Doha: Water demand in Qatar has grown by an annual average of 10.6 percent over the ten years. With last year’s 535m cubic meters of consumption, the water consumption expected to hit 900m cubic meters by 2025, Essa Bin Hilal Al-Kuwari President, Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) told ‘The Gulf Intelligence’ while sharing Kahramaa’s thoughts on the country’s energy outlook.
Kahramaa, whose water networks cover 99.8 percent of Qatar’s water supply, launched Tarsheed, the national programme for the Conservation and Efficient Use of Water and Electricity, in 2012 with plans to reduce the country’s water consumption by 35 percent within five years. Kahramaa has also reduced the number of leaks in its water network to below 5 percent, while the level of non-revenue water losses – water that has been ‘lost’ in the distribution network before reaching customers – has fallen to around 19 percent. “We are targeting 10 percent by 2018. Water recycling and re-use have also undeniably climbed higher on the agenda.”, he said.
The success of Qatar’s desalination technology highlights the importance of investing human and financial capital into water-related research and development (R&D). Such efforts will be integral to developing efficient technologies and scalable infrastructure to meet water demand up to 2030, as well as ensuring we cope well with any natural disasters.
Our R&D team has built strong and cooperative relationships with similar teams in Qatar – a unified effort is the only way we can all succeed. We must collectively improve Qatar’s water security by finding solutions that navigate the logistical and cultural barriers that stand in our way.
The pressure on Qatar’s water resources has grown significantly over the last decade and we are at the beginning of our journey of innovation and behavioral change to ensure that tomorrow’s supply is safe.
Qatar’s water resources today are becoming strained due to the fact that we only get seven inches of rain per year and the country’s population is growing – today’s 2.5 million (m) residents are forecast to multiply eightfold by 2050. Plus, more water is needed for our expanding agricultural and industrial sectors.
