian Gulf is a low (average depth of 35m) sheltered sea , key cause of new water is Tigris, Euphrates, and Karun rivers.

The Arabian seas have high salinity due to soaring evaporation charge at approximately annual rate of 2.0 m/yr (Meshal and Hassan, 1986). (See Table: 4).


Water TDS (mg/l

Gulf 4,500

Red Sea 41,000

Closed Seas: Mediterranean Sea 38,000

Open Seas (Oceans) 35,000

Baltic Sea 7,000

High Salinity Brackish Water 5,000-15,000

Low Salinity Brackish Water 1,000-5,000

Potable Water <1,000 21Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

Water habit is relative to its quality.The human body can only take in a maximum of 1,000

ppm dependent on the kind of salt, the largely daily water use and the weather conditions.

For trade purposes, a maximum limit of 5,000 ppm is acceptable, while in farming irrigation, salty water with salinity of 2,000 ppm can be used for some crops.

For rural, specific plants have differing tolerance of salinity which is further relative to the particular soils, weather conditions, seawater, irrigation technique used, and artificial fertilizers.


Demand for Bottled WaterBottled water has become increasingly popular

in the world and the GCC countries have likewise taken to the tendency particularly in the Emirates.

The requirement for bottled water or still water have risen many concerns over the impact to the environment, quality, and health effects from residues in the reusable water bottles. Reports have surfaced indicating that much of the water being retailed from the UAE plants is composed of 100 ppm of Bromate.


Desalination Technologies/ Methods The GCC countries have approximately

half of the world’s 11,000 desalination plants and the demand for the water rise at an average rate of sixpercent.

Desalination is the procedure that is employed to convert brackish and seawater harnessed from underground waterbeds and mostly from the oceans for human consumption, through numerous techniques scientifically developed .


The desalination techniques used to produce treated water within the GCC countries include Multi Effect Distillers (MED), Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Multi Stage Flash (MSF).

The main technology is thermal desalination employing MSF which is deemed the most proficient in producing high quality water (2–150 mg/l TDS) in vast capacities and has a lesser hazard of bacterial or pathogenic contamination (Dawoud, 2008).


Quantity of Desalinated Seawater Produced From the Arabian Gulf


The distillation process is capable of recovering 50 percent of product water from the seawater (Hajeeh and Al Othman, 2005

The mainstream of the large scale desalination plants found in the GCC countries utilizes thermal desalination processes of which are associated with power generation.

Over 80 percent of the total water production in the GCC countries, is produced by thermal desalination processes by 2002.

The relative simplicity, dependability and vast capacity, The multistage Flash or multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation process has been the most principal and commonly employed process


The other common system is the Multi-effect Distillation (MED) and the Thermal Vapor Compression (TVC) which accounts for only six percent in desalination processes (Hamed, 2004).

Bazza (2005) argues that the GCC countries poor organizational strategies which are more concentrated on the supply side are to be blamed for the poor state of water resources in the region.

The keen drive in agricultural policies aimed at food self-reliance wastefully argues that they have led to the over consumption of the limited non-renewable fossil groundwater aquifers when, as expected, the demands exceeded the water supply.

The depletion of the groundwater will further acerbate the water problems in the region (Bazza, 2005).


1990 2005

Country

Desalination

Production (mcm)

Domestic demand (mcm)

Desalination-to-

demand ratio (%)

Desalination

Production (mcm)

Domestic demand (mcm)

Desalination-to-

demand ratio (%)

Bahrain 56 103 54 123 133 92

Kuwait 240 303 80 589 610 97

Oman 32 86 37 68 170 40

Qatar 83 85 98 250 252 99 Saudi

Arabia 795 1,700 47 1,063 2,458 43

UAE 342 540 63 813 951 85

Total 1,548 2,817 55 2,906 4,574 6429Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

Key Water Management Challenges/Issues

One of the major issues confronting water management is the rapid increase of urban water demand.

This has been mainly fuelled by the equally high population growth and rise in per capita water consumption among the urban dwellers.

The over consumption problem has been credited to the existing government subsidies and lack of water tariffs hence encouraging wasteful usage.

Other emerging issues are the poor wastewater treatment for recycling purposes in the heavily populated urban areas.


1990 2000

CountryMunicipal

WaterAgricultural

WaterMunicipal

WaterAgricultural

Water

Bahrain 46 54 49 51

Kuwait 79 21 78 22

Oman 7 93 14 86

Qatar 44 56 38 62

Saudi Arabia 10 90 12 88

UAE 36 64 38 62

Total 14 86 19 81 31Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

Rapid Aquifer DepletionDue to the GCC countries heavy stress on food

continuation, most of the available water is diverted for agricultural use.

This has led to over utilization of the non-renewable groundwater in the aquifers.

This over misuse has led to pollution of the remaining groundwater as saline seawater permeates the aquifers.

This irrational consumption of the limited reserves is contrasted with the minimal production from agriculture at only two to seven percent while consuming 0 to 90 percent of the water in Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE (World Bank & AGFUND, 2005).


