Water Desalination in the Persian Gulf Region: A Potential Cause of Global Political Havoc

Governments along the Persian Gulf, all part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), face increasing water scarcity each year. Positioned in the Arabian Desert and along the gulf, GCC countries have virtually no access to fresh water. Yet, despite such scarcity, cities along the gulf promote water-rich lifestyles with elaborate fountains, manicured lawns, and increasing first-world lifestyles. Powered by desalination technology, GCC countries are able to supplement the lack of freshwater and provide filtered water form the Persian Gulf, creating synthetic freshwater for the region’s consumption. While this technology solves the region’s freshwater scarcity, it does not do so without consequences. In this paper I argue that desalination plants stationed along the region are inherently more destructive than helpful. Due to their heavy oil dependence, I argue that the technology is exploiting oil resources and will eventually lead to a collapse in the region. Furthermore, this is a critique of how the rise of oil in the region led the governments to establish such desalination technologies, how the people of the region have developed lifestyles of excessive consumption, and finally how the government is currently failing to correct such exploitations of resources. Simply put, desalination plants in the Persian Gulf region are exploiting not only water, but also oil, which will eventually lead to domestic and foreign implications for the GCC countries.

For a region with high water insufficiency, the population consumes a larger than normal amount of the resource. According to the International Trade Administration, the per capita consumption of water in the UAE is 550 litres per day, making the country one of the highest consumers of water in the world. This high level of consumption is two to three times the U.S. daily consumption, which falls around 180–200 liters per day. This consumption of water is expected to rise, due to a steady population growth in the region. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the Middle East is home to 6.3 percent of the world population, yet only holds 1.6 percent of the world’s renewable water source. According to the Abu Dhabi government, the country’s population is expected to triple by 2030, and further exceed 12 million people by 2060. While nations around the globe are researching potential solutions to population growth, the UAE and larger Persian Gulf region must be especially tactful when considering the future allocation of water resources, since the UAE and surrounding nations suffer from an absolute water scarcity.

While the statistics regarding population growth, along with water scarcity in the region raise significant concerns, many residents of the region show concern regarding the current water conditions. In her travels to the region, Gökçe Günel, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, learns from a scholar that a number of the people in the region are not concerned about scarce resources, since people in the region “[have] trouble imagining climate change or responding to environmental problems unless they [experience] them firsthand.” Günel states that water gives elites in the region “a feeling of immunity from ecological reality and environmental responsibility.” According to an interview conducted by Günel with a British expatriate named Ben (he has lived in the UAE for 20 years and works with think tanks and NGOs), the people of the region live their everyday lives as if water is a vast renewable resource in the area. Ben provides the following statement on the region:

“In Abu Dhabi, if you drive around, you still see people hosing down their driveways to get rid of the dust. In some of the areas around Abu Dhabi, because a lot of the rocky ground here has a lot of salt, people have been watering their gardens so much that it dissolves the rock, so people get these pitholes under their houses. You know, essentially, you have this area where, for a million years, there has been one day of rain a year, and now suddenly somebody is watering their garden every day. So it dissolves the salt.”

If the Persian region is so water scarce, but the population is so dependent and centered around such resource, how is the region still flourishing in terms of population growth and development? The illustration Ben provides leads to the question of how such water consumption is possible in a region of absolute water scarcity, and the answer is through innovative technologies. The use of water desalination plants allow for the nations within the region to supplement their lack of natural freshwater with a filtered alternative. Such desalination plants extract salt and other minerals from seawater, causing the resource to become fresh and consumable. This technology is widely utilized throughout the region in order to allow the population’s continued elaborate use of water. In fact, desalination plants are most prevalent in the middle east than in any other region of the world; Saudi Arabia filters 18 percent of the world’s desalinated water alone, and combined with Oman, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar filter own 7,500 desalination plants, or 43% of the global share. As a result of these plants, the UAE desalinates approximately 9 million cubic meters of water each day, which is enough water to fill 3.6 million Olympic pools. As a result, the desalination plants fill the discrepancy between the population’s desired amount of freshwater and the natural resource available, allowing for such elaborate and extensive use of water in the region, but not without detrimental effects. Thus, the desalination plants offer the public an “infinity of water” a term coined by Günel to describe such process of desalination to provide resources. The region’s view of an “infinity of water” is evident across the region, from large commercial enterprises, elaborate parks and recreation facilities, and the plethora of intricate fountains. The use of desalination plants to provide this “infinity of water” promises an increased lifestyle and allows the region to flourish, yet this is not possible without an extreme cost to the region as well.

