Emergency water reserves on the decline

Dubai: There is only two to five days of emergency water reserves for domestic use in the UAE and region, according to a study which calls for more groundwater storage to cope with crises over long periods of time.

The study by Dr Mohammad Dawoud, Manager Water Resources Department at the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi was recently published by the Gulf Research Centre.

According to the findings, current storage facilities can only hold water for less than five days and surface reservoirs are costly and not environmentally friendly. "Groundwater storage using the artificial recharge technique is a promising tool for strategic water reserves in all GCC countries. Storing the fresh water in groundwater aquifers is safer and more reliable in terms of time and location," Dawoud states.

Demand

Water demand today is five times what it was three decades ago in the UAE from less than 5 billion cubic metres in 1970 to about 26.778 billion cubic meters in 2005, driven mainly by agricultural consumption and rapid urban expansion.

Efficient management of water resources requires water policy reforms with emphasis on supply and demand management measures, Dawoud states .

"Due to the deterioration of non-renewable aquifers, all GCC countries rely on desalinated water as a main source of domestic water supply.

"It has been argued that the best long-term solution for the water crisis in the domestic sector is to build a network of large-scale desalination plants.

"The problem facing the GCC countries, however, is the vulnerability of desalination plants to pollution and emergency conditions. For example, the maximum stored water in the ground reservoirs and distribution network is enough only for 24 hours, except in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where it is three and five days respectively.

The report lists groundwater aquifer storage and recovery system (ASR) as one method of storing fresh water for emergency and peak demand conditions.

"Usually wells can be located where most needed and because wells require little land, the costs of large land acquisitions are avoided," said Dawoud.