Write a Recommendation Report

Module Code: PM502-2T Group: Group W Module Title: Skill for Study 2 Assessment Title: Report Assignment Title: Write a recommendation report in which you compare three possible methods for water provision in arid region of your choice. Tutor Name: Eve Smith Student ID Number : 200860469 Date of Submission: Friday 2nd Dec, 2011 Word count: 1668 Contents 1Introduction1 2Background1 3Options2 3. 1Desalination2 3. 2Rain Harvesting System3 3. 3Damming3 4Requirements4 4. 1Cost4 4. 2Sustainability4 4. 3Environmental impact5 4. 4Social impact5 5Compared Options6 5. 1Cost6 5. 2Sustainability6 5. 3Environmental impact7 5. Social impact7 6Conclusions8 7Recommendation8 8Reference9 Introduction In some developing country,arid are able to cause poverty and death, so it is important to provide clean, cheap and sustainable water to those residents living in arid area. However to supply water in arid regions can be a great challenge, it should concern about cost, sustainability, environmental impact and social impact. This report will focus on 3 methods of water prevision: Desalination, Rain Harvesting System and Dam. The report aims to analyses 3 different water prevision methods, and find out which is fit the situation in Middle East.

In order to achieve this aim, report will compare those 3 methods in 4 requirements: Cost, Sustainability, Environmental Impact and Social Impact and carry out a recommendation to the region of Middle East. Background Recently the total population of human being has broken through Seven billion. The booming population has led to a serious problem, the higher the population is, and the more water will be demanded. However, the water resource is limited: though 70. 9% of the earth surface is covered by water, only 2. 5% of the earth’s water can be directly utilized by human beings (Cech 2010).

Fresh water resource is valuable for every one on this planet, especially for those people who live in arid areas such as Middle East. In those regions, without water provision crops and livestock cannot survive, people have to spend a lot of time on searching and carrying water which can deprive their right to get education and make money (KIC 2011). At the same time, low water quality is a huge threat to people’s health. According to a survey from WHO (2004) if all humans in the world can have clean water supply, 88% of health problem in developing country will be solved.

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Options 1. 1 Desalination 97% of water on this planate is salt water, if we can take the salt out water, then many place in the world will no longer suffer from lack of water. Fortunately desalination make it possible. Fischetti (2007) points out that desalination is a process using energy and technique to remove salts and other minerals from water. The aim of this process is to transform salt water to fresh water for people drinking and daily use in the regions limited on fresh water but have plenty of salt water.

Numbers of desalination station have been built in the world, The biggest desalination station in the world is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant located in United Arab Emirates. It can produce 79. 2 billion Gallon fresh water per year (Elshorbagy 2008). These stations supply large amount of fresh water to local residents every day, ease the water stress largely. 1. 2 Rain Harvesting System In some arid areas,rainwater may be the main water source,Boers (1994) point out that, the low rainfall and irregular distribution cause the problem of water stress in some arid areas.

Rain Harvesting System basically is to harvesting rain water from rooftop and yard,after purified,than storing the water in an underground cellar for drinking, daily use and watering crops, See: figure 1 (Garwalmail 2001). Boers (1994) also points out that this kind of technique has already been applied on many arid areas to solve water stress. Figure 1 Simple Diagram to show Rainwater Harvesting (Garwalmail 2001) 1. 3 Damming Human beings have used dam as a method of water provision for a long history. The oldest extant dam in the world is the Jawa Dam, located in Jordan (Helms, 1977).

Dams can be seen as a barrier to stop water flow for and reserving it. Storing rain or river water in rain season, ensure the water supply for human consumption and irrigation in dry season. Dams make water predictable, and much easier to manage. Damming is not only a water provision method but also an energy sources. Large scale dams can also produce power. Altinbilek(2002) found 19% of electricity in the world wild was generated by dams, helping a lot of countries to get clean and cheap energy. Requirements 1. 4 Cost

For wealth regions, cost is not the primary requirement of water provision methods, they pay more attention on sustainability or environmental impacts. however most of arid areas are not especially wealth, cost could be a big problem for them. In some low income Middle East countries, governments are unable to afford those kinds of water provision project which cost a lot (World Bank 1993). Poor water supply leads to high death rate and low productivity. People have to pay more time on searching and carrying water, this makes them even poorer. So costs is an important consideration for some ountries. 1. 5 Sustainability Sustainability is also an aspect must be concerned when plan a water supply project. If a region seeks to maintain productivity and daily life,then the continuous water supply is essential. Unstable water supply will lead to low productivity and quality of life. Those old water provision methods such as pumping underground water are not a long-term solution, new technology may provide some solution to this problem. Tove (1997) brought out an idea: new technologies are able to make water supply far more stable and reliable than ever before. . 6 Environmental impact In recent years the environmental impact of water provision methods has aroused many people’s concern. In the past, environment would not be a primary consideration for water provision projects. However more and more evidence shows that insufficient attention to environment can bring a lot of problem. Hwang (2004) point out that, excessive use of groundwater is directly related to ground subsidence. Fortunately, today when planning a water project they will try to minimize the environmental impact (Figure 2).

