Water Week 2022: Taking action now

Water operators around the world are the stewards of an essential resource. How they handle that resource has a direct impact on the general livelihood of populations since water infrastructure is the cornerstone of every thriving economy.

It is also a fact that in most water-stressed region, such as the Middle East, the process of producing and delivering potable water are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This might come as a shock, but global water utilities are said to emit the same amount of GHG as the world’s shipping industry. This is something that should concern everyone in the industry.

But the good news is that there is a lot that the water sector can do to drastically reduce its emissions, and indeed we are already seeing significant action in this direction. The first step would be to drastically scale down power consumption for seawater desalination processes which are energy intensive and a major cause of high emissions (and production costs).

Readily available technologies are an important and affordable part of the roadmap towards decarbonising water, combined with changes in process, policy and practice. Assessments by Xylem, a water technology company, indicate that global water utilities could cut GHG emissions in half, at low to no cost, with existing high-efficiency technologies.

But above all else, there is need for supporting processes, policies, and practices to fast-track progress, to create accountability, to reduce the costs and risks of this transition, and to unlock new benefits linked to emissions reductions initiatives.

This is why Utilities Middle East will be hosting its third edition of Water Week this month to add a layer of support to ongoing initiatives. Water Week 2022 will take place at Taj Exotica, Palm Dubai, UAE on 13 September under the theme “Ramping up innovation and collaboration for water resilience.”

Participants at the event will analyse current achievements, showcase latest technologies and also propose new interventions in key areas such as funding, collaboration, policies, and regulation to help deliver better results.