The Supply and Use of Water in Abu Dhabi Paper Example

Part A: The supply and use of water in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi inhabitants receive water entirely through the supplies from groundwater, desalination, and effluent. The breakdown of water supply is as follows; the groundwater supplies 79%, desalination supplies 17%, and supply of effluent water treatment is 4%.

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The water supply resources in the Abu Dhabi, UAE are either conventional or non-conventional. The groundwater (deep and shallow aquifers) and the surface water (dams and springs) are conventional sources whereas the desalinated water, water from cloud seeding, and treated wastewater are non-conventional (Al Madfaei, 2017).

Groundwater

The groundwater is stored in the ground. The majority of this water is used in agriculture and forestry and helps in water resources conservation strategies.

Desalinated Water

The process of desalination implies removal of salinity in seawater so as to make it fresh and usable for domestic and industrial functions. The desalinated water accounts for 17% of the Abu Dhabi water supply. The water mainly comes from the desalinating processing plants. The main beneficiaries of such waters are the agricultural, residential, domestic and forestry sectors.

Effluents

The effluents sources of water are for the purpose of wastewater reuse. The wastewaters from residential, commercial, and industrial uses become useful for agriculture, domestic uses, forestry, et cetera after undergoing treatment to produce the Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) (Tourenq, & Launay, 2008).

The use of treated wastewater in Abu Dhabi has been on increase since 2005 through 2015. Treated water is also reused but at a lower rate. The reduction of wastewater reuse was observed in 2008 and 2009 (3.9 % drop from 58% to 54.1%), and the years between 2014 and 2015 (61.26% to 51.39%). The graph below indicates the trend of treated wastewater and the reused quantities in mm3).

The people of Abu Dhabi utilize water for agriculture, forestry, domestic purposes, amenities, and industrial applications. Agricultural use takes the largest percentage in water use, that is, 57%, followed by forestry (18%), then domestic use (16%), amenity (7%), and finally the industries consume 2% (Al Madfaei, 2017).

The Abu Dhabi Water Supply Map

The map illustrates the sources of Abu Dhabi water, which include; the desalination plants, wastewater treatment plants, dams, and domestic supply wetlands. The desalination plants are majorly along the coastal shore of the country. The installation of such plants is for use in desalinating the salty seawaters. The country also makes effort to build as many wastewater treatment plants as possible so as to reduce wastes. Water pipelines connect the various water supplies sources to the homes, farms, industries, et cetera (Al Madfaei, 2017). The map below is a representation of the Abu Dhabi water sources and uses in form of a topographical map.

The spatial analysis of the country's geology has shown some changes regarding the groundwater water levels between the year 2005 and 2015. The majority of the grounds showed stable water level followed by the decline of water level, while few areas experienced a rise in groundwater level. The groundwater levels near Al Khazna, Al Wagan, and Al Hayer showed a drastic decline, while a few areas like those near Madinat Zayed and area to the west of Al Khazna indicated a rise in water level (Farrant, et al., 2012). The representation of the groundwater levels changes is as per the map below.

The salinity of the Abu Dhabi groundwater varies from freshwater to strongly saline, and brine. The supply of fresh water is the lowest when compared to the rest of varying salinity of the shallow to medium deep groundwater. Abu Dhabi has about 5.8% of freshwater with less than 1500 ppm, 43.3% of brackish water with between 1500 ppm and 10000 ppm, and 50.9% saline water with above 10000 ppm salinity. The Banoona area and some parts of the Al Ain and Al Hayer show a few sites with fresh waters, which have the level of salinity of below 1500 ppm. The salinity levels of the shallow and medium groundwater supplies in Abu Dhabi are as per the hydrographic map below.

As already identified, the major consumer of the Abu Dhabi's water is agriculture, mainly farm use, and forestry.

Water consumption differs depending on the plant types; fodder and vegetation, forest trees, date palms, and green and amenity areas. The green and amenity sites require an allowance of 9 to 18.9 mm water per hectare per day, a mean of 13.95 mm/day, and an annual requirement of 5110 mm on a higher estimation. The date palms require an allowance of 10 to 15 gallons of water per day per young tree and 25 to 20 gallons of water per day per mature tree, a mean of 1.2 mm/ha/day and an annual requirement of 4550 mm on probably a low estimation. The research of Saudi, however, suggests a mean of 4 mm per day or 14600 cubic meters per hectare per year. The forest trees consume water as follows; an allowance of 4 to 8 gallons of water per day per tree, an assumed mean of 0.4 mm/day, and an annual requirement of 197 to 210 mm/year or 400 to 800 mm annually on an assumable note given improved irrigation schemes in the future. This gesture indicates that the current irrigation techniques may be the reason for slow growth in forest trees. Finally, the water supply is also used for fodder and vegetable growth in Abu Dhabi. This sector uses a water of between 9 to 18.9 mm/ha/day, a mean of 13.95 mm/day, and an annual requirement of 5500 mm/year for fodder and between 1150 to 3850 mm/year for vegetables.

