Middle East: $120b to flow into water projects

The Middle East is set to spend $120 billion upgrading its water infrastructure over the next ten years, according to industry experts. The region is home to five per cent of the global population, but has just one per cent of the world's renewable fresh water. Rapidly rising populations, particularly in the GCC region, along with greater industrialisation and construction, are dramatically driving up water consumption in the region. According to a World Energy Council estimate, investments in electricity production and water desalination projects in the region until 2012 will hit a staggering US$120 billion, representing around seven per cent of the Arab nations' Gross Domestic Product.

The region was faced with a colossal challenge of stepping up electricity and water supply capabilities in the wake of soaring demand and more importantly, the difficult task of water conservation employing new technologies, speakers at the eighth Gulf water Conference and Exhibition organised by the water, Science and Technology Association, Bahrain's Electricity and water Authority and GCC General Secretariat said yesterday.

The event being held under the theme, 'water in the GCC, towards an optional planning and economic perspective' brought together experts in water technology from across the world to discuss water strategies and national planning, water economics and finance, natural water resources, non-conventional water resources and public awareness, conservation and capacity building.

To meet the growing drinking water demand from 3.9 billion cubic metres in 1999 to 8.8 billion cubic metres by 2010, GCC governments had turned to desalination in a big way. The six GCC states collectively spent more than $40 billion on building around 550 seawater desalination plants over the last 25 years.

Lisa Henthorne, President, International Desalination Association, said the region accounted for 50 per cent of the desalination facilities in the entire globe. Desalination costs rose drastically in the last five years owing to steep increase in cost of material inputs. "Demand too was rising fast with population exploding." "Bahrain continues to invest heavily in its desalination capacity, as well as water distribution facilities. We have to cope with rising consumption and production costs while maintaining subsidisation of its services," said Works Minister Fahmi Al Jowder. A staggering BD215 million were being pumped into improving drinking water facilities in the Kingdom in the next decade, more than double that was spent in the past 10 years while desalination projects would get BD400 million in the coming 10 years.

Al Jowder hailed the cooperation between the private and government sectors in Bahrain which, he hoped, would ensure the success of Al Dour electricity and water production station project.