Pressure increases on Gulf water supply

Posted: 25 June 2008
Send article
Print this article

A Dubai-based desalination, water, and wastewater treatment specialist has urged governments and the private sector to manage water as a social good. Speaking at the 2nd Annual PPP Middle East and North Africa summit in Amman, Jordan, Metito warned that global lessons in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with regards to water utilities must be considered if the Middle East and North Africa are to improve the water services.

Rami Ghandour, Executive Director of Strategy and Investment, Metito said, “Water is an issue, which defines our cultures, our traditions and the structure of the societies that we live in. Despite the vital importance of these services, 45 million people in Middle East North Africa (MENA) region lack safe water and more than 80 million lack safe sanitation. On a global scale, different sustainable approaches to water delivery is required by national governments otherwise the situation will not improve and there be even more people without water”.

Ghandour spoke of the lack of efficient infrastructure is increasing pressure on the region’s already stretched demand for fresh water. There is a global trend to promote water utility PPPs, he said. However, the dynamics of PPP’s alone do not guarantee success.

He cited international experience in Jakarta , Manila and Buenos Aires as examples where PPPs were poorly structured and there was limited success. They failed, said Ghandour, because the local communities were not involved, regulation was not independent and tariff increases were not properly implemented.

Ghandour continued, “By contrast, there have been water utility PPP projects in the region such as Metito’s concessions at Dubai Investments Park, United Arab Emirates and Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, where public and private organisations have partnered together to produce very successful water plants that benefit the social and economic fabric of their communities.”

Separately, a leading international advisory and design consultancy has recommended stringent measures to reduce rising levels of water losses and abundant usage in the UAE.

The recommendations were presented by Craig Demanuele, Senior Projects Manager at Hyder Consulting Middle East during the Second Annual Middle East Water and Waste Water Conference that was recently held in Dubai.

"While it is important to focus on reducing consumption and losses together, from an economic perspective, it is clearly more beneficial to focus on losses. Reducing consumption reduces revenues, whereas reducing losses decreases costs,” said Demanuele.

Water losses include ‘physical’ leaks in pipes and overflowing / leaking reservoirs, and ‘apparent’ losses, which are untracked volumes of water delivered to an end user. The UAE and GCC countries use a significantly higher volume of water per capita than European countries, much of which is considered to be water losses.

Prioritising attention on reducing water losses makes good business sense, according to Demanuele. “Any volume of water loss is not only water that has cost money to produce and distribute, but is also lost revenue since the water could have been diverted to a paying end-user,” he said.

There are a number of strategies for reducing water demand, said Demanuele. On the consumption side, many regions of the world are starting to embrace the adoption of more improved, efficient water fixtures such as low flush toilets, low flow shower heads, micro irrigation systems that maximise root growth.

Increasing water demands caused by population growth and higher per capita consumption are exhausting the region’s existing natural water resources. Additionally, the volume of chemicals and amount of fuel used to treat and distribute water are increasing, further damaging the environment.