Common water law needed to secure supplies as aquifers dwindle, says Sorbonne-Abu Dhabi
As the population grows, the land is drying out. So what can be done? Anna Zacharias talks to the academics with an answer
Within 50 years Abu Dhabi could run out of fresh water.
A common water law in the Gulf is needed to secure supplies for future generations, said academics at the Paris Sorbonne University-Abu Dhabi. Researchers there are developing a road map for a legal framework that will establish a single legal status for water in the GCC.
Higher tariffs, stronger law enforcement and unified policies are needed, say lawyers and researchers.
“In many GCC countries, responsibility for the administration, regulation, and development of water supplies is fragmented between many government entities, with Saudi Arabia and Oman the main exceptions,” writes Mohamed Dawoud, a water resources adviser at the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi.
Ancient aquifers in the emirate’s interior hold water that is 12,000 to 40,000 years old. These reserves have been depleted in a few generations, and will never be replenished.
Abu Dhabi gets an average of 82 millimetres of rainfall per year. Desalination, a costly alternative, now provides nearly all of the water used for human consumption. Abu Dhabi is expected to run out of fresh water by 2065.
Meanwhile, farming in the arid interior continues. Agriculture, forestry and landscaping account for 85 per cent of the water consumption in Abu Dhabi. Almost all of Emirate’s natural groundwater use is pumped into agriculture.
There is still hope. The aquifers beneath Abu Dhabi’s dunes can be preserved if streamlined laws and policies are enforced to manage the Gulf’s most-precious resource.
“I was struck by the fact that there was a great concern that the public stakeholders were very aware of the stakes regarding fresh water, and there was a strong need to develop a full system which would be efficient and equitable,” said Dr Anthony Chamboredon, an associate professor of law specialisng in sustainable development law.
The fresh water road map will establish legal obligation by the authorities and encourage effective water management practices.
Water is a costly national security concern. In late January, a 160-kilometre water pipeline from the sea to the Empty Quarter was completed. The 21 billion litre reserve of 315 wells took 27 months to fill. The Dh1.6bn project is the world’s largest reserve of desalinated water and a milestone of the national Water Security Strategy 2036.
Yet infrastructure can only provide limited solutions.
Consumption habits must change, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told the Federal National Council in March. He said that water was a “huge concern”.
The Gulf is about to run dry. And Abu Dhabi is on track to run out of fresh water in less than 50 years.
But a common water law for the Gulf will be the first step to water security, say academics at the Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
They are developing a roadmap for laws to define a single legal status for water in GCC countries. This will establish legal obligation by the authorities and encourage private companies to adopt water-saving practices.
“I was struck by the fact that there was a great concern that the public stakeholders were very aware of the stakes regarding freshwater and there was a strong need to develop a full system which would be efficient and equitable,” says Dr Anthony Chamboredon, an associated professor of law who specialises in sustainable development law.
Central to this roadmap is a book edited by Dr Chamboredon on water law, the culmination of four years of research and collaboration between the university, government researchers and ministers, and the private sector.
He hopes that Fresh Water: Law and Stakes in the Arab States of the Gulf Co-operation
Council will be one of a series. Published in December, it examines how the dwindling aquifers beneath Abu Dhabi’s dunes can be preserved and how streamlined laws and policies will secure fresh water for future generations.
The numbers are stark. The population of the Arab region is expected to reach 598 million by 2050 and as Gulf countries become more affluent, the per capita use of water increases. Water use in Abu Dhabi is rising at an annual rate of 9.5 per cent and demand has more than doubled in the past decade.
Oases that sustained a small, semi-nomadic population of 70,000 until have almost dried up. Ancient aquifers, which hold water that is 12,000 to 40,000 years old, have been emptied in a few generations. They are essentially a non-renewable resource.
Abu Dhabi has an average of 82 millimetres of rainfall a year and water evaporates at an annual rate of between 2,000mm and 3,000mm. The groundwater that supplied 80 per cent of the emirate’s water 10 years ago is nearly gone.
Instead, the country has looked to energy-intensive desalination to meet our most basic need. It provides nearly all of the drinking water in the UAE’s distribution system.
Arab Gulf states make up at least 60 per cent of the world’s desalination capacity. Globally, the UAE is second only to Saudi Arabia for desalination, which in Abu Dhabi quadrupled between 1985 and 2000 to more than 400 cubic mm a year and is expected to triple again in the next 12 years.
This comes at a great environmental and economic cost.
“In short, a paradigm shift is needed from water being viewed as a common, readily available, free resource to it being a rare, expensive, precious and essential commodity,” writes Razan Al Mubarak, secretary general of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, in the book’s foreword.
