Student Name: Harry

Abstract

This scientific report introduced a new method of water conservation after several research conducted on water problems in Dubai. The information was sourced from several educational and governmental websites which described water woes. The finding was that current solutions of water scarcity were irrigation and desalination. However, burgeoning of civilization and increasing supply reach the limit of availability of those methods. Newly introduced method such as afforestation would be effective because it paves the way for everlasting water recycling. The outcome confirmed the hypothesis though there are some questions about practicability. Further investigation is required to test the feasibility of afforestation and advocate innovations in water conserving technology.

1.0 Introduction

This research aims to announce new effective scheme for the water scarcity in order to provide edible water for the people in the countries which having water woes. Dubai is a country which located in Middle East with strong water crisis. Most area of Dubai is covered by deserts without any water resources on the ground which means that there are no aquatic ecosystems inside the country. Although there are few subterranean water resources, it is not enough for the whole country’s supply. Because edible water resources are insufficient in Dubai, Dubai government is highly attached on water recycling. They produce the water in expensive ways and often use waste water to irrigate the agriculture. Those poor environmental conditions and urgent issues drove the country to the cliff. The hypothesis is that paying more attention on afforesting the desert and promoting the irrigation would be the most efficient strategy because it can make long-term contribution to the country.

2.0 Methodology

In order to reach the objective of this research, the plan was to conduct several reliable websites which are governmental or peer-reviewed paper to get information about water scarcity in Dubai. Simultaneously, understanding of local environment was another significant point to analyze a new strategy. After finding the sources, I spend a long time to carefully organizing currently capitalized methods and concentrated on selecting expensive but the best solution appropriate to Dubai. This was because Dubai is rich enough to pay for all the requirements, and long-term effect is the most significant point in order to avoid even worse water crisis in the future.

3.0 Findings

Dubai is a large prosperous country built on desert. Undoubtedly, the main element which caused water scarcity is arid locale and climate. In 2013, the World Bank reported that climate change in this region will slowly increase the temperature with other destructive circumstances. (Dewa, 2016 This means that the country is facing not only water scarcity but also decline of tourism. This problem is associated with water issue because recession of economy slows down the development of technology and it may reduce the efficiency of water producing.

Figure 1: Desalination not only produce water but also affect water

（source: construction week online,2009

To go further, transferring of water resources is another important issue. As it is mentioned before, the country is providing potable and fresh water to the industries and households by desalination. However, it is founded that the country is still using old and rusted pipes and water tanks which may pollute the water while transferring them (Dakkak,2015). The table below showed more specific data to present the current situation. The unit did not influence the results though it was in Arab.

Table 1: The total water produced and demand of the country   

(Unit: unknown, it is in Arab)

                                                          (source: Dewa Annual Report)

As we can see in this table, produced water is under the demand in 2008, 2009 and 2015, the years between 2009 to 2015 are not listed because the website does not provide information of water supply in those years, but still, it is easy to anticipate that the demand is a few larger than the supply every year. Another thing is that although water is produced from desalination, the process of desalination utilizes water a lot itself.

Table 2: Water consumption (unit: percentage)

(source: Dewa Annual Report)

This table shows that residential water consumption is the most, and unexpectedly, the industrial water consumption is the least. Agricultural consumption may include in residential column because it is complained that agriculture is the major user of water resources (Hussein, 2011)

4.0 Discussion

The result almost confirmed the hypothesis mentioned at the beginning except some points and questions. After recapping those findings that appeared before, most of current solutions are related to agricultural and technological development, but it seems insufficient for all country’s supply and it would not last for long term. As the oil exhaust or the rising temperature causes decline in tourism, the country will face recession one day. It is found that residents utilize most water (Dewa, 2016), and the increasing in water demand reflected increasing in demographics. These issues implied that country needs solution which provide long-term effect. To my solution, the country should replace these old and rusted pipelines for irrigation, and build new pipes for more various functions such as for afforestation, recycling and waste water. Additionally, artificial rivers, lakes, and forests are required due to increasing population and rise in tourism. However, some aspects of my solution did not confirm the hypothesis. People are constructing man-made lands on the sea coast in order to provide lands for citizens but pollute the water at the same time (Horner, 2010). This means that both urbanization and afforestation is important but the question is which one to concentrate more. Another point is that there are few questions about the practicability because it is hard for plants to survive at such climate and adding pipelines would potentially causes water pollution. However, inland afforestation is still the best way of solving water scarcity because it not only heals the water shortage but also prevent the natural disasters such as sandstorms from coming.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, the new solution would be difficult to achieve but it contains long term benefits to the country. After the work is done, not only water crisis would be solved but also takes huge progress in air quality which can prevent sand storms from coming. This paper has some limitations because it is done based on internet research without any practical investigation. There are still many uncertain elements related to this solution, so investigations of inland environment or examine the reliability and feasibility would promote further research of this paper.

References:

Horner K., (2010). Parched for Peace: The UAE has Oil and Money, but No Water (2010), State of the Planet [online], Available from:

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/11/22/parched-for-peace-the-uae-has-oil-and-money-but-no-water/ [ Accessed 17 October 2016]

Annual Statistics (2009), Government of Dubai [online], Available from:

https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/about-dewa/about-us/dewa-publications/annual-statistics [ Accessed 27 December 2016]

Annual Statistics (2013), Government of Dubai [online], Available from:

https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/about-dewa/about-us/dewa-publications/annual-statistics [ Accessed 27 December 2016]

Annual Statistics (2015), Government of Dubai [online], Available from:

https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/about-dewa/about-us/dewa-publications/annual-statistics [ Accessed 27 December 2016]

Dakkak A., (2016). Irrigation Systems in the United Arab Emirates (2016), EcoMENA [online], Available from:

http://www.ecomena.org/tag/water-scarcity-in-uae/ [ Accessed 7 October 2016]

Hussein M. A., (2011). Impacts of Water Scarcity on the Social Welfare of Citizens in the Middle East (2010), Middle East Institute [online], Available from:

    http://www.mei.edu/content/impacts-water-scarcity-social-welfare-citizens-middle-east [Accessed 8 October 2016]

UAE Water Aid: UAE will continue to support poor and affected communities (2016), Government of Dubai [online], Available from:

https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/about-dewa/news-and-media/press-and-news/latest-news/2016/06/uae-water-aid-uae-will-continue-to-support-poor-and-affected-communities [Accessed 8 October 2016]