UAE…innovative initiatives that enhance the sustainable water security system in the world

From the reports section.
Abu Dhabi, April 23 / WAM / The UAE tops the list of countries that contribute to strengthening the sustainable water security system at the global level, through an integrated set of innovative initiatives aimed at enhancing awareness of the water scarcity crisis and its seriousness, and mobilizing international efforts and energies to address it.
This comes at a time when the UAE continues to make significant progress in achieving the most prominent goals of the sixth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 related to access to clean water.
The recently issued United Nations report on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda indicates that the UAE achieved an average of 100 percent in the field of providing safe drinking water and sanitation services. The country also achieved a result of 79 percent in the field of integrated management of water resources, which is one of the best results regionally.
According to the United Nations, the world needs to double the progress achieved in Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals by four times the current situation, so that all people on Earth can obtain safe water, which is one of the most basic human needs for their health and well-being.
Last February, the UAE launched the “Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative” to address the urgent global challenge of water scarcity.
The initiative aims to enhance awareness of the importance of the water scarcity crisis and its seriousness at the international level, in addition to accelerating the development of innovative technological solutions to address it, in addition to enhancing cooperation with partners and concerned parties in the world to accelerate the pace of technological innovation to deal with water scarcity, expand the scope of international cooperation, and seek to increase targeted investments. To overcome this challenge for the good of current and future generations.
Last March witnessed the announcement of a partnership between the Mohamed Bin Zayed Water Initiative and the American To motivate innovators around the world to provide and develop effective and sustainable solutions to enhance the efficiency and cost of water desalination technologies.
In the same context, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award continues its efforts to stimulate and honor institutions, research centers and innovators who develop innovative technologies and models for producing, desalination and purification of water using renewable energy, with the aim of developing solutions to the problem of clean water scarcity facing poor and afflicted communities around the world.
During the previous three rounds of the award, 31 winners from 22 countries around the world were honored for their innovative projects in the field of water desalination and purification using renewable energy sources, which include: solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, hydropower, osmotic energy, and geothermal energy.
In turn, the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science embodies the UAE’s commitment to enhancing water security regionally and internationally, as it has succeeded since its launch in encouraging and supporting researchers and specialists in this field and giving them greater opportunities to contribute to alleviating water scarcity around the world.
The list of winners of the financial grant for the program in its fifth session included a research team from the Institute of Technology Innovation in the Emirates, for their project related to enhancing rainfall using lasers and remote sensing technology, and a team from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for a research project aimed at determining the microphysical ability to seed clouds in a way. process, in addition to an American team from Michigan Tech University, which will conduct laboratory studies and modeling to determine the retractability of hygroscopic impregnation.
The UAE is one of the most prominent contributors to financing and implementing projects to provide clean drinking water to those in need around the world, through a group of institutions such as the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the “Emirates Suqia” Foundation, the Emirates Red Crescent Authority, and other national bodies active in this field.
The UAE’s experience in confronting the challenge of water scarcity at the local level stands out as one of the most important models that can be used as guidance in strengthening international efforts to achieve sustainable water security worldwide.
The volume of water demand in the UAE is estimated at about 4.2 billion cubic meters annually, and due to the scarcity of groundwater in it, it has tended to rely mainly on non-traditional sources to produce fresh water for drinking purposes and various uses, as the contribution of non-traditional water resources reached 53%. It includes water produced from seawater desalination, reuse of treated wastewater, and rain seeding techniques, in addition to adopting policies to rationalize consumption.
The UAE has launched a wide range of initiatives that contribute to enhancing the sustainability of its water resources, most notably the Water Security Strategy 2036, which included high targets represented in reducing the total demand for water resources by 21%, increasing the water productivity index to $110 per cubic metre, and reducing the scarcity index. water by 3 degrees, increasing the rate of reuse of treated water to 95%, and providing storage capacity for two days of storage for normal conditions in the water system.
In the same context, water represents one of the seven main themes of the UAE’s national innovation strategy, which aims to make the country a global leader in science and technology to increase rainfall.
The UAE has a huge system of desalination plants that contribute to supplying various vital and residential sectors with the water necessary for business continuity and supporting the well-being of society, in addition to building several dams to preserve water wealth.
The UAE is focusing intensely on building and developing water desalination projects based on “reverse osmosis” technology, and increasing reliance on renewable energy, which contributes to strengthening efforts to achieve climate neutrality, as this technology is low-cost and energy-saving, and has proven efficiency in energy consumption that increases By 75%, compared to thermal desalination techniques, it also contributes to reducing carbon emissions associated with water desalination by more than 85%.
Last March, the UAE launched the “Naqa” seawater desalination plant, which was established in the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain. It is considered one of the largest seawater desalination projects with a reverse osmosis system in the world, with a capacity of 150 million gallons of desalinated water per day.

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