Business as usual is not a satisfactory response, Ms Al Mubarak says. “A whole new approach is required.”
Researchers at the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi have looked at existing water laws, policies and enforcement to find a solution.
They have found that stricter enforcement of existing water laws is needed.
Ayesha Al Suwaidi and Imene Fattoum, master’s students in sustainable development law, detailed some of the 80 court cases on illegal groundwater trade in Abu Dhabi.
Their findings show maximum penalties are seldom enforced. Instead, illegal water traders are usually fined Dh5,000 to Dh15,000. They do not tell of any instance where traders faced jail.
“This case law illustrates that, despite the environment agency’s efforts, farm owners are still illegally selling and transporting groundwater because people are unaware of the seriousness of the problem, or they turn a blind eye due to the penalties often being less than the possible profits,” they write.
The agency is working with the Judicial Department of Abu Dhabi to educate judges but the emirate is still at a stage of assessment and proposals.
“There is hesitance when it comes to strictly policing the water sector,” writes Dr Faraj Ahnish, a managing partner at the Abu Dhabi law firm Hadef and Partners.
“One of the reasons for this, historically, is that groundwater wells are constructed on private farms, with a belief among farmers that groundwater belongs to them.”
Of Abu Dhabi’s 72,000 active wells, there have been just four cases of drilling without a valid licence.
“Not only is the existing punishment lenient, but no specific provisions prohibit certain acts, with the exception of not having a licence,” Dr Ahnish says.
He says that offenders were not imprisoned, despite laws stating they face a minimum imprisonment of three months. Instead, most received the minimum a fine of Dh10,000. Under existing laws, fines are punishable up to Dh20,000.
“However, when incomes from selling groundwater are more profitable than this the penalties often do not serve as a deterrent,” Dr Ahnish says.
The researchers have also looked at best practice for water tariffs. Low water and electricity fees have contributed to a sense of water resource abundance, Dr Chamboredon says.
This is particularly true in agriculture, which has pushed reservoirs to their limits. Many of Abu Dhabi’s 25,000 farms are in inland oases. Agriculture and forestry make up 76 per cent of water use in Abu Dhabi.
Add landscaping and roadside plantations to the equation, and Abu Dhabi’s greenery accounts for 85 per cent of the emirate’s water. Almost all of Abu Dhabi’s natural groundwater use is pumped into agriculture.
There were ample aquifers when farmers began planting. Wells have proliferated in the past two decades, from 5,667 to 72,000 active wells. But unproductive wells have increased
from 10 to 25 per cent, a clear indicator of aquifer depletion. Remaining groundwater has deteriorated and become saline.
Mohamed Dawoud, a water resources adviser at the environment agency, singles out large agricultural subsidies that “do not encourage rational water use”, hamper water security and make negligible contributions to GDP.
The current low tariffs do not match supply costs or the environmental cost. Yet financial disincentives may be ineffective.
In developed countries, use is tied to household size, not financial constraints. How do tariffs work in a country where revenue per capita is so high for parts of the population and with great income disparity?
Kosmas Pavlopoulos, a professor at the university’s Geography and Planning Department, proposes a solution to the aquifer dilemma.
Prof Pavlopoulos suggests setting up a local bureau that pumps treated wastewater into defunct aquifers for agricultural use. Less than 10 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s water supply comes from wastewater.
He has already begun to collaborate with the government and outlined how it could be implemented in the next two to five years in places such as Madinat Zayed in Al Dhafra.
“We must be starting,” Prof Pavlopoulos says. “The government is on the right path. I think it must speed up a little bit because water is as precious as the oil and the natural gasfields now. Energy and water are the main tools for the 21st and 22nd century.”
The Sorbonne’s researchers warn that bureaucratic fragmentation is a barrier to water security.
“In many GCC countries, responsibility for the administration, regulation, and development of water supplies is fragmented between many government entities, with Saudi Arabia and Oman the main exceptions,” Dr Dawoud says.
“This frequently results in conflicting policies, political competition between agencies, and the lack of a comprehensive and co-ordinated policy for the allocation, management and use of water supplies.”
This is improving. A law this year that merged the two main entities in charge of the water and energy regulations for the emirate – the Abu Dhabi Water and Energy Authority and the Abu Dhabi Regulation and Supervision Bureau.
On a regional level, a unified water strategy drafted by the GCC secretary general was published in March last year.
It cannot happen soon enough, Ms Al Mubarak says.
“Currently, there is time to manage and avoid the worst impacts of these longer-term trends, but this needs to start now.”
Groundwater wells are constructed on private farms, with a belief among farmers that groundwater belongs to them DR FARAJ AHNISH Hadef and Partners managing partner