Qatar and GCC water security

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe significant wealth in natural gas and oil makes Qatar the country of the highest income per capita in the world. Meanwhile, Qatar is among the world's poorest countries in natural fresh water resources. The water scarcity severely limits agriculture food production. Agriculture in Qatar depends mainly on the over-exploited, depleted, and quality deteriorated ground water (GW). The use of GW for agriculture cannot be continued. Water scarcity is the main obstacle to achieve the food self-sufficiency. The possibility of using Qatar's abundant energy to generate desalted seawater or wastewater treatment for agriculture purposes is thought by many. This possibility is studied in this paper, along with the interdependent relation between water, energy, and agriculture (and thus food).

Potential Recovery Assessment of the Embodied Resources in Qatar’s Wastewater

“…Symptoms of economic water scarcity include lack of proper infrastructure, lack of human capacity to satisfy the demand for water and inequitable distribution of water, even where infrastructure exists [5]. In the case of Qatar, water scarcity is physical as the estimated natural water resource per capita is 29 m 3 per year, which is far below the worldwide average of 6000 m 3 /a per capita and the water poverty line of 1000 m 3 /a per capita [8].…”

The Water–Energy Nexus: Solutions towards Energy‐Efficient Desalination

“…Thermal desalination is also favored in locations that experience seasonal fluctuations in total dissolved solids in the seawater feed, as pretreatment of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) process is difficult to manage . Thermal desalination is a mature and reliable process to produce high‐purity water at large capacity, but SWRO desalination is expanding more rapidly owing to its lower energy requirements and simplicity . One desirable feature of RO is that the water recovery rate is higher than that of thermal desalination processes .…”

“…Cost is one of the most vulnerable and critical aspects, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries, for which human health is significantly threatened by water scarcity and water pollution in the face of population growth. The high operating costs that are linked to the enormous energy demands have always unfavorably kept desalination out of economic reach for this community . The inability to rely on energy‐intensive desalination processes also underlines the necessity to accelerate efforts in fine‐tuning this decades‐old technology.…”

“…[7] Thermal desalination is am ature and reliable process to produce high-purity water at large capacity,b ut SWROd esalination is expanding more rapidly owing to its lower energy requirements and simplicity. [8] One desirable feature of RO is that the water recovery rate is higher than that of thermal desalination processes. [9] This characteristic is of vital importance to reduce the cost of treatment and brine management.…”

“…Theh igh operating costs that are linked to the enormouse nergy demands have always unfavorably kept desalination out of economic reach for this community. [8] Thei nability to rely on energy-intensived esalinationp rocesses also underlines the necessity to accelerate efforts in fine-tuning this decades-oldtechnology.A st he dramatic increase in the cost of energy has significantlyi mpacted water production, the water-energyn exus is becoming more importantt op rovide both water and energy sustainability.I narealistic scenario,w ater is needed for energy generationt hrough resources such as water, nuclear, and other renewables,w herease nergy is also needed for water and waste treatment as well as for distribution to end users. Whereas the focus in the past was on the optimization of desalination performance, energy efficiency has become the predominant economy topic for the desalination community in recent years.…”