We all need to use water sparingly

Government is doing its part to make water available, but we in UAE are simply wasting too much

Spare a thought for the residents of the South African city of Cape Town who, sometime next year, will wake up one day to the prospect that they may simply have no water left. Nothing in the taps, nothing in the tanks, nothing in the pipelines and nothing in reserve. That’s a frightening thought, one that should bring home to each and every one of us just exactly how precious are our reserves of readily available water. Naturally, the city authorities in Cape Town are working hard now to prolong their water supplies, trying to push back for as long as possible what is being called ‘Day Zero’ in their local media.

Taking that Cape Town scenario and extrapolating it to the rest of the world, it’s worth bearing in mind that 60 per cent of the world’s population right now lives in areas that are under water stress — where demand exceeds supply — and that number increases every month. The dangers of global warming have been long expounded on by the scientific and research communities and also by political and environmental leaders.

But rising temperatures around the world also has a knock-on effect on our water supplies: Weather patterns change, winds and clouds don’t form when and where they did before, and rainfall has either decreased or comes so heavily that it is hard to contain by inundated conservation and preservation systems.

Consider now that the UAE is one of the ten most arid places on this planet, where rainfall is rare. Putting it in perspective, it’s not unusual on a winter’s day in New York for 11 inches of snow to fall — while in the UAE, we can usually count four inches of rain to fall on any given year.

Added to that is the fact that this nation’s population has grown hugely, from a million, when it was founded, to the nine million or so who live here now. And the scale of water-management and water-supply issues facing the UAE is significant, though it is neither insurmountable nor unmanageable.

Clearly, the provision and planning for ample water supplies is critical and is a top priority for the leadership of the UAE and at all levels of government. What’s also important to note is that water consumption needs here remain among the highest in the world.

Yes, every level of government is doing its part in providing enough water supplies. But right now, it is the responsibility of all nine million of us UAE residents who need to think very carefully over how we continue to use — and abuse — those scarce water supplies.