DUBAI: Diminishing natural groundwater is a fundamental threat to Gulf countries. As a result, leaders are taking steps to protect the region's supply. Abu Dhabi, in particular, is taking no chances. In October, the emirate launched a pilot for the world's largest underground reservoir, with 26 million cubic meters of desalinated water. Officials say they aim to protect from oil spills or plant breakdowns, but others cite security fears. Today, Abu Dhabi and its fellow emirates have only four days of water if desalination plants were damaged. “A desalination plant is a large factory sitting on the coast, something that you could easily blow up with a bomb or a missile. You could bring the country to its knees,” said Hady Amr of the Brookings Doha Center. Abu Dhabi's massive aquifer project is buried beneath the scorching sands of the Empty Quarter, a desert stretching from the UAE to Saudi Arabia. The completed reservoir will store 90 days of rationed water for its citizens. Now Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman are interested in making aquifers too, the project's developers and analysts said. “Iran and Iraq have rivers. We (other Gulf states) don't. So in the future, they have the upper hand,” said Sami Al-Faraj, of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies. The UAE risks depleting groundwater within 50 years at current consumption rates. Desalination capacity, which Abu Dhabi has quadrupled in the last 10 years, is at risk from natural disasters and oil spills in the Strait of Hormuz, where 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil passes. “We need strategic storage against any type of emergency. We have no specific crisis in mind,” said Mohammed Dawoud, head of Water Resources at Abu Dhabi's Environment Agency. But two sources close to the long-discussed project, to be built by the Arabian Construction and POSCO Engineering and Construction companies, said the project was also spurred on by growing fear of attack. “The are concerned about unfriendly acts. It takes only a little effort to shut (a plant) down,” one source said. Many see Gulf states' water scarcity as an Achilles' heel. Saudi Arabia even considered transporting icebergs from the South Pole for water. Water installations are not only at risk of natural disasters, but attack as well. Although energy facilities are the likeliest target for international impact, an attack on water resources could cripple a Gulf state like the UAE. “They don't have any alternative to desalination plants,” said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institute in Washington. “Of their many vulnerabilities, this one is their most acute.” Some question Abu Dhabi's $436 million dollar plan. “The reliability of such a system has not yet been demonstrated ... it's far from being a fool-proof guarantee that they can store 90 days of water and don't have to worry,” said an expert from Exclusive Analysis, who asked not to be named. “It's an unusual terrain, you're trying to store water underneath the desert near oil wells that have salt water mixed with them,” he said, pointing to the threat of contamination. But Arab states may find this a risk worth taking. – Agence France
