Kahramaa launches five major programmes to maintain water security

Water demand in Qatar has been growing by an annual average of 10.6% over the past 11 years and is expected to reach about 902 million cubic metres by 2025.

In order to address the situation, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has launched major initiatives to achieve water security in the country.

Kahramaa’s five major initiatives are — Construction of its Mega Reservoirs project to add the needed strategic storage capacities for normal and emergency conditions; Recharging of the undergrounds aquifer fields (Northern and Southern Fields); Starting three-dimensional water monitoring alert system using remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) on reservoir, to maintain the Water Quality in Existing and New Mega Reservoirs; Equipping the existing underground water reservoirs with solar power to run its pumps in emergency cases; Installation of sensors for radiation monitoring at the entrances of desalination plants on the sea sides.

Water consumption in Qatar rose from 195 million cubic metres in 2005 to 535 million cubic metres in 2015.

“Qatar is known for its scarcity of renewable water resources. In the last decade, pressure on water resources has increased significantly,” said Kahramaa president Eng Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari.

“If business-as-usual water management practices continue without change, we’ll face serious and structural threats to our economic growth, human well-being, and national security,” he added.

Al Kuwari said that to mitigate the above impacts, Kahramaa is improving the efficiency of use of water resources by promoting competition, trade and investment, new regulation and strengthening demand management for water resources.

“While efficiency on the demand side is important in order to reduce water use, more efficiency can be achieved by improving public supply networks and Kahramaa has reduced its network leaks (Real Losses) to below 5% and total Non-Revenue Water Losses to about 19%. Our target is 10% Non-Revenue Water Losses by 2018,” said Al Kuwari.

Courtesy: thepeninsulaqatar.com