Importance of water
There’s no doubt
that water is important. Not only do we humans use it just about every
day, but every living being needs it to live such as animals and plants. In
fact that 70% of the world is covered with water and more than 97% of it is
salty water leaving about 3% of it to be fresh. On the other hand, 70% of the
freshwater is frozen in polar icecaps or glaciers. So all human and other life
depend on less than 1% of the total amount of water on this planet! This water
can be found on the surface of lakes, rivers, and even underground.
Lack of clean drinking water is a major problem in developing countries.
There are many cities with dense populations that lack adequate fresh water
because municipalities which should be supplying them are failing due to rising
population and bad forecasting of population increases and demands.
The Major Water Sources
in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi derives its water from two major
sources: groundwater and desalinated water. Over 70 % of the UAE domestic water
supply is by desalination. Because the United Arab Emirates have a dry climate
and low rain fall which are the major causes and lack of groundwater recharging
aquifers.
Desalinated water in Abu Dhabi
The best developed
desalination production and distribution systems in the world are in the UAE.
The first desalination plant was built in Abu Dhabi in 1960 with capacity of
250 m³/day. Mainly because of a fast increase in local and industrial water demand
more plants were installed mainly in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Nowadays there are 35
desalination plants in the UAE (the six major ones are shown in the image in
page 4)
with capacity of l,922 m³/day,
while total actual production in 2002 was about 809 million m³/year. The
biggest desalination plant is in Dubai and called JABAL ALI with 287Mm³/year.
Description
There
are three stages water takes to reach to beneficial users and these are:
I.
Production
Desalination Plants
It’s a
costly procedure and takes a long time. It starts by pumping the sea water then
treat it by Independent Water and Power Producers (IWPPs). A Desalination
plant is a process that undergoes sequential steps in order to remove salt and
other minerals from the saline water. Taking into consideration that the term
desalination can also be referred to the process of removing salt and mineral
same as in soil desalination.
Salty
water is usually desalinated to produce fresh water which is suitable for human
usage, consumption or rather irrigation.
Underlining
the importance of modern desalination techniques in developing cost effective
ways of supplying fresh water for human consumption recycling waste water in
which this is form rainfall-independent water sources. Referring to the
International Desalination Association the world’s largest desalination plant
is the Jabil Ali desalination plant in the UAE.
