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Investments underway will increase desalinated water supply.

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The latest water saving technologies are simple to install.

The sharp rise in population growth that has accompanied the Middle East's current economic boom has sent the demands on available utilities resources soaring. And with fresh water a scarce natural resource in the region, the need to use available supplies prudently is critical. As the demand for desalinated water supplies rises, regulations enforcing the use of water saving technologies in buildings are being introduced, with the MEP sector key to ensuring their successful application.

The region's governments and utilities firms are making preparations to ensure that supplies of potable water are available to meet future demands, with massive investments planned for the desalination sector. Desalinated water accounts for over 50% of domestic water use in the region and there are an estimated US $127 billion (AED466.4 billion) of water projects planned or underway in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at present according to Middle East Electricity conference reports.

The need for investment is region-wide, as the Gulf countries update their infrastructures to cope with the developing cities. The peak water demand in Abu Dhabi alone is expected to rise by over 50% by 2020 as a result of an estimated $160 billion of construction projects. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is expecting a rise in water and electricity demands of 12-18% each year, while demands in Oman are expected to increase by 9% annually until 2013.

DEWA recently committed to investing $13.6 billion by 2012 to increase the overall utilities available. "This will be mainly for power production, desalination plants and transmission distribution networks for water and electricity," explains DEWA MD and CEO Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer. Oman's Ministry of Housing, Electricity and Water, meanwhile, is currently implementing water supply projects at a total cost of over $330 million.

Several countries are now looking to the private sector to help finance the forthcoming investment, with public-private partnerships (PPP) being proposed as an effective solution. Saudi Arabia, for example, is currently forming the National Water Company to facilitate the privitisation of water and wastewater operations in the Kingdom.

Underground services

A second, equally important effect of the increased water use is the subsequent amount of wastewater that is entering the sewerage network. "Dubai Municipality is very concerned about the amount of water usage because the amount of sewage coming into our network has been increasing exponentially and we are reaching our saturation point," explains Dubai Municipality (DM) engineer Hisham Bukhari.

DM currently receives over 470,000m³ of sewage per day for processing and this volume is rising as the city's development continues. "This problem was identified in 2002-03...and [to tackle it] we initiated our sewage reduction programme," Bukhari states. The programme involves identifying the highest water producers in co-operation with DEWA and providing solutions to reduce their water consumption, such as eliminating leaks and installing water saving devices.

"Our main objective is to reduce the sewage coming into our system, which decreases our costs. Our concern is also the environmental impact," states Bukhari. "There are around 400,000 water consumers in Dubai, of these around 1% is using 30% of the total water consumed, so there is a big imbalance in who is actually consuming the water. We are targeting that 1% to find out why they are using these volumes and to give them solutions to reduce their usage," he explains.

DM provides solutions for government buildings directly; for the commercial sector it has three approved service providers: Energy Management Services (EMS), City Services and MEED. Since introducing the programme in mid-2005, over 700 installations have been completed, saving over 11 million gallons of water per month. "This is good, but it's not good enough. We're stepping up our programme so that we can give more solutions to clients and provide continuous improvements," Bukhari stresses.

In addition to the sewage reduction programme, in August 2006 DM introduced legislation aimed at minimising the use of water in new build properties. Legislation 140 states permitted water flow rates and suggested technologies that can be used to achieve these, including the use of aerators and flow reducing valves in taps and shower heads, plus dual flush toilet cisterns and proximity sensors (see box: ‘Dubai Municipality Legislation 140 in brief').

The DM is seeking further improvement: "We are now working on legislation for existing infrastructure, which we hope to introduce within the next couple of months," Bukhari states. "It may not be as compulsory as [Legislation 140], that has yet to be decided, but it will give advice on how water use should be reduced."

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