Desalination is purifying saline water to make it fit for human consumption. Of all the water on earth, 97.5% is saltwater, with only 2.5?ing fresh water.
Desalination occurs through two primary processes distillation and reverses osmosis. However, desalination plants are energy intensive and create a potentially environment-harming waste called brine which is mostly dumped into the sea.
With a booming population and rapidly growing urban centres, desalination is expected to increase to meet the demand for fresh water. Hence, as traditional water resources continue to dwindle and desalination technology advances, reliance on the practice seems likely to keep growing.
In Qatar and the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC), seawater is the most crucial source of water – 80% of the region’s total drinking water comes from desalination. The first seawater desalination plant in Qatar was established in 1953. According to statista.com, in 2020, Qatar produced about 691 million cubic metres of desalinated water, compared to 557 million cubic metres in 2016.
The importance of desalination to a region deeply in need of water cannot be overstated. Nevertheless, understanding the importance of protecting the environment, especially marine life, Qatar has constantly stressed its commitment to sustainability and climate-friendly practices, evident in the Qatar National Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
Yesterday, during a scientific symposium on treating and managing rejected wastewater and salts from desalination plants, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change H E Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani emphasized that the Ministry is expanding research to find optimal solutions for the water that comes out of the desalination plants, extract the salts in them, and working to benefit from them, because of their economic aspect of interest to industrial entities and companies.
According to the minister, the research should involve all the GCC countries considering the Gulf is a semi-enclosed marginal sea. He also mentioned that the cause of fish mortality is not limited to high temperature, adding that the research aims to reduce seawater’s salinity, thus reducing fish mortality.
Also, while speaking on the research, Prof. Bader Shafaqa Al Anzi, a Kuwaiti researcher and university professor in mechanical engineering, said it would find solutions for the rejected brine from desalination plants. He said the research would work on extracting two types of essential salts from the water. The wet is used in some oil industries, and the dry is table salt. Hydrogen will also be extracted as a clean energy alternative.
