Assessing Desalination Governance and the Promise of Technology in the Arabian Peninsula

Abstract

Desalination is expected to grow across the Middle East and North Africa due to increased water scarcity. The cost of desalinated water has decreased significantly over the last decades, but it has not reflected the mounting environmental impacts of desalination. Desalination can result in significant negative impacts on the environment, such as harmful emissions and the destruction of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Sustainable desalination should address environmental problems across the entire lifecycle of desalination plants, and embed desalination activities within a larger good governance view. This chapter maps out solutions and best practices relevant for the desalination industry using the case study of the Arabian Peninsula. It provides three main solution categories for making desalination sustainable, affordable, and safe. First, technological remedies to address the environmental impacts of desalination should go hand in hand with environmental regulation. Solutions related to lowering pollution, waste and marine impacts of desalination require clear and enforceable regulation frameworks that include thresholds, standards, reporting mechanisms and monitoring plans. Second, providing affordable desalination requires collaboration between the state, the private sector, and civil society. The private sector can share some of the desalination costs through joint ventures with state companies. Civil society and donor organizations can provide technical knowledge and aid programs in order to expand small-scale desalination for remote communities. Third, safe desalination requires the protection of desalination infrastructure as critical assets. This includes paying attention to the operational security of desalination plants and developing contingency plans. Related to this, regional cooperation through knowledge sharing and joint action to mitigate the cross-country impacts of desalination activities is important for regions such as the Arabian Gulf. Overall, sustainable desalination is a multi-actor task that should integrate the perspective of water policymakers with that of desalination plants’ managers and operators. While desalination managers prioritize issues related to their technical performance, policymakers should encourage more collaboration and co-development of environmentally friendly desalination. Public leadership is important for lowering the desalination cost, investing in green desalination technologies, providing clear institutional frameworks, and improving awareness about water conservation in collaboration with civil society