As imagined, powering the world’s greatest concentration of water desalination plants a highly expensive venture. Such processes costs the UAE approximately $18 million each day, and were powered by the oil generated in the region. The oil present in the Persian Gulf region was incredibly vast. According to Toby Jones' Desert Kingdom, throughout the 1940s and later, the Saudis highly profited on the commercial quantities of oil that were pumped from the region. Partnered with a conglomerate of American oil companies, later to be known as the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), the two nations drilled and produced a majority of oil which would later generate a significant amount of revenue for the region. Eventually, during the oil boom of the mid-1970s, Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries profited through which Toby Jones describes as the “most dramatic transfers of wealth in human history” after petrodollars infiltrated oil-producing countries as a result of Middle Eastern countries winning a battle over oil-pricing of the west. Thus, as a result of such monumental revenue and liberation from “pecuniary caution,” Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing countries of the region sought opportunities to benefit from spending such wealth.

In his novel, Jones argues that following the oil boom of the mid-1970s, governments of the region were actively seeking ways to spend the money and benefit society. At the time, the people of Saudi Arabia and the region were in dire need of water relief. Living in a land with no natural rivers, lakes, and virtually no rainfall, the people of the region relied on “prehistoric underground water aquifers with a limited and nonrenewable capacity.” The wealth generated through oil sales were used to “master the environment, [turn] an empire into a state, and [secure] political power.” In other words, the oil boom provided the region with the foundation to become a leading world power, since it was providing the world with an incredibly precious resource. Such a power was organized and fueled by the scientists, engineers, and experts who migrated to the region due to the lucrative job opportunities enforced by the oil industry. As the governments of the region strengthened, the oil industry’s influence on the global population increased, and so did the pressure to become a respected kingdom.

As the GCC countries became increasingly respected, people began to migrate to the region in hopes of careers in the oil industry. Thus, an increase in population lead to a larger consumption of resources. Population growth is a leading cause of an increase in water consumption in the region, with primary growth being migrants from different countries. According to research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in 2010, 42.7% of the population in GCC countries are foreign-born, which is up from 9.7% in 1975. People migrate to find better living, and with an expansive oil industry, developed lifestyle, and educated population, the Persian Gulf region attracts an educated population of engineers, scientists, and experts from across the world. This flux in migration has caused the GCC countries to be the third most important labor receiving region in the world after North American and Europe. Gunel mentions her experiences with migrant workers in the region, noting that many are working for consulting companies such as Ernst and Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. A majority of the high-skilled workers migrant to the region from developed western countries, namely, the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada, and usually work in the oil and gas, education, finance, and investment sectors. With a large percentage of the region’s population from western, developed countries, it is important to consider the effects of moving from a water-secure country to one of absolute water scarcity. Thus, because of such adjustment and lack of knowledge enforced by the central governments, it is possible that the people who migrate to the region are simply unaware of such water shortage, which therefore leads to an increase in consumption.

With a combination of wealth, political power, and and an ambitious population, governments, particularly Saudi Arabia, began to fulfill a utopic agenda in terms of the environment. In the Saudi’s view, efforts to restore and perfect the environment would “translate into credibility, both at home and abroad, legitimizing the government to its subjects and its neighbors.” The rise in power brought on by oil wealth initiated a need to be respected, and such respect would be gained by reputation. Another part of this reputation was bred through innovation, which political authorities catalyzed through a promise to science and technology, along with a specialized interest in the work of engineers and scientists. The governments of the region determined that they would ultimately gain respect and a reputation through their innovation in science, technology, architecture, environment, and lifestyle. Thus, it is commonplace for the consumption of resources to skyrocket as quality of life increases. Therefore, I suggest that the consumerist lifestyle of the population in the region is rooted in the region’s countries early political response to a surge in wealth and resources.

