National Advisor Bureau Limited has announced the launch of the UAE-Iceberg Project and website, which plans to tow icebergs from the Antarctic to the coastline off Fujairah.
In 2017, when the project was announced, the company said that the move could cause significant climate change in the region as cold air gushing out from an iceberg close to the shores of the Arabian Sea would cause a trough and rainstorms all year round.
According to National Advisor Bureau Limited, the launch has been timed to coincide with the Year of Zayed in 2018, as the project is designed to support global responses to drought worldwide and other water-related humanitarian projects.
“We have been working hard on the project for the past year and are moving to the next stages,” Abdullah Mohammed Sulaiman Al Shehi, National Advisor Bureau managing director, told Gulf News on Sunday.
“The patents have been filed for the technology in the UK, some for towing and another for reducing the melting rate during the journey.”
The project will reportedly cost between $50 and $60 million, according to local media.
The pilot phase of the project will reportedly begin in the second half of 2019 with the transport of an iceberg towards the coast of Australia or South Africa. The company plans call for an iceberg to be towed to the UAE in the first quarter of 2020.
According to the company, a scientific committee is now being set up consisting of scientists, experts, Antarctica specialists and marine scientists, which will collaborate with water research centres and universities worldwide.
The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest mass of ice on Earth with ten thousand trillion tons of snow and ice and contains most of the world’s fresh water.
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