Ocean Sentry
Every time desalination plants dump tons of brine carrying chemicals into the Arabian Gulf, sea temperatures rise by 10 degrees Celsius, according to researchers. This is having life-threatening effects on the marine ecosystem in the region. More than 12 million cubic metres of sea water, equivalent to 4,800 Olympic swimming pools, are desalinated daily in this region.
The UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran have 120 desalination plants between them. These plants flush nearly 24 tons of chlorine, 65 tons of algae-harming antiscalants used to descale pipes, and around 300kg of copper into the Arabian Gulf every day.
This chemical mixture is affecting seabed organisms and making its way up the food chain. Researchers say the Arabian Gulf is the water body most threatened by desalination.
Removing salt from sea water to provide safe drinking water has allowed severely water-scarce countries to prosper, but the energy intensive desalination process has a definite impact on the marine environment.
The recently released Arab Environment: Future Challenges 2009 report by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) and Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) echoes this, highlighting that power plants cause thermal pollution and desalination plants release chlorine, brine and thermal loads into sea water.
Mohammad Dawood, acting manager of Water Resources Management at EAD, confirmed that impacts of desalination effluents on the local marine ecosystem are being felt. A link to red tide and brine has not been strictly ruled out either.
“Organisms and coral reefs are being affected near the coastlines and are dying … Brine can increase the normal sea temperature by up to 10 degrees Celsius, which has a huge effect on the marine ecosystem.”
The marine environment of the Gulf has been degraded over recent years as a result of a wide range of land-based pollution sources and man-made activities.
(From gulfnews.com, Dubai, by Emanuelle Landais)