Conservation IssuesGlobal Warming ThreatReferring to the WWF/Ecological Footprint

report Our Living Planet, that covered 150 countries worldwide, Raouf (2008) notes that the UAE has the largest footprint in the

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports in 2007 on global warming and recent events have proved that climatic change is no longer a distant future event but rather an occurrence that is distinctively observable now.


Among other initiatives launched to halt the global environmental threat including the UAE’s Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, a carbon-neutral city where large scale policy program will ensure no carbon emissions affluent are allowed in the atmosphere in a CDM initiative..

Another CDM initiative was launched by the Qatari government, the Al-Shaheen Oilfield Gas Recovery and Utilization Project. Its main objective is to recover and utilize natural gas that was previously will be flared while a total of 11.8 tones are utilized hence 2.5 million t/CO2 emissions will be curtailed.


Water Management Strategies Bakir (2001) advocates for water management

approach as a management tool whereby waste water management is employed fittingly.

Closed water loop concept that would ensure the utilization of water at least twice.

The wastewater streams are treated and recycled within the loop hence reducing wastage.

The concept required that the best quality water is reserved specifically for cooking and hygienic functions.

Contaminated water from shallow aquifers for sewerage- landscaping or toilet functions.


A new system developed by German-based environmental research firm, IES Technology has promised a revolutionary technique that would eliminate the endemic problem of hazardous waste from extracted seawater brine.

The process would be able to have ‘zero discharge’ capacity by increasing the salt concentrate even further or up to crystallization, raw dry minerals like gypsum, potassium, magnesium and table salt can be realized (IDS Water, 2008).


Water Storage Aquifer storage and recovery system (ASR) can

decrease expenditure by 50 percent to 90 percent, system entail the utilization of injection wells in the submerged storage for treated water in a appropriate aquifer when the supply exceeds demand and similarly used to infuse desalinated water in the aquifer .


Typical Aquifer Storage and Recovery Operating Schedule


Effects of Water RecyclingExperts argue that sophisticated systems like

membrane technology and RO plants have a larger impact if properly harnessed.

Particularly , the prospect of reusing treated sewage water from domestic and industrial use since it only constitutes four percent in the water production.

Even cost-wise, using potable quality treated sewage for non-potable purposes makes sense.

As the detrimental effect on the environment from desalination processes, including brine residual, devastation of coastal regions, enhanced carbon (C O2)


Other Sources of EnergyIn operating the desalination plants, other

sources of energy must be explored apart from the predominant MSF techniques and MED. The RO method is increasingly being viewed as a viable alternative.

Private Sector Involvement The water management and production process

should invite the participation of the private sector for better efficiency..


Aquifer Management and Agricultural Strategy

Aquifer preservation presents a viable component for potential water resources.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)

The water management strategies envisioned including a more comprehensive water demand management policy; sustainable aquifer management; wide-ranging non-conventional water resource management.


Population (Millions)Annual Renewable Water per Capita

(MCM/Year/Capita)

Renewable

Groundwater

(MCM/Year 1970 1980 1990 2000 1970 1980 1990 2000

110 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 524 329 219 164

160 0.7 1.4 2.1 2.2 215 116 75 73

900 0.7 1.1 1.6 2.4 1,245 817 553 373

50 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.6 450 218 103 85

3,850 5.7 9.4 15.8 20.7 670 411 244 186

190 0.2 1.0 1.8 3.2 864 182 107 59

5,260 7.8 13.5 22.3 29.8 678 391 236 176 42Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA05/03/23

Conclusion The current and future water edicts within the

GCC countries are inadequate and hence need reforming.

The wavering energy prices which provide the main wealth of the GCC countries is expected to be submerged by the new renewable energy sources as more countries discard the use of fossil fuels.

The GCC countries continued remitting of effluent brine into the ocean also poses a great danger to the aquatic life as well as the pollution of groundwater.


Improvement of a water stratagems and efficient schemes that stress the importance of sustainable water resources supervision;

Prioritizing provision of water that are subjected to the market rate, preservation, toxic waste control;

the collaboration among water management sectors that would avoid duplication and conflict of interest and need to explore other sources of energy to power the desalination plants while observing environmental concerns.


ReferencesAbu Qdais, H. A. (1999). Environmental Impacts of

Desalination Plants on the Arabian Gulf. Proceedings of the IDA World Congress on Desalination

and WaterReuse. San Diego, USA.Al-Gobaisi, D. M. K. (1997a). Sustainable Augmentation

of Fresh Water Resources through Appropriate Energy and Desalination Technologies.

Proceedings of the IDA World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse. Madrid, Spain.

Al-Gobaisi, D. M. K. (1999b). Water for Sustainable Development of the Arab World.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. (2008). TRENDS... food in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved

October 24, 2009, from canada.gc.ca: http://www.agr.gc.ca/index_e.php.


THANK YOU

Dr Yousuf H. Qureshi MD PhD MBA 4605/03/23

Documents

Desalination of Sea Water PPP 060310