The relationship between oil and water in the region is interchangeable. The desalination plants are powered by the region’s oil, and thus the GCC countries are essentially turning oil into water. This inefficient way of supplying the region with water has the potential to be concerning in years to come due to a declining oil reserve and the increasing global competition of access to the resource. Thus, Gunel’s concept of an “infinity of water” is in reality invalid due to the region’s water supply being reliant on a decreasing oil reserve. In other words, as water consumption increases, the allocable amount of oil decreases.

If the GCC countries are turning oil into water through the use of desalination plants, what will happen when oil fails as well? According to James Howard Kunstler, an author and former lecturer at institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and the University of Virginia, the world’s oil reserve is depleting very rapidly. Kunstler states that following the worldwide oil discovery peak in 1964, the resource has followed a steady decline ever since. More concerning is the fact that, with the worldwide consumption of oil at 27 billion barrels per year (out of one trillion barrels remaining), the global endowment of oil is expected to expire in thirty-seven years. Further, what is left of the global oil endowment we have to use for the next forty years is the hardest and lowest quality of the resource, since the beginning of our oil use since the mid-nineteenth century, companies have been drilling the easiest and highest quality liquids, in order to minimize production costs and maximize profits. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, while the worldwide endowment of oil rapidly decreases (2 to 6 percent per year), the global population steadily increases.

In forecasting the future depletion of oil, some residents of the region are aware of this risk. A common proverb in Arabia goes like this: “My father rode a camel, I drive a Rolls Royce, my son flies in a jet airplane, and his son will ride a camel.” The validity in that proverb is striking, because in cities in the Persian Gulf region, a lack of oil not only means a lack in luxury transportation, but also an extreme lack in water to keep a population alive.

With that said however, in the large cities such as Dubai and Qatar, the populations are not as apt to such proverbs. Driven by the excessive lifestyle allowed through fortunes of oil revenue, the people of such cities view water as a luxurious commodity, as shown through the elaborate use in facilities such as indoor ski resorts and vast water parks. In her research, Gunel consults with Mohamed Daoud, part of the state-run Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD), who argues that “We need to convince [people] that water here isn’t a free resource. It’s not even a natural resource, it’s manmade. It is costly, and it has a big environmental impact.” Daoud’s argument reinforces the notion that there is not enough emphasis on making water conservation a priority for the residents of the region. In the Gulf region, desalination plants are being enforced as a method of replacement, allowing the population to continue their everyday lives of complete water exploitation. Furthermore, by supplementing the water supply as needed, with new desalination plants added frequently, the government is reinforcing the idea that the state will be capable of continuing their high consumption of water.

Rather than reinforcing the population’s exaggerated lifestyle, the state should broadcast the real and detrimental effects that the region’s consumption has on the global population. However, is such a campaign possible if the government itself is perhaps blindsided to the actual effects of such consumption? According to Andy Spiess, a critic of climate change adaptation in the Arabian Gulf, “the GCC member states still believe that their financial resources will be sufficient enough to buy solutions.”[1] Spiess’ claim further suggests a government flaw that is the catalyst to a top-down exploitation of resources. In other words, the government is doing very little to influence a decrease in water consumption amongst the population, which is in tern forging negative impacts to the global population due to an exploitation of resources.

Since water and oil are interchangeable, when oil becomes more scarce and expensive, so does the water supply in the region. This is a significant concern due to the increasing difficulty the region faces in oil extraction. Thus, it can be determined that water desalination, powered by oil, is an inefficient method of providing the resource for the region. This method is inefficient because it heavily contributes to worldwide competition for oil. In other words, the region’s heavy water consumption is contributing to a heavy use of oil, therefore declining the worldwide reserve of oil. In theory, the water consumption of the region is being extracted directly from the oil reserve, thus, as other countries are extracting oil separately from water, GCC countries are extracting water and oil from the same resource. This phenomenon has a direct impact on the country’s domestic and foreign operations.

