Rainwater Harvesting in the MENA Region

What is Rainwater Harvesting?

Before we start speaking about rainwater harvesting in terms of the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region, we need to know what rainwater harvesting is. The simple definition is that rainwater harvesting involves the storage and collection of water that runs off from parks, roads, open grounds, rooftops, etc. Now you might ask, why do we harvest rainwater? This is because it’s one of the best methods utilized and followed to support the conservation of water and it’s no surprise that the scarcity of clean drinking water has become a significant concern in today’s world. However, good-quality rainwater can still be used for other purposes such as cooking, washing, cleaning, irrigation, and other livestock requirements.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Less Cost	Regular Maintenance Required
Decreases Demand for Water	Technical Skills for Installation Required
Promotes Water Conservation	Limited Supply if Less Rainfall
Reduces Need of Imported Water	Attracts Mosquitos and Waterborne DIseases
Improves Quality and Quantity of Groundwater	Storage is Limited

The Efforts of Rainwater Harvesting in the MENA Region

Since 4500 BCE, rainwater harvesting has been used for clean drinking water and agricultural irrigation in Asia and the Middle East. Communities in Egypt and Jordan were designed with individual cisterns and paved courtyards, which captured rainwater to the augment supply from the city’s aqueducts seeing as it is an age-old water supply technology. Rainwater harvesting takes on a major role when it comes to meeting the increasing demand of water and coping with climate change and variability. Furthermore, it reduces impacts on the environment and human health, reduces storm water run-off and combined sewer overflows, and economic viability. However, the lack of understanding of the human health and environmental impacts along with the lack of government regulations has made the implementation of rainwater harvesting a challenge but there is always room for improvement. As we review the policies, strategies, and legislation approaches of the rainwater harvesting systems from the United States, Australia and Europe; Taking them as inspiration will assist in identifying key issues and areas requiring further research in the MENA region and other developing countries.

Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

“The adoption of Rainwater Harvesting makes some significant contributions to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).” Pointed out by Lehmann et al. (2010). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were formulated by the World Bank, Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD) and several NGOs in the 2000. How does rainwater harvesting help in reaching these goals? When we take a deeper dive, we find that the availability of water saves time and energy, thus labour and money as the water doesn’t have to be carried to households from distant sources. Furthermore, harvested water leads to more reliable and greater yields as members of the households have the ability to utilize their saved time for other work, generating more income. In schools, rainwater harvesting improves health, hygiene, nutrition and education which enables students to have more learning time.

Initiatives taken up by the UAE and their Impacts

The UAE being one of the most arid countries in the world with an annual precipitation of around 4 inches only has taken several initiatives for ensuring the security of water in the country.

The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 unites the federal and local authorities to collaborate with each other and create sustainable means to conserve water by:

· Ensuring continuous and sustainable water supply

· Developing resilience to future demands of water

· Decreasing per capita consumption

· Increasing reuse of treated water

· Improving the efficiency of the water supply network

The UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 has also taken up three strategic action programs to counter all high-priority risks which are:

· Water Demand Management Program

- Promote economic and environmental sustainability of urban water consumption

- Reduces losses in the water supply network

- Rationalization of personal consumption

- Reduced need for desalinated water

- Increasing the efficiency of water use in agriculture

· Water Supply Management Program

- Meet future water needs in a sustainable way

- Increasing use of membrane desalination technology

- Increase use of renewable energy sources

- Developing the use of treated wastewater

- Promote water exploitation

· Emergency Water Production and Distribution Program

- Ensure effective prevention of water-related emergencies

- Ensure immediate response to water-related emergencies

The UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, in other words known as cloud seeding, is an initiative that combines innovative methods to strengthen the field water levels thanks to improved rainfall in arid and semi-arid regions worldwide contributing to ensure water security. Launched in early 2015, this program has put the UAE at the forefront of scientific research and innovation all around the world. The program provides $5 million in grants to drive innovation and research in this field.

The Water Research and Learning Programme is a public-private partnership initiative by Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF, Municipality of Fujairah, Earthwatch institute and HSBC Bank. It provides a place to train and carry out awareness-raising activities about freshwater source of Wadi Wuruyah National Park in Fujairah. Wadi Wurayah is one of the few places in the United Arab Emirates with an abundant source of fresh water. Eternal flow and freshwater basins are home to a wide variety of rich, but also vulnerable, biodiversity. A monitoring program focused on parameters to maintain the quality of fresh produce water in Wadi Wuruyah has been installed. Citizen scientists were encouraged to participate in this freshwater parameter monitoring activity.

Water Desalination Plants; Desalination is an important process that helps arid countries depend on sources other than rainwater for continuous water supply. In 1977, the United Arab Emirates introduced 3 water distillation methods. Multi-Effect Distillation (MED), Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) techniques. 80% of the total drinking water in the GCC region depends on desalinated water. The United Arab Emirates uses heat desalination to convert seawater into fresh water. A total of 70 desalination plants over the United Arab Emirates provide 42% of the country’s total water needs, or about 14% of the world’s total desalinated water production.

Water pumping and desalination station in Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park uses photovoltaic solar panels to power the water desalination plant with the technology of reverse osmosis. It has a production capacity of 50 cubic metres a day. This project cooperates with the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia), under the patronage of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives. This aid is aimed at providing clean and safe drinking water to the people in needy countries through financing and supporting water technology projects to develop drought resistance. More than 33 desalination plants have been established to meet the country’s water needs. An ambitious 150 million gallon per day desalination plant using the Reverse Osmosis system technology is planned by the Federate Ministry of Electricity and Water Agency in collaboration with ACWA Power and MDC Power Holding Company in Umm Al Quwain.

Bibliography

1. https://byjus.com/biology/rainwater-harvesting/

2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348452072_Rainwater_Harvesting_Policy_Issues_in_the_MENA_Region_Lessons_Learned_Challenges_and_Sustainable_Recommendations

3. https://u.ae/-/media/case-studies-3-10-2019/CS16.ashx#:~:text=The%20importance%20given%20to%20dams,since%201982%20till%20December%202013.

4. https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/cities-in-water-stressed-regions-need-smart-and-sustainable-water-management