Water resources of GCC countries Duaij AlRukaibi April/06/2010 Background The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) contains six countries: the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. In general, The GCC countries have a similar socio-economic situation in terms of features and development with the discovering of oil industry and high revenues during the last 40 years. The economy is dominated by oil, which accounts for 90% of merchandise export earnings and the relation between them so strength due to the same history, language, the religion and relatives relations. Natural water resources are in short supply and lack of renewable water resources, while demand for water is growing. The dilemma arises from continuing growth in demand, which is the result of population increase and other social factors, in conjunction with the fact that the region is already exploiting all its annual surface water resources, while its aquifers are becoming depleted in some countries. Desalination plants play a great role in modifying the fresh water shortage. The Gulf countries demonstrates that desalination and wastewater treatment plants technology have developed to a level where it can serve as continuous and reliable source of water with also groundwater at all the time comparable to water source of countries that have natural water resources like rivers and lakes. This region is arid and its countries are already passing the scarcity line that defined by WHO (having renewable water resources <1000 m3/y/capita). The total area of GCC countries is 2.55 Million Km2 and they have the same climate with no surface water except south of Saudi Arabia and south of Oman. Water resources availability situation and demand Water in the GCC countries is very scarce resource while water is ultimately precious and it situated in one of the most water-stressed regions of the world, have an extremely poor endowment of water resources. From this point, since 1950 all of these countries began develop and built desalination plants and later on wastewater treatment plants to help and sustain the groundwater resources to meet their demand. The GCC countries receive onlycountry Area Km2 Population (million)surface runoff (MCM)Rainwater (BCM) Annual Evaporation mm Consumption per capita L/dSaudi arabia 2149690 28.5 3210 158.47 3500-4500 252Kuwait 17818 3 0.1 2.27 1900-3500 476Bahrain 695 0.5514 0.2 0.4 1650-2050 455Qatar 11610 1.4 1.4 0.47 2000-2700 407UAE 77700 2.444 150 6.72 3900-4050 770Oman 300000 2.518 1470 37.6 1900-2700 146TOTAL 2557513 38.4134 4831.7 205.93 avg. 2500 - 4500 avg. 400scanty rainfall and infrequent with average annual volume of rainfall is 209.93 billion m3 (varies between 75 and 140 mm on the average) while the precipitation is remarkable higher and intensive that reaching about 500 mm at Oman Mountains to the east and Asir Mountains to the southwest of Saudi Arabia whereas average evaporation exceeds 300 mm per year which the rate between 2.5 mm day-1 in winter season to reach the maximum 17 mm day-1 in summer season. In the coastal areas the yearly annual 2500 mm yr-1 and dramatically increase to center of Saudi Arabia to about 4500 mm. The runoff that accumulated from precipitation in winter almost evaporated due to high temperature and the rest of water (less than20%) recharge the groundwater resources. The total runoff is estimated as 4.83 billion m3 yr-1. Currently, The critical challenge is minimizing the gap between the growth demand and supply which the supply depend on one natural water resources (groundwater) and two artificial water resources (desalination plants and wastewater treatment plants). During the last decade, extensive development rapid population growth and substantial improvement in the standard of living have all led to present imbalance between available water resources and water demands in the GCC and is expected to increase in the future due to development of this region. The estimated population is 38.4 million with an average growth rate of 3.73%. Population projection will reach 80.570 million in 2025. The total domestic demand for the water is 4070 MCM and the consumption per capita for all of them under 500 l/c/d except UAE above 700 l/c/d. Also, the consumption per capita increase due to expansion in industrial and development of tourism.Water resources The main sources of fresh water are groundwater, most of which is non renewable, and a limited amount of renewable near surface water. Non- conventional sources, including desalinated seawater and wastewater treatment. Desalination seawater plants It is a strategic option for fulfilling current and future domestic water supply requirements. Experience with desalination plants in many of the Gulf Countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait began since 1950s. From all the desalination plants in world, 50% of them are taking place in the GCC region. The desalination technology processes by different way (MSF, MED and RO) and expected to increase in this region to satisfying the demand and drought condition. The use of natural gas as a fuel for desalination makes to be more efficient, less cost and more environmental safe than using the petroleum. In spite of natural gas better than petroleum but releasing a huge amount of gas such as CO2 has some impact on the environment that might to accelerate the increase in temperature and decrease the precipitation. The potable water that is supplying for domestic is mixing by 90% from desalinated water and the rest from groundwater to be satisfying of TDS level (between 200 -1000 ppm). In order to meet domestic water demands, which is function of population, industrial and urbanization growth, the GCC governments arecountrycapacity (BCM) production(BCM)Saudi arabia 0.483 0.418Kuwait 0.229585 0.16Bahrain 0.058 0.056Qatar 0.044 0.044UAE 0.106 0.063Oman 0.01 0.009TOTAL 0.930585 0.75going ahead with desalination plants, although their high budgets which range between 1-1.5$/m3. Table 2 shows the data for the desalination plants in GCC countries. Wastewater treatment plants The reuse of treated