Professor lectures on water resources in Kuwait University
KUWAIT: Kuwait University’s (KU) civil engineering professor Dr Abdullah Al-Sumai’e recently lectured on ‘Managing and Planning Water Resources in the State of Kuwait.’ The lecture came as part of activities of the cultural week organized by the Higher Institute of Energy in collaboration with KU’s media and public relations office in the period of November 22-28. The lecture included an introduction about water resources in general and in Kuwait in particular, in addition to the mechanism followed in managing those resources in Kuwait.
Sumai’e stressed the need to find other low-cost alternatives to provide water, bearing in mind that Kuwait lacks rivers and lakes and severely suffers from fresh water scarcity with limited rainfall. “This worsens the problem of freshwater in Kuwait despite the presence of a huge reservoir of underground water, which is relatively high in salinity,” he explained. Furthermore, he pointed out that the cost of desalinating sea water is high, which calls for strategic long-term plans to secure Kuwait’s needs of freshwater taking into consideration the high per capita daily consumption of water in Kuwait of 550 liters.
In addition, Sumai’e reviewed Kuwait’s water projects such as AlZour North water plant which is designed to increase desalination productivity and storing water in underground reservoirs to be used in case desalination plants malfunctioned for any reason.