To be able to maintain the deepest swimming pool in the world and the famous indoor ski slope, the city needs fresh water – which, however, is not available in Dubai. Instead, seawater has been treated in an energy- and cost-intensive way for decades, the New York Times (“NYT”) reported. Extremely salty water and chemicals are returned to the sea. The consequences are an increase in sea temperatures and the destruction of biodiversity.
In a study published in the “Marine Pollution Bulletin” in ScienceDirect in 2021, a grim scenario is drawn: If immediate action is not taken, desalination combined with climate change will increase the temperature of the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf by more than 50% by 2050 they will increase the area by at least three degrees Celsius, the researchers wrote. Coral reefs and ecosystems important for climate protection, such as seagrass meadows and mangroves, which can absorb large amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, are already struggling.
IMAGO/xdiy_13x Waterfall at Dubai Mall
High pressure ahead of climate conference
The pressure on the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (VEAE) is also great in view of the UN climate conference COP28, which begins in Dubai at the end of November. Criticism was strong from the start because Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, head of the state oil company ADNOC, assumed the presidency of COP28.
With 200 million tonnes of CO2 produced in 2022, the UAE was also responsible for one of the highest per capita emissions in the world – partly responsible for this are desalination plants such as the Jabal Ali power station and the seawater desalination plant, which runs on fossil fuels. combustible becomes.
Water consumption of attractions
The water consumption of Dubai’s leisure facilities alone is enormous, as some examples illustrate. The underwater city of Deep Dive Dubai uses as much water as six Olympic-sized swimming pools, the New York Times said. The tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, consumes around 950,000 liters every day. According to the NYT, Burj Lake, at the foot of the building, uses a wastewater treatment system that reuses wastewater from the Burj Khalifa.
Last but not least, there are those islands that have been artificially raised from the sea and are affecting the climate: a study has shown that the average water temperature around the artificially created island of Palm Jumeirah has increased by around 7.5 degrees Celsius in 19 years.
Portal/Matthias Seifert The water temperature around the artificially designed island of Palm Jumeirah has increased rapidly in recent years
Millions of people depend on desalinated water
Of course, water in Dubai is not only needed for its extravagant buildings and leisure facilities, but also to supply the population with drinking water. According to a sustainability report published in 2022, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) supplies water to more than 3.6 million residents, as well as the city’s daytime working population of more than 4.7 million. of visitors.
According to DEWA, around 619.3 billion liters of water were desalinated last year. The need for drinking water is expected to continue to increase in the coming years. At the same time, however, the amount of extremely saline water being returned to the sea is increasing: according to another study published in ScienceDirect, the amount of extremely saline wastewater produced per day is one and a half times greater than the amount of drinking water produced.
Sustainability goals of a desert metropolis
Dubai has recently signaled its willingness to reform: in August, the city announced some environmental measures aimed at sustainable water consumption. By 2030, Dubai wants to reduce the use of desalinated water and associated electricity consumption by 30%. The use of recycled water should increase to 100% by then. Dubai also wants to experiment with “cloud seeding” – this involves “seeding” clouds with salts and other chemicals to produce rain.
debate
What does COP28 bring?
The Hassjan power plant – where huge quantities of seawater are desalinated every day – has been running on natural gas instead of coal for more than a year. Research is also being carried out on sustainable options for using and recycling brine. In 2021, Dubai also mandated that all new desalination plants use the most efficient and environmentally friendly desalination technology: reverse osmosis. However, most of the city’s plants still desalinate through evaporation.
Unlike reverse osmosis, which removes salt and other contaminants by forcing water through a membrane, multi-stage flash evaporation relies on heat. While both technologies produce brine, the byproduct of evaporation is much hotter, placing additional pressure on the ecosystem.
IMAGO/Panthermedia desalination plant in the Persian Gulf
Experts criticize environmental initiatives
Faisal al-Marsuki, an associate professor at Khalifa University and an expert on water desalination, told the NYT that he has urged government officials to stop establishments from using drinking water for non-potable purposes, such as water parks. He added that increasing salinity in the Gulf is dangerous because the water is already hypersaline and adding more salt threatens the Gulf’s biodiversity.
He doesn’t expect much from Dubai’s plans: “To be honest, I don’t see many initiatives,” he told the North American newspaper. “I feel like the focus is more on the renewable energy that powers the systems, but there’s almost no talk about brine.”