Dr Abdulmajeed Ali Alawadhi, Co-chair, International Desalination Association (IDA) Environmental Task Force and Chief Executive, Electricity & Water Authority (EWA), Kingdom of Bahrain praised the Perth Desalination Plant in Australia as setting a global benchmark with regard to environmental protection and monitoring. He was responding to a question posed by H20 on how desalination plants in the region can address the environmental impact of desalination. Alawadhi emphasised that protecting the waters of the Arabian Gulf is a shared responsibility, given that Gulf countries are completely dependent on desalination to meet their current and future water needs.
“The environmental impact of desalination is not confined only to its waters; the pollution also affects population and air quality. Hence, pollution control is a responsibility that needs to be shared,” said Alawadhi, during a tele-interview with H2O after a press meet on the eve of an IDA-organised symposium on ‘Desalination and the Gulf in Manama. The IDA presentation shared with media noted that a key factor that could impact efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of desalination in the Gulf is the limited cross-border, intra-country collaboration in this regard. Alawadhi cautioned pollution costs could put a question mark on the affordability of desalinated water in the future.
Touching upon the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions aspect, Alawadhi underscored EWA’s focus on limiting Nitrogen Oxide (NOX) emissions from power plants, given the dominance of combined power and desalination plants in the region. EWA has pushed for limiting the NOX emissions at Riffa and Hidd power stations to internationally accepted standards of less than 60 ppm. Other solutions proposed to reduce GHG emissions include carbon offsets, new improved technologies like Multi Effect Distillation (MED), higher efficiency Reverse Osmosis (RO), use of waste heat and even concentrated solar power.
Dr Alawadhi also pointed out that that the proposed ‘Blue Paper,’ which will lay down strategies and best practices for mitigating the environmental impact of desalination will recommend limits based on the unique configuration of the Gulf such as shallow waters, naturally high temperature and salinity, limited exchange with the open ocean, and lack of precipitation and inflow from rivers.
