Dubai: The UAE has one of the highest rates of water consumption globally with 550 litres consumed per person daily while 700 million people lack access to it on a daily basis. In order to raise awareness about this issue the Sustainable Bathroom in the UAE Competition was launched today.
The competition, which was organised by the American University of Dubai (AUD), Alabbar Energy Sustainability Group (AESG) and Delta Faucet Company, aims to encourage students to think in an environmental way since they will be responsible for water sustainability in the future.
As part of the competition that coincides with the United Nations World Water Day which takes place on Friday, senior and junior AUD students studying interior design and architecture can submit their energy-efficient bathroom designs.
People in the UAE have a false perception that since water is desalinated from the sea there is no need to sustain water, explained Scott Coombes, Principal Consultant and founder of AESG:
“Desalinating water consumes a lot of electricity and other resources like gas and fossil fuels. So since the UAE is considered to be one of the highest water consumers globally the amount of electricity it consumes is significant. This can create future problems like increasing salinity of the sea so the key thing here is the energy consumption and so it is inevitable to look at ways of reducing consumption,” said Coombes.
Another key factor in the increase of water and energy consumption is the growth of the population as Delta Faucet Company’s general manager of the Middle East and North Africa Delta Ross Jackson told Gulf News.
“When you look at the future, the population is growing, that means more people are wanting to use water. The water here comes from desalination, so more people means the more water has to be desalinated and the more we have to use from our natural resources to desalinate it,” said Ross.
The campaign is endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development where the students will get one month to work on their bathroom ideas before they submit them on April 28. The focus of the competition is to use sustainable products inside the bathroom and innovative strategies to try to reduce the use of portable water.
Noor Nazzal is a trainee at Gulf News
