Arab Emirates plans to deliver icebergs to their coasts

Emirates will start towing icebergs from Antarctica

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that’s what the project “iceberg”, which is planned to push giant blocks of ice halfway around the world to combat drought in the United Arab Emirates.

According to the plan, which was announced last week in Abu Dhabi, Antarctic icebergs will be towed through the Indian ocean to a distance of 9,200 kilometers and to use them in the Emirates as a source of drinking water.

“It’s the purest water in the world. We have developed a technical and financial plan and begin to implement the project in the beginning of 2018,” said Sulaiman al-Shehi, head of the project.

The average iceberg contains up to 20 billion gallons of fresh water, enough to quench the thirst of 1 million people within five years. Computer simulations showed that during towing the iceberg would lose about 30 percent of its weight and another 20 percent is lost during processing of the ice into the water. The icebergs will melt, and the drinking water is stored in large tanks for processing. The project was developed taking into account the fact that in the United Arab Emirates quickly run out of drinking water and desalination machines may not be enough.

Even in 2015, the Associated Press reported that the United Arab Emirates underground water sources may end in the next 15 years, and the country will have to spend a lot of money on the desalination of sea water. But despite statements of officials that the “water more important than oil,” water conservation, it seems, is not a priority for many local residents.

“Study of the United Nations showed that UAE residents use about 500 liters of water a day, this is one of the highest rates in the world,” the Associated Press reports.

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