The Feasibility of Different Techniques for Providing Fresh Water - Book Report/Review Example

A REPORT ON THE FEASIBILITY OF DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES FOR PROVIDING FRESH WATER TO ARID REGIONS OF THE WORLD Introduction Water is indispensable for all forms of life, and is required for all human activities. According to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2003, access to safe freshwater is now considered as an universal human right. The Millennium Development Goals to be fulfilled by 2015 include access to safe drinking water and sanitation by the greatest numbers of people as possible (UNDP 2006). Sustainable management of fresh water resources is becoming increasingly important at regional and global scales. Integrated water resource management is required along with the implementation of specific techniques for providing fresh water particularly to the arid and semi-arid regions of the world (Kundzewicz & Mata 2007). The purpose of this report is to assess the feasibility of different techniques for providing fresh water to arid and semi-arid regions of the world. 2. Background “Only 2.5 percent of water on earth is fresh water, the remaining 97.5 percent is brackish or saline water” (Ragheb 2011: 1). The fresh water is present 0.4 percent in lakes and rivers, 30.9 percent as ground water, and 68.7 percent as snow and ice. A major requirement for water is in agriculture and food production, using three-quarters of the fresh water from rivers, lakes and aquifers. Further, water is essential in the production of energy by power plants which use billions of gallons of water per year to produce steam to power its turbines. There are over 21,000 desalination plants across the earth, producing 3.5 billion gallons of potable water per day. About one-third of the land surface on earth is either arid with less than 250 mm of annual precipitation, or semi-arid with precipitation between 250 mm and 500 mm. The lack of freshwater resources hamper sustainable development in these regions. On the other hand, “growing population, increasing standard of living, and expanding opportunities exert increasing demands for varyied needs for water” (Singh, Sherif & Al Rashid 2002: ix) for agriculture, industry, waste disposal, power generation, navigation, transportation, recreation and other requirements. 3. GCC Countries of the Arab States: Water Desalination Technique As a result of greater oil revenues, unprecedented economic and social transformation have taken place in the countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. On the other hand, these Gulf Cooperative Council countries face major challenges in water resource management. The main reasons include unsustainable use of ground water resources, lack of urban water demand management, institutional and legal constraints, and limited role of private sector. To address these issues, the government has formulated policy recommendations that includes adopting integrated water resource management. The climatic conditions in the GCC countries are among the harshest in the world. Further, the available freshwater resources per capita is low, ranging from 60 to 370 cubic metres, and is likely to decline further by one-half in the next twenty years. Hence, the GCC countries have to use their scarce water resources in the most efficient manner (World Bank 2005). According to Murakami (1995), waste water reclamation has also been undertaken in this region since 1965. With their growing population, all GCC countries will increase their reliance on the desalination of sea water for producing the greater proportion of municipal and industrial water from non-renewable water sources. They have been using this technique in the last twenty to thirty years. The desalination process primarily uses the Multistage Flash distillation process, which is one of the most economically and fiancially viable. This region has also implemented the Reverse Osmosis process for achieving cost reduction, greater reliability, membrane technologies and advancement in the energy recovery in the reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination capacity. While the financial cost of desalinated sea water is more in the GCC countries as compared to the United States, the World Bank (2005: ii) states that “the investment needs for constructing new desalination plants to supply water for rapidly growing population and high per capita consumption are enormous”. These are known as cogeneration stations, serving the dual purpose of generating electricity during desalination (Mukarami 1995). Thus, high costs reduce the feasibility of the GCC countries to continue the desalination of sea water. Their significant quadrupling of population between 1970 to 2000 from 7.8 million to 29.8 million, along with growing numbers of expatriate workers who acccount for three-fourths of the total work force, indicate that the increasing demands for water is likely to escalate in the future. The challenges and solutions for addressing the water shortage conditions are distinctive of the GCC countries, as compared to the rest of the world. Although stronger in financial and human resources, their water challenges are more crushing than that of other regions. “These challenges require important actions in order to stimulate investment and enhance efficiency in the water sector so as to avoid future crises” (World Bank 2005: ii). 