Keynote Speech of HE the Minister of Water and Electricity, Abdullah Al Hussayen
Dubai, 11/07/2009
YOUR HIGHNESS SHEIKH MOHAMMAD BIN RASHID
EXCELLENCIES, COLLEAGUES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
I am indeed delighted and honored to be here today addressing this distinguished gathering attending this important and timely conference that is being held in ever amazing and inspiring Dubai. Four years ago, I addressed the IDA conference in Singapore and the theme of my address was the daunting challenge and monumental task the world over is facing in securing additional water supply to meet water requirement for the growing population, and replace depleted and polluted existing resources. And before, Ladies and Gentlemen, some of you would say, here he goes again, it is very likely, that four years from now or there about, if age, health, and IDA invitations keeps up, it is very likely that I will be repeating the same concerns again.
You see, water as all experts agree, will be the resource that defines the twenty-first century. The statistics in this respect are telling. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 billion people do not have access to improved drinking water and that 2.6 billion people (40 percent of the world population) live in families with no proper means of sanitation. According to Steve Hoffman, in his recent publication, PLANET WATER, half of the hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water-borne and water-related diseases. The health burden, STEVE continues, also includes the annual expenditure of over 10 million person-years of time and effort by women and children carrying water from distant sources. In fact, Ladies and Gentlemen, the proliferation of statistics on the global water condition belies the notion that we have a firm grasp on the extent and depth of the impacts of the shortfall in potable water and sanitation.
The impact of water scarcity is indeed devastating. Pervasive poverty, food insecurity, conflict and morbidity, but none as chilling as the fact that the lack of water and sanitation services kills about 4500 children every day. To put the number in perspective, this is as if ten jumbo-jets fall off the sky every single day.
Now, that we see the extent of the problem, please allow me, briefly to go over the symptoms and suggested cure.
First and foremost, it is a well known fact that agriculture consumes about 80% of our water sources. It is also a known fact that 40% of our food is produced by irrigation and if we were to continue to use the same ratio, then, in order to feed the extra three billion expected to populate the earth by 2025, an additional one trillion cubic meter will be needed, that is the equivalent of (20) Nile rivers. Obviously, the only feasible source for this huge amount is improved efficiency. Irrigation efficiency is now overing around 35% worldwide. Improving efficiency to 50% only will take care of most of the problem. A task, that all its requirements are low tech and affordable to most nations.
Second is, reducing the per capita consumption in the municipal use. Efficiency in water use, mainly in the house hold is so elastic that it ranges from 1000 liters per day per person in some of the Gulf States to less than 100 liters in Munich, Germany. Obviously, wealth and cost of product do not tell the whole story behind excessive consumption or conservation.
If Munich, one of the most prosperous cities in a prosperous nation with enormous water resources, can do with only 90 Liters per day per person, so can the rest of the world, and hence huge amount of savings. While global water supply has remained constant, global water demand has increased six folds in the last century, increasing more than twice the growth rate of global population. Right now, nearly three billion people live in water scarce conditions (40% of the world’s population) and that proportion is expected to increase to at least 60% by 2025. If, Per Capita consumption of water continues to increase at its current rate, we will be using over 90% of all available fresh water by 2025, a scary outlook indeed.
Last, but not least, what technology has in store to save the world from famine and thirst? Well, let us look at the potential of technology, particularly desalination. You see on the planetary scale, there can be no shortage of water, we have essentially the same amount of water on the Planet today that we had millions of years ago, and it is an enormous quantity. About 3.26x10 gallons. Unfortunately, 97% is salt water contained in the oceans. Most of the rest is locked up in the polar ice caps, and glaciers. All told, only about .036% is found in rivers and lakes, a miniscule amount indeed. To put that amount in perspective, imagine if all the water in the Planet Earth is put in a container with a capacity of (26) gallons, then the amount of this quantity that would be available for human consumption, does not exceed, in fact half a table spoon, and hence, Ladies and Gentlemen, the potential of your industry and why you are here. According to International Desalination and Water Reuse Quarterly, there are approximately 14000 large scale desalting plants world-wide. The total installed capacity is about 10.5 billion gallons per day. The desalination market is expanding significantly, with estimates approaching 15% per year, but with all of this, the world wide population that is currently served by desalination is less than one percent, and desalination remains beyond the affordability of most of the world population. Particularly, in the agriculture sector and definitely there is no breakthrough in cost of desalination.
The gradual reduction in cost, due to improvement in technology, has been mostly offset by increased material and labor cost. In fact, in a recent tender for one of the largest projects ever tendered, the RAS ALZOUR Desalination and Power Plant in Saudi Arabia, with a capacity of 1 million cubic meter and 1000 MW, the lowest tendered price of water was $1.2 per cubic meter. The highest ever offered, compared to $0.90 per cubic meter in a similar plant awarded three years ago. Of course, the world financial crisis has some thing to do with it but definitely, the trend is not down. Your Industry, Ladies and Gentlemen, is indeed the world’s only realistic hope in saving its future. If the world has been surviving and prospering with only half a table spoon. Imagine what a wonderful and prosperous world it would be if we can make the other half.
Good Luck.
Thank you, Thank you very much.