Qatar plans to expand its water storage

The reservoirs of desalinated water in Qatar can only last for one and a half days in summer.
By Sarmad Qazi
Staff Reporter

Qatar’s drinking water storage capacity is only for a few days, leaving the residents exposed to an “extreme situation” in case of a catastrophe, Gulf Times has learnt.
The reservoirs of desalinated water that provide much of the potable and networked water in Qatar can only last for one and a half days in summer while the capacity crawls up to two days during winter at the current water-use rates.
“The situation is very serious and we are racing against time considering the population explosion,” water resources expert at the Department of Agriculture & Water Research (DAWR) Kamel Mostafa Amer told Gulf Times.
The government has already initiated a massive project unfolding in four phases to address the problem.
“The first phase (which is already over) was to study the possibility of using Qatar’s groundwater aquifers as a storage media. Currently we are in the second phase,” Amer, who holds a PhD in the field, said.
Explored from 1992-94 with the help of UNDP, the study concluded that it was feasible to use the groundwater basins of the peninsula as reservoirs, after recharging them with desalinated water. Desalinated water is Qatar’s number one water resource.
Almost all the main desalination facilities in Qatar are only 80km apart, increasing the national security risk.
“Considering that the study was done in the 90s, the progress has been slow. But many factors, including the fact that we were the first country in the Gulf to go for this choice, have to be taken into account.”
During the second phase, “the best possible” aquifer location is being identified, most likely in the north since the southern basin, although covering over half of the land area of the country, is too brackish.
“In the third phase, a pilot project will begin after which recharging of the groundwater aquifers with desalinated water from Kahramaa will gather pace. That is the final phase,” Amer said.
“This is envisaged to give us three to four months worth of water storage, but later on we are planning to have much more than that.”
To recharge groundwater, the desalinated water will be injected in the groundwater basins for one month, after which there will be a waiting period of another month. In the third month, the by-now-recharged water will be extracted from the ground.
There are still problems though. One is the eventual degradation of quality of water after a few cycles and other being the fact that desalinated water is an “aggressive” type.
“We have to be very careful when putting it in fragile formation. It might just eat the soil there and destroy the whole aquifer, spoiling everything,” Amer explained.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=287627...