Nature, 1965

Salinity is one of the major problems that the coastal region of Bangladesh has been facing over the last couple of decades. Due to sea level rise, frequent natural disasters, changes of climate patterns and man-made alteration of natural settings, the situation is becoming more vulnerable day by day. It has also been observed th

Kuwait depends on desalination plants for the bulk of its freshwater needs. Brackish groundwater (salinity <5000 ppm) is used for irrigation. The current rates of water consumption are very high (473 l/c/d and 150 l/c/d for fresh and brackish water, respectively). The demands for both types of water are increasing at rapid rates. If these trends continue unchecked, by the year 2025, the demand of fresh and brackish water may reach 3036 Mm 3 /y and 280 Mm 3 /y, respectively. In such an eventuality, a large investment will be necessary in the near future to augment the desalination capacity of the country. The aquifers yielding the brackish water are already under great stress and will be stressed further if the withdrawal rates are further increased. Scaling down of the rising demands is, therefore, an urgent necessity. Various steps to achieve this objective in the near future have been proposed and discussed in this article.

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2018

Desalination constitutes the sole long-term reliable and sustainable source of fresh water for the desert Arabian Gulf Region. The region is facing unprecedented growth with continuous population increase and economies that diversify from oil production to manufacturing and industry, and real estate and tourism. The scarcity of water makes it in addition to its life-sustaining role a limiting economic resource for the region. The current article analyses the situation in terms of desalination production in the region, which for the majority of the Gulf countries has doubled during the last decade, but still does not keep up with the continuously increasing water demand. In addition, the paper presents the risks and threats from utilizing as a sole source of water that of a closed sea, the Arabian Gulf, which has a small opening to open ocean, a shallow depth, and a long residence time. The Arabian Gulf serves also as a major shipping route for oil exportation, navigation, wastewater effluent outlet, tourism, and entertainment making management of all its functions complicated. Parsimonious use of water in all facets of the economy is hence recommended.

2011

Seawater desalination constitutes an important source for water supply to the population bordering the Arabian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea. The three regions represent about 11.8% of the world land area and the countries hosted approximately 9% of the world population in 1950 and 2008 and are projected to do so again in 2050. Population statistics for a 100-year period has been used including a prognosis from 2010 to 2050. Data on desalination plant capacity covering 12 years from 1996 to 2008 has been summarized and a prognosis of the increase in desalination for the three regions until 2050 developed. The results obtained for desalination capacity in the study area were 62%, 58%, and 60% of the world capacity for 1996, 2008, and 2050, respectively. The increase in the recovery ratio is considered an important factor in this study. In 1996 this ratio was about 30 to 35%, and in 2008 it was 40 to 45%, although in some plants it reached up to 50%. Brine discharge will increase the salinities of the Arabian Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, and Red Sea, by some extra 2.24, 0.81 and 1.16 g/l in the year 2050.

Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination, 2015

The most limiting factor for the agricultural sector in the Sultanate of Oman is a lack of water, and security of supply in terms of both quantity and quality. Salinization of both soils and groundwater systems along the coastal strip of Al-Batinah has placed a substantial burden on farmers regarding crop selection and, therefore, farm profitability. Desalination of brackish and seawaters might be an attractive option to sustain salt-affected lands in the Sultanate, particularly given that recent advances in desalination technologies have reduced energy and running cost requirements. This review is a summary of the international experience on desalination for irrigation water; the opportunities and challenges of the use of this technology for sustaining agriculture in arid environments; and the outcome of a survey that explores the extent of the use of desalination for providing irrigation water on the Al-Batinah coast, Oman. The main challenges for adopting this technology for agri...

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2011

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2011

Desalination is the only means of reliable water supply in most of the Arabian Gulf States including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. Huge desalination capacities are installed on the western margin of the Arabian Gulf contributing to increased salinity off the coast. This paper presents long term salinity observation made near outfall of Az Zour Power and Desalination Plant in South Kuwait. The salinity values peak at around 50 ppt at observation station located in open gulf around 5 km from the outfall of the power and desalination plant. The observation highlights the stress on the local marine environment continued incremental salinity can impair the marine biodiversity in the area. The study suggests that a stringent post construction and operational offshore water quality assessment can help in early detection of potentially complex environmental issues.

Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2021

The development of desalination has been essential to the rapid economic development of the countries bordering the Arabian Gulf. The current production capacity of sea water desalination plants drawing water from Gulf is over 20 million m 3 day − 1 , which may rise to 80 million m 3 day − 1 by 2050. Whilst supporting aspects of sustainable development related to water and sanitation, desalination impacts the marine environment through impingement and entrainment of organisms in intakes, and through thermal, brine and chemical discharges. This may compromise other objectives for sustainable development related to sustainable use of the oceans. Under business as usual scenarios, by 2050, the impact of individual desalination plants will combine causing a regional scale impact. Without mitigating actions to avoid the business as usual scenario, by 2050, desalination in combination with climate change, will elevate coastal water temperatures across more than 50% of the Gulf by at least 3 • C, and a volume of water equivalent to more than a third of the total volume of water between 0 and 10 m deep will pass through desalination plants each year. This will adversely impact the coastal ecosystem of the Gulf, with impacts on biodiversity, fisheries and coastal communities and may cause potential loss of species and habitats from the Gulf. Given the significant implications of these preliminary findings, and in light of the precautionary approach to management, it is recommended that mitigating options addressing behavioural, regulatory and technological change are rapidly evaluated and implemented to avoid the development of desalination in the region along a business as usual pathway, and multidisciplinary research studies should be conducted to reduce uncertainty in predictions of future impacts.

Desalination of seawater accounts for a worldwide water production of 5000 million m 3 /year. A "hot spot" of intense desalination activity has always been the Arabian Gulf, but other regional centers of activity emerge and become more prominent, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, or the coastal waters of California, China and Australia. The growth gap between supply and demand for water in the GCC countries can be attributed to limited available surface water, high population growth and urbanization development, deficient institutional arrangements, poor management practices, water depletion and deterioration of quality, especially in shallow groundwater aquifers. Increasing demand for water in the domestic sector has shifted attention to the role of desalination in alleviating water shortages. Experience in the Gulf States demonstrates that desalination technology has developed to a level where it can serve as a reliable source of water at a price comparable to water from conventional sources. Desalination remains in GCC countries the most feasible alternative to augment or meet future water supply requirements. It is considered a strategic option for satisfying current and future domestic water supply requirements, in comparison to the development of other water resources. Despite the many benefits the technology has to offer, concerns rise over potential negative impacts on the environment. Key issues are the concentrate and chemical discharges to the marine environment, the emissions of air pollutants and the energy demand of the processes. To safeguard a sustainable use of desali nation technology, the impacts of each major desalination project should be investigated and mitigated by means of a project-and location-specific environmental impact assessment (EIA) study, while the benefits and impacts of different water supply options should be balanced on the scale of regional management plans. In this context, our paper intends to present an overview on present seawater desalination capacities by region, a synopsis of the key environmental concerns of desalination, including ways of mitigating the impacts of desalination on the environment, and of avoiding some of the dangers of the environment to desalination.

Scientific Reports, 2022

The nations on the shoreline of the Arabian/Persian Gulf are the world's largest users of desalination technologies, which are essential to meet their freshwater needs. Desalinated freshwater production is projected to rapidly increase in future decades. Thus, concerns have been raised that desalination activities may result in non-negligible long-term, basin-wide increases of salinity, which would have widespread detrimental effects on the Gulf marine ecosystems, with ripple effects on fisheries, as well as impacting the desalination activities themselves. We find that current yearly desalinated freshwater production amounts to about 2% of the net yearly evaporation from the Gulf. Projections to 2050 bring this value to 8%, leading to the possibility that, later in the second half of the century, desalinated freshwater production may exceed 10% of net evaporation, an amount which is comparable to interannual fluctuations in net evaporation. With the help of a model we examine several climatological scenarios, and we find that, under IPCC's SSP5-8.5 worst-case scenarios, end-of-century increases in air temperature may result in salinity increases comparable or larger to those produced by desalination activities. The same scenario suggests a reduced evaporation and an increased precipitation, which would have a mitigating effect. Finally we find that, owing to a strong overturning circulation, high-salinity waters are quickly flushed through the Strait of Hormuz. Thus, even in the worst-case scenarios, basin-scale salinity increases are unlikely to exceed 1 psu, and, under less extreme hypothesis, will likely remain well below 0.5 psu, levels that have negligible environmental implications at the basin-wide scale.