Includes meter development, pollutant monitoring, and reuse

Environment Abu Dhabi enhances groundwater reserves with 4 projects

The authority works to reduce water deterioration as a result of excessive extraction.

From the source

The Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi revealed the implementation of four projects to monitor groundwater, manage its use, reduce its extraction rates, and enhance its strategic reserves in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, including projects to develop technical specifications for non-potable groundwater meters, monitor groundwater, evaluate potential pollutants, and study evaluation, treatment and reuse Using water produced from oil and gas fields, exploring deep groundwater sources, dealing with groundwater from the perspective of the most valuable natural resources, and reducing its degradation as a result of excessive extraction.

In detail, the authority's statistics showed a decrease in the average quantities of groundwater extracted from the emirate's wells by about 630 million cubic meters, as the quantities extracted decreased from 2,700 million cubic meters in 2005 to 2070 million cubic meters in 2019, indicating that the amount of groundwater in Abu Dhabi is estimated at about 642 thousand million cubic meters, indicating that 63% of the emirate's water resources are underground, 29% desalinated, and 8% treated.

The authority indicated that the legislation on the management of groundwater resources in Abu Dhabi, which was launched last year, aims to preserve groundwater and manage its resources in a sustainable manner by setting requirements for its extraction, drilling wells, and operating desalination units, pointing to cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Council For quality and conformity in developing technical specifications for non-potable groundwater meters.

She emphasized that the new specifications for the metering technology aim to ensure the continuity of confidence in relation to water metering requirements, and to enhance accurate measurements of water extraction rates to assist in monitoring processes and issuance of water abstraction licenses, compliance and enforcement procedures, in addition to specifying requirements for extraction license holders to meet their obligations in accordance with specific legislation.

She explained that the monitoring of groundwater is done by analyzing the data of the monitoring operations that it undertakes to assess the changes that occur in the groundwater level, to understand and identify the relevant pressures, pointing to the implementation of more than 1,800 visits to collect data on groundwater in the past year, and to set a new environmental baseline. The quality of groundwater in Abu Dhabi, which is the result of efforts that lasted about five years to enhance groundwater monitoring, in partnership with the relevant international organizations.

The authority pointed out that «the monitoring processes included an assessment of potential pollutants in the groundwater, to understand the impact of various human activities on the lands, and we succeeded in linking the pollutants that were monitored to their potential sources, and collecting samples from 155 sites, where nine groups of chemical elements of the water were analyzed. Includes physical and chemical elements and potential pollutants ».

The authority indicated the launch of a new project to conduct a comprehensive evaluation to explore deep groundwater resources in Abu Dhabi, and aims to conduct an integrated quantitative and qualitative assessment on the possibility of deep groundwater reservoirs to support sustainable development and use of available resources. It ranged between 600 and 900 meters in different locations. The results and outputs of the project contribute to promoting the short, medium and long term development of deep groundwater reservoirs.

She explained that «the legislation on the management of groundwater resources, which was adopted last year, aims to preserve groundwater and manage its resources in a sustainable manner by setting requirements for its extraction, drilling wells, operating desalination units, and in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Council for Quality and Conformity, we developed the specifications. Technology for groundwater meters not suitable for drinking ».

Oilfield water

The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi is carrying out a new study on assessing, treating and reusing water produced from oil and gas fields in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, with the aim of assessing the quality and quantity of water produced from oil and gas fields, examining possible options and techniques for reducing salinity and managing the produced water, and proposing best practices and alternatives for treating and reusing this The resource, in addition to developing a long-term vision for the emirate to strengthen the management of water produced from oil and gas fields.

The authority stated that the estimates indicate that the water produced globally from these fields is estimated at 328 million barrels, compared to about 102 barrels of oil per day, where the ratio of water to oil is about 1: 3, while this percentage is in some Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates. United 1: 7.

2070 million cubic meters of groundwater extracted last year.

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