Dependency of desalination
The average annual increase of demand for desalinated water in the Arab world is 6% per annum compared to the 3% global average. 40% of desalinated water demand in the Middle East comes from the industrial and municipal sectors. Approximately 70% (about 24 million cu. Meters per day) of the UAE’s water comes from desalination plants. Dubai alone has an installed desalination capacity of 188 million gallons per day (MIGD) with a total production of 58.8 MIGD.
Saudi Arabia has scarce fresh water resources. Official statistics show that the country is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water with 30 % global production. The 30 desalination plants in Saudi Arabia pump almost 600 million gallons per day meeting 70% of the drinking water needs. US $53 billion is required to increase its desalination capacity to 10.7million cubic meters per day by 2020 to meet demand.[1]
For the Arabian states, desalination completely underpins fresh-water availability and will play an increasing role going forward.
Given this dependency, a desalination plant’s reliability and service availability are essential to sustain and allow the continuing long-term socio-economic development in the Arabian Gulf countries. Regrettably, as desalinated seawater is indispensably required at any cost, the main concern so far has been limited on the potential impact of off shore oil spills on desalination plants (Al Malek and Mohamed, 2005)[2]. Due to its semi-enclosed nature and arid climate, special attention should also be given to the impact of seawater desalination plants on the hypersaline Arabian Gulf (Hoepner, 1999[3]; Schiffler, 2004[4]).
Envirnomental impacts
So, while politicians and leaders play up the significant advantages of desalination, an increasing number of commentators are looking to the current environmental impacts of desalination on the Persian Gulf as an indicator of things to come.
It is generally agreed that desalination plants have the potential to adversely affect the environment in a number ways. These include:
1. Impact of the marine habitats: The effluent in the waste is a heavily concentrated brine solution. After the brine solution is discharged, it has the potential to kill marine organisms. Although the brine solution contains natural ingredients of the seawater it may cause damage by its unnatural concentration to marine population near the outlet. Another concern is the chemicals from pre treatments and from membrane periodical cleaning can harm the habitat. An example is the use of biocides such as chlorine, which is used to clean pipes or to pretreat the water. These chemicals must be treated before they are released to the ocean.
2. Impact of rising water temperature: The discharged waste has the potential to raise the temperature of coastal waters near the outlet. This has adverse effect on marine life and water quality.
Green impacts
From a green perspective, world experts in desalination are concerned by the impact which giant desalination plants could have on the marine environment. This concern is based on the effects produced by the discharges from one of the biggest desalination plants in the world in the Persian Gulf, where the continental shelf can be seen from the air to be covered by a layer of saline.
Economic impacts
However, from an economic perspective, higher salinity of the seawater intake will reduce the desalination plant’s efficiency (Abdul Azis et al., 2000)[5], and hence increase the cost of producing desalinated seawater (Dore, 2005)[6]. The unfortunate example is the Addur reverse osmosis desalination plant in the southern part of Bahrain, where the harsh seawater conditions brought down the plant’s production capacity to less than half the installed capacity (Burashid and Hussain, 2004)[7]. This means that states dependent on desalinated water will find themselves on and endless treadmill of capital investment into installed capacity and escalating costs in removing the same imputities over and over again!
[1] http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/events/water-investment-world-middle-east-2009
[2] Al Malek, S.A. and Mohamed, A.M.O. (2005) Environmental impact assessment of off shore oil spill on desalination plant. Desalination 185: 9-30.
[3] Hoepner, T. (1999) A procedure for environmental impact assessments (EIA) for seawater desalination plants. Desalination 172: 207-214.
[4] Schiffler, M. (2004) Perspective and challenges for desalination in the 21st century. Desalination 165: 1-9.
[5] Abdul Azis, P.K., Al Tisan, I., Al Daili, M., Green, T.N., Dalvi, A.I. and Javeed, M.A. (2000) Effects of environment on source water for desalination plants on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. Desalination 132: 29-40.
[6] Dore, M.H.I. (2005) Forecasting the economic costs of desalination technology. Desalination 172: 207-214.
[7] Burashid, K. and Hussain, A.R. (2004) Seawater RO plant operation and maintenance experience: Addur desalination plant operation assessment. Desalination 165: 11-22.
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