Desalination and water resource management in Kuwait

Abstract

In most arid countries the scarcity of conventional fresh water supplies infers a serious threat to sustainable and balanced socio-economic growth and development. This threat is clearly more pronounced in the less developed countries. However, the mining of non-conventional seawater and wastewater resources could provide an opportunity and a challenge to water supply sustainability. In Kuwait, the average rainfall is 110mm per year and the fresh water streams do not exist. The fresh water resources are limited to groundwater, desalinated seawater, and treated wastewater effluents. The total conventional fresh water resources available in Kuwait are 6 million m 3/y while the total water demand has exceeded 350 million m 3/y in the year 2000. With the continued deterioration of existing groundwater resources, almost 90% of the water demand is currently satisfied through seawater desalination plants. The history of desalination in Kuwait dates back to 1951 when the first distillation plant was commissioned. Currently the desalination capacity is 1.65 million m 3/d of which 1.47 million m 3/d is provided by multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) and 0.17 million m 3/d is supplied by reverse osmosis (RO). On the other hand, tertiary treated wastewater effluents of about 0.4 million m 3/d are produced by three major municipal wastewater treatment plants. Such effluent is currently utilized in irrigation. This paper presents the water resources management plan in Kuwait and evaluates the role of desalination and water reuse in meeting the increasing water demand. It also examines the recent trends in water supply and demand as well as the development in desalting plants inventory. Desalination requirements in Kuwait will continue to grow. A dramatic decline in cost has made desalination a viable and economic solution to ensure future water supply in Kuwait and the region, while the growing environmental concern has led to increased interest in water reuse.