Throughout this paper I have critiqued the water shortage in the Persian Gulf region, primarily the negative influences from the region’s governments and partially how western influence promotes higher water consumption. In contrast to my arguments, the region has enforced some effort to combat such water shortage, primarily through education and new pricing strategies. Combined, the two approaches provide an opportunity for a hopeful future within the region.

Countries within the region have recently implemented pricing strategies to attempt a decrease in water consumption. In 2015, Emirati nationals began to pay between AED 1.70 and 1.89 for one thousand litres of water, and expatriates began to pay between AED 5.95 and 9.90 per one thousand litres. Consultants and experts in the region believe that this is a vital step to preserving the water supply, as well as a way to “generate awareness and have an immediate impact on overall consumption patterns.” Thus, as Günel argues, this pricing structure should account for ethical and environmental implications of desalination, while allowing the population to continue their everyday consumption.

Another way the region is alleviating the water shortage is through education. Governments throughout the region have been promoting institutions of higher education in hopes to bolster local enterprise, diversify the economy, and transform the countries into global centers of innovation in science and technology. By doing so, the countries are instilling a “knowledge-based economy,” anticipating that knowledge will be the solution to ecological problems in the region. Additionally, the region hopes that such intellectual resources will be exportable, therefore initiating a regional boom in technology, such as Silicon Valley, that will be profitable with a high-value return. Thus, the institutions of higher learning in the region, such as the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, are centered around science and technology rather than the humanities. Such institutions specialize in research and development of water management, as evident by a statement by the Masdar Institute, stating that “water has been one of Masdar Institute’s key focus areas since inception, with diverse research looking to address challenges in desalination, water treatment, preservation and monitoring.”

While water pricing and education are circulating change and a discussion around the future of the region, they are only merely scratching the surface on what needs to be done in order to combat the water crisis. Due to the region’s heavy water consumption on a daily basis, the effects of a pricing strategy and future technological advancements are too distanced; the region needs to enforce change immediately. As stated earlier, since water and oil are interchangeable, the region virtually has no natural fresh water, and since the world’s oil supply is rapidly decreasing, the benefits of water pricing and the advancement of education may be too late in their impact. Nevertheless, while the region is making advancements towards the water crisis, it is simply not enough compared to the large-scale effects that are currently ongoing.

The freshwater crisis GCC countries are facing provides a holistic outlook on how a region’s prized resource and rise in political power can catalyze unintended consequences. The situation undermines the responsibility governments hold when dealing with the wealth of resources, utilizing global resources, and solving ecological problems using technology. The water crisis is relayed, in the form of political stress, to the global competition for oil due to the region’s heavy consumption of oil to fulfill desalination plants. Thus, this paper has provided the framework that further predicts how desalination plants hurt the global outlook more than benefits the Persian Gulf region. The rise of oil and the wealth it has forged has brought the region’s population to excessive consumption of not only oil, but also water. Thus, since water and oil are interchangeable, the excessive use of water used in the region is further exploiting the decreasing worldwide oil supply. As this continues, the global competition for oil will increase, causing heavy political stress for the region in terms of exports and foreign relations. Ultimately, if the GCC countries continue with their current water infrastructure, the region’s population continues its steady increase, and the global oil endowment continues to decline at its current rate, the cities along the Persian Gulf coast will collapse due to an inability to provide adequate fresh water.

Sources:

Creel, Liz, Roger-Mark De Souza, and Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi. “Finding the Balance: Population and Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa.” Population Reference Bureau , 2002. Accessed December 12, 2017. http://www.prb.org/pdf/FindingtheBalance_Eng.pdf.

Froilan, Malit T., and Ali Al Yousha. “Labor Migration in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges and Responses.” Migrationpolicy.org. March 02, 2017. Accessed December 12, 2017. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/labor-migration-united-arab-emirates-challenges-and-responses.

Günel, Gökçe. “The Infinity of Water: Climate Change Adaptation in the Arabian Peninsula.” Public Culture28, no. 2 79 (2016): 291–315. doi:10.1215/08992363–3427463.

Jones, Toby Craig. Desert kingdom: how oil and water forged modern Saudi Arabia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Kunstler, James Howard. The long emergency: surviving the end of oil, climate change, and other converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Grove Press, 2009.

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