UAE to increase water desalination capacity by 76% in six years to offset future water supply issues

Yousuf Kazim

Palm Utilities has announced that it has outlined new strategies to assist in resolving the UAE’s future water challenges. According to the company, the strategies integrate the latest advances in energy utilisation, nano and molecular technologies, as well as innovative water reuse and recycling systems. This, claimed Palm Utilities, will be crucial, as it seeks to pursue various largescale water desalination and wastewater treatment and reuse projects, helping address the region’s longterm water utility issues.

The company noted that the GCC, which already accounts for more than half of the 11,000 desalination facilities worldwide, expects an eight per cent annual growth of desalination plants as water demand continues to increase sharply among Gulf countries.

Palm Utilities revealed that according to a recent study by Japanese investment bank, Nomura Securities, the UAE, which is one of the world’s largest per capita water consumers, is expected to increase desalination capacity by 76% to 14.1 million cubic metres a day by 2016. This comes as the UAE’s natural water resources are expected to shrink by 16% in the next decade.

In the light of this, Palm Utilities stated that it has consolidated its technical and manpower resources to accommodate the increasing number of projects for energy-efficient and costeffective desalination facilities in the UAE and the rest of the GCC.

Yousuf Kazim, CEO of Palm Utilities, said: “Growing population and increasing industrialisation have strained the fresh water supply levels in the Arab World – a trend that is evident in countries such as, the UAE. This has given rise to the importance of desalination as a key component in addressing the region’s long-term water challenges, resulting in several billions of dollars being invested in various desalination projects across the UAE, and in several other GCC countries. With the latest technological advances, desalination has become a truly viable long-term solution, as we are now able to produce purified water in a more energy-efficient and affordable manner.”