For several years, the United Arab Emirates Company has been considering a project to transport a giant iceberg over a distance of more than 9, 000 km - from Antarctica to the Arabian Peninsula - to supply the country with drinking water.
Drinking water shortage
The climate in the UAE is one of the driest on the planet. About 94.3 mm of precipitation falls here annually. Hydrologists predict that groundwater will run out over the next 15 years.
At the same time, the UAE is spending the most water per capita in the world, according to a report by Emirates Industrial Bank. The country uses desalinated sea water.
About 70 percent of all fresh water in the world is in the icy fields of Antarctica.
Company plans
The company announced the start of work on the project back in May 2017.
It is planned by powerful tugs to drag an iceberg 2 km long and 500 m wide over the Indian Ocean 9200 km from Heard Island off the coast of Antarctica to the Persian Gulf, fix it at a distance of 24 kilometers off the coast of the UAE and use it to obtain drinking water.
It is estimated that towing an iceberg will take about twelve months.
An iceberg of this volume contains about 75 billion liters of water.
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According to the director of the company, Abdullah Mohammad Suleiman al-Shehi, this ambitious project has the following advantages:
- such a volume can provide drinking water to a million people over five years;
- it is the most environmentally friendly water in the world;
- transporting an iceberg is cheaper than desalinating the same volume of sea water;
- such a block of ice in the bay will lead to positive changes in the weather in the region.