The country, Abu Dhabi ensures water supply through the artificial groundwater recharge. The two basic concepts of the recovery schemes are the well gallery scheme (the two-fold purpose well combining both recovery and recharge) and the infiltration basins scheme and recovery wells. The county has a lot of artificial groundwater recharge wells, which are the third party wells (about 24,250 wells), vertical electronic soundings (about 3950 wells), and the GTZ Company wells for exploration, monitoring, and production (about 1223 wells).

Part B: The history, geological background, and significance of the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve

The region of Sabkha had a depression and suffered intermittent flooding. The condition was probably due to deflation. The construction of the Al Ain truck road began and dammed the pond water that gathered during the winters. The depression became a collection zone for the discharged treated wastewater from the Al Mafraq. The region had the a very unstable environment and the lakes dried out often, especially during the summer. The area provided habitation for flamingos and visitors would visit occasionally. These visitors were occasionally hunted. The main purpose, in fact, the original, of the Al Wathba was to nest the Greater Flamingo. In the year 1993, during the summer, a small colony of flamingos was detected breeding near the pond water in the north of Al Ain truck road. The breeding failed courtesy of human interference as well as the falling water levels.

In the year 1996, the permission was granted by the Al Wathba camel race track for the management of the salinity of the lake. Since the time, the government entities (Abu Dhabi Environment Agency) and the predecessor ensured the water's quality management. In the year 1998, the area was guarded permanently and the water levels regulated precisely, and the area was formerly designated as a protected reserve. This area became attractive to waterfowl and many other species of birds because of its manmade, steady hydrological regime.

The al Wathba reserve was internationally recognized as a wetland site in the year 2013. In the year 2017, during the summer, there were about 448 fledglings from a colony of approximately 5000 individuals. Today, the Al Wathba is a wetland reserve with a managed hydrological regime that uses recycled treated wastewater. The main food, which is the brine shrimp Artemia, usually occurs naturally in the lakes. The source of the treated wastewater is the neighboring sewage treatment plant, the Al Mafraq sewage treatment plant. The nutrient from the wastewater enhances the high productivity of the lakes, supports the growth of reeds, papyrus, and many plants that grow in the area.

The geological formation in Al WathbaThe Al Wathba Reserve is built on the early intermittent pond previously known as the Sabkha. This area was formed from a depression, which leads to the seasonal collection of water. The geological layout of this site is majorly saline due to the nature of the underlying ground condition as well as the frequent discharge of sewage treated wastewater from the Al Mafraq sewage treatment plant (Farrant, et al., 2012). The damming of the pond was enhanced by the road construction in Al Ain. The geology and the environment of the area were favorable for the breeding of flamingos and other species of birds. The situation could not, however, allow the favorable breeding of the bird species as well as plants, because of the high infiltration of water during the summer. In 1998, the government decided to control the water level by introducing the artificial hydrological regime (Tourenq, & Launay, 2008). The site uses the treated wastewater to regulate and maintain its hydrology. Brine is the main constituent of the reserve's ground.

The Al Wathba reserve today has a particular geological behavior. The northwest area, the Umm Al Nar has a canal and a Ghayathi formation standing on the Gachsaran Formation with gypsum beds. The capital district has the Abu Dhabi formation and the Baynunah Formation. Mafraq has a hill formation and the Ghayathi formation. The area surface has dune and ridges that lie on top of the gypsum beds. The diagram below is a representation of a cross-section showing the geological units of the site.

The area also consists of pavements, zeugen of laminated carbonate grainstone, and crags in the south of Al Wathba (Farrant, et al., 2012). History records that the sea level was low about 17000 years ago and caused glacial maximum. After some time, 8000 years ago, the sea level rose at an average advance of 140 per year or sometimes by more than 1000 meters annually.

Experience in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve

The Reeds, scientifically known as Phragmites australisThe species of the plants that grow in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserved (AWWR) include the reeds. These plants are grass-like and grow past the height of three meters. The growth of reeds spreads from along the water edges and extends to the trails artificially prepared to allow people to walk in the reserve. They spread and grow very fast and use rhizomes. These plants grow densely in some areas, and they are mainly found in the eastern and northern parts of the AWWR.

The reeds offer habitations to many birds, reptiles, and mammals. The reeds are found in the brackish waters and can withstand a wide range of salinity. The reeds are able to grow in brackish, which range from 1500 ppm to 10000 ppm. The draft United Arabs Emirates Plant Red List lists th...