by ACHREF CHIBANI
Desalination has been identified as one technology that could help solve Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable fresh water, which at first glance seems to be a panacea to the region’s water needs. That being said, desalination plants do not come without significant environmental costs. Indeed, for a technology that is sometimes misleadingly pitched as a “post-oil” technology, desalination plants come with worrying environmental consequences, both now and in the future. Are these costs worth the promise of a secure water supply? And who and what are they likely to impact?
It is also worth assessing the role of desalination as an engine of water diplomacy and examining how desalination might impact the GCC’s geopolitics. Often, desalination technologies are viewed through the lens of national security and water independence, ignoring the ways that desalination research and development, construction, and production are wrapped up in the region’s geopolitical relations.
A Global Leader in Desalination
The Gulf Arab states have long been market leaders in desalination investment and development. Experimentation with desalination technologies dates to the 1890s, and was a response to the water needs of pilgrims to Mecca. However, it was not until the 1950s that the first modern desalination plants were established in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. In 1965, Saudi Arabia established a general department for the desalination of salt water within the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and the country’s first desalination plants were built in Al Wajh and Duba in 1969, followed by Jeddah in 1970 and Khobar in 1973.
The history of water and oil in the region are intimately entwined.
The history of water and oil in the region are intimately entwined. In Saudi Arabia, it was while searching for a reliable water supply for Jeddah that oil was first discovered in the kingdom. It was oil again, and especially the 1973 oil crisis and accompanying price spike, that funded the building of the country’s desalination plants. And it is oil that continues to power the region’s desalination energy demands, with Saudi Arabia using approximately 300,000 barrels of oil per day on desalination.
Arab Center DC for more