4. Arid Regions of Iran: Sustainable Water Utilization by Qanats Iran in the Middle East is a country of a total area of 1.65 million square kilometres, and a population of about 70 millions according to a 2007 estimate. The average annual rainfall is 250 mm, and over 90% of the country is arid or semi-arid. Approximately two-thirds of Iran receives less than 250 mm of rainfall annually (Boustani 2008). To utilize the limited amounts of water in arid region, the Iranians developed man-made underground water channels called qanats also known as kanats. These may be considered as the first long-distance water transfer system. Thus, qanats are an ancient water transfer system found in arid regions “wherein groundwater from mountainous regions, aquifers, and rivers was brought to points of reemergence such as an oasis, through one or more underground tunnels” (Boustani 2008: 213). Many of the tunnels were several kilometres in length, designed for slopes to provide gravitational flow. The tunnels facilitated the flow of water to drain out to the surface of the slope, thereby supplying water to lower and flatter agricultural land. Qanats have been an ancient, sustainable system promoting the harvesting of water for centuries in Iran, along with thirty five additional countries across the earth such as India, Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, Spain and even to the New World of early America. In Iran there are over 22,000 qanats with 274000 kilometres of underground conduits all built by manual labour. Per second, the amount of water produced by the usable qanats is altogether 750 to 1000 cubic metres. The longest chain of qanat is located in Gonabad region in Khorasan province. It is 70 kilometres long. According to Boustani (2008) as renewable water supply systems, qanats have sustained agricultural settlement on the Iranian plateau for millennia. The advantages of qanats include the absence of evaporation during transit, low levels of seepage, little increase in water table, and no pollution in the area surrounding the conduits. Qanat systems have a powerful impact on the lives of the water users in Iran, and are in keeping with the country’s climate. Thus, “qanats allow those living in a desert environment adjacent to a mountain watershed to create a large oasis in an otherwise stark environment” (Boustani 2008: 213), and are feasible to implement. Qanat routes are required to be regularly cleaned and maintained. The main goals for constructing the conduits include the provision of hygienic drinking water and irrigation for agriculture. The availability of water has resulted in prosperity both socially and economically. Thus qanats supply fresh water to arid zones, allow populations to live in desert areas, facilitate the development of saline and alkaline lands, help to distribute population more equally in arid and semi-arid zones, help to store water in an Ab Anbar or qanat-fed reservoir for drinking water in ancient Persia. They also help to cool the desert climate, when used together with a wind tower, resulting in more than 150C lowering of the air temperature coming from the qanat. This ancient cooling technique has been used for over 1000 years. 5. Conclusion This paper has highlighted two different techniques of providing fresh water to the arid regions of the world. The evidence indicates that the technique of water desalination in the Arab countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC), is not only moderately beneficial, in view of the high costs of implementing the same. However, the dual facilities producing electricity in conjunction with desalination resulting in fresh water, are helpful in meeting the needs of the expanding population. On the other hand, it is clear that qanats or the subterranean tunnels used in Iran to irrigate lower lying land is highly feasible. Ground water is used as a renewable resource, and is directed by the conduits to flow down the mountain slopes, to irrigate the land below. There are several advantages, and no disadvantages in implementing this method. The level of the underground water table controls the rate of water flow. This ancient technique of transfering water to arid areas, is beneficial also for cooling the desert temperatures to a significant extent when used with a wind tower. Therefore, it is concluded that though Arab nations are wealthier, their burgeoning population levels and increasing requirements for water cannot be met adequately with the help of desalination plants. On the other hand, the comparatively low cost qanats appear to be far more efficient and successful in providing a means of conveying water to arid zones. ---------------------------------------------- Bibliography Boustani, Q.F. (2008). Sustainable water utilization in arid region of Iran by Qanats. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 43: pp.213-216. Kundzewicz, Z. & Mata, L.J. (2007). Freshwater resources and their management. In M.L. Parry (Ed). Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: Contri- Bution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change. The United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3: pp.175-203. Mukarami, M. (1995). Managing water for peace in the Middle East: Alternative strategies. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. Ragheb, M. (2011). Fresh water augmentation. Retrieved on 29th November, 2011 from: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/NPRE%20402%20ME%20405%20Nuclear%20Power%20Engineering/Fresh%20Water%20Augmentation.pdf Singh, V.P., Sherif, M.M. & Al-Rashed, M. (2002). Proceedings of the International Conference on Water Resources Management in Arid Regions (WaRMAR), March 23-27, 2002. Kuwait: Hydrology and Water Resources Publications. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). (2006). What are the millennium development goals? United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved on 29th November, 2011 from: http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml World Bank. (March 31, 2005). A water sector assessment report on the countries of the cooperation council of the Arab states of the Gulf. Water, Environment, Social and Rural Development Department Middle East and North Africa Region. Report No: 32539-MNA. Retrieved on 29th November, 2011 from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMNAREGTOPWATRES/Overview/20577193/GCCWaterSectorReport--Englishversion.pdf Read More