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In the past Bahrain was settled by
many civilizations including Assyrians, Babylonians, Persian and finally
Arabs. Each civilization gave Bahrain a different name ranging from Dilmun,
Awal, Tylos, Mishmahig. Geographically Bahrain is a flat archipelago which consists of 33 small islands, unfortunately only about 1% of these islands are arable and 92% is covered by deserts. Desertification is one of the biggest environmental issues that Bahrain faces because of the small percentage of arable land; coastal degradation is also an issue resulting from oil spills, and industrial wastes. The climate of Bahrain, which many analysts conclude as the worst factor for water scarcity is hot, humid and has only two seasons summer and winter. Whereas summer is extremely hot and humid, winter is relatively mild. Temperatures during summer can reach 50° C combined with high humidity making it uncomfortable to endure and has a serious negative effect on water precipitation and rainfall., even though winter varies around 20° C, however, the humidity remains the same. In the past the climate was cooler and that used to generate more rainfall which created underground freshwater deposits that Bahrain relied on a lot. However with the change of climate which eventually led to the decrease of rainfall (Bahrain receives a very low amount of rainfall which is 72 millimeters per year) and in which mostly falls down during the short winter. Making the problem even harder is the lack of permanent rivers or streams. Bahrain never had any difficulties concerning water scarcity, usage, distribution etc. but after urbanization, change in climate and rapid increase of population all contributed into creating the difficulties we have mentioned above that never existed before. We have interviewed one of our most best talented and best informed teachers on this subject Mr. Jamil Mustafa Bahrain in the past was an oasis. It was covered by date palm trees and springs in the reef. Fresh water was so abundant that divers used to dive and fill up bags of water from the sea water and actually drink it. It was known to the ancient Phoenicians, and Sumerians as the place of the rising sun, a holy land, the land of the gods. There were plenty of water springs that people used to rely on, but now with urbanization the government was obliged to cut down trees and claim agricultural land. This coupled with climate change have contributed to the drying out of the springs. Once Bahrain discovered oil little attention was paid to the depletion of the springs because the government now started relying on water desalination as a feasible and alternative solution. We as citizens should think and acknowledge that the means by which we are getting water is very expensive, and that people should economize in their daily uses of water. In Ras AbuJaraJar Desalination Plant the overall cost of the construction, drilling the well, Operation and maintenance is about BD42 million for two years. Some methods we are trying to use and raise awareness of in our effort to minimize water use are: Recycling Water: recycling polluted water by upgrading its quality helps in eliminating the greater cost of treating the wastes themselves, it will also get rid of all regulatory controls to industries. The quality of water will not exceed the needed, because some wastes can be separated from the water without adding further upgrades. In 1976 Besselievre and Schwartz proved the success of waste recycling in the production of oil refining-steel mill-coal mining-phosphate mining-food processing and fiber glass Use of wastes: wastes removed from water can be used for many purposes such as water irrigation-fertilizers-biogas-energy-composting and all of these purposes were proved by success. Furthermore into details bio fertilizers were successfully produced from sewage and various other wastes from single celled organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae. In addition to that sewage water was also successfully used in the production of fertilizers by evaporation. Last but not least photosynthesis and closed cycle conversion of organic wastes can increase the level of nitrogen in the economy. The use of water stoppers in facilities such as toilets to stop water drop age and leaks, in addition to having half or full flushes. Technology should be put into use in all firms or facilities that have water consumption and use, most global solutions can also be worked out here locally in Bahrain Hopefully the effort we have put in this project will be the start of a search for a long term sustainable solution. |
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