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| Arabia |
| Saudi Arabia....a bit dry |
| 2009-06-08 |
| With a national average of 112mm of rain precipitation per annum, much of the Kingdom falls within the standard definition of desert as an area with a precipitation rate of less than 250mm per year. However, parts of the Kingdom far exceed this. Levels as high as 600mm per annum are a regular feature of Asir in the southwest with occasional peaks of nearly a meter. The threat of Saudi Arabia running out of water in 20 years or so is a specter to be contended with. With good management and some insightful government action, that deadline could be, however, extended by decades or perhaps even removed. Reserves need very careful husbandry; some such as the Umm UrÂ’Radhuma in the Eastern Region running down to NADEC in Haradh and to Yabrin are being recharged fairly actively. There is no point, however, rationing water that should not be extracted in the first place. One solution would be to place the country into zones, to only allow extraction from rechargeable areas, and to severely limit or ban extraction in others. Saudi Arabia uses 22 km3 of water per year. To make up the difference between the rate of annual renewal and the KingdomÂ’s water use, water is extracted from nonrenewable reserves or provided by desalination. Looked at another way, for every 9 liters of water used in Saudi Arabia, only one is annually renewed; the rest comes from declining nonreplaceable reserves or desalination. Keeping urban areas supplied with water is an increasingly pressing problem as the customary temporary suspension of services in municipal supplies and the regular merry battles to secure tanker deliveries from water plants indicates. Coupled with the decline in groundwater supplies are the additional factors of pollution of aquifers by the conurbations they serve, and the fact that desalination plants are nearing the end of their productive lives. |
| Posted by:Classer |
| #3 Hire more dew-collectors and build more windtraps. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2009-06-08 20:55 |
| #2 http://tinyurl.com/c8wew5 A much better idea. Use saltwater. A country like Saudi or Australia could dig an inland canal to create a salt lake, then pump the salt water through this type of desalinization to turn desert into farmland. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-06-08 18:20 |
| #1 quit buying Mercedes Maybachs and build desalinization plants |
| Posted by: funky skunk 2009-06-08 13:33 |