A fish ladder has been tested and has applied on many dams to protect native fish (Barrett 2006). Figure 2: A fish ladder built around a dam in the Pacific Northwest 1. 7 Social impact Just like the Environmental impact, water provision project can also have a significant impact on society. For a large-scale project, millions of people have to abandon their house, farmland and all the things they cannot take with them, evacuated to other places, IRO (2008) point out that it is estimated that there are more than 40 million people in the world have to move because of large-scale water project.

The government has to pay huge amounts of money to resettle those people. Spending too much money on a water provision project may also lead to a higher bill of water which is detrimental for the poor (Goldman 2007). Comparison by Requirements Compared Options 1. 8 Cost On average, to build desalination plant is likely to be the most expansive way to provide fresh water. Karagiannis. (2007) argued about that the cost of building a desalination plant can be astonishing, and it require a lot of energy.

Compare with desalination, the cost to build and maintain on dam can be acceptable if the construction scale is not that big. In addition, most of dams are applied on electricity generation and keep fish in reservoir. These methods will bring revenue to reduce the cost of dam. It is no doubt that Rainwater Harvesting System is the most economical way of water supply. Boers (1994) states that, building a rainwater harvesting system for a family is quite cheap. 1. 9 Sustainability In these three methods, the most stabled way to supply water is desalination.

Kumar (2003) argues that if we are able to transfer sea water to freshwater, then water would not be a problem for human beings; we do not have to worry about overuse sea water, as we worrying about groundwater and rivers will dry up one day. Damming is also a relatively stable water supply method. Excluding some extreme weather factors, damming can provide water to surrounding areas stably (Altinbilek 2002). However, if encounter extreme weather, like drought, dams will lost the function of providing water. The most unsustainable water provision method is rainwater harvesting.

Boers (1994) states that rely on rainfall to supply fresh water in arid areas have never been a stable way. 1. 10 Environmental Impact Damming has a huge impact on the environment. Old style dams do not have a fish passage, which stops fish swims back to upstream for breeding. World Commission on Dams (2000) point out there is more than 9000 kinds of fresh water fish vanished in recent 100 years in the world. For a desalination plant, the impact to environment is far lower than damming. Great energy consumption may be the only impact a desalination plant do to environment.

Younos (2005) describe desalination plant energy consumption as “drinking energy”. Rainwater harvesting nearly have no impact on environment, so it is an environment-friendly way to provide fresh water. 1. 11 Social impact Desalination and rainwater harvesting almost have no negative impact to social impact. In fact these two methods are beneficiating to society. According to Elshorbagy (2007) and Boers (1994) these two kinds of methods are Ease water shortages in wealth regions and poor regions respectively in Middle East. There is no doubt that damming can have a huge impact on social.

The impact of damming bring to the society is multifaceted. Local resident resettlement, loss of arable land and those cultural heritages losses, all of these social problems are caused by damming (Goldsmith 1992). Conclusions With all the discussion above there, we can easily to find out that each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Desalination plant is a very stable water supply method. However, construction and operating costs is unacceptable for some developing country in Middle East. Damming is a reliable way to provide fresh water, but the impact on environment and society is unaffordable for some Middle East country.

Although rainwater harvesting is not that stable, but because of its low cost and Environment-friendly, this method can play a major role in poor regions. So it is impossible to find out one method better than others. According to local conditions, we should choose different way to provide fresh water in Middle East. Recommendation In the Middle East, desalination may be the best way to provide water for wealth countries. However, for those poverty-stricken countries where under extreme weather, rainwater harvesting can be a good way to solve water stress. * Reference

Altinbilek, D (2002). The Role of Dams in Development, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 18 (1), pp. 9-24 Barrett. J, Cooper, M, M. (2006). The Murray River's ‘Sea to Hume Dam’ fish passage program: Progress to date and lessons learned, Ecological Management ; Restoration 17(3), pp173-183. Boers, M. (1994), Rainwater Harvesting in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones. Waeninaen. The Netherlands. Cech, T. V. (2010). Principles of Water Resources: History, Development, Management, and Policy (3rd Ed. ). USA: JOHN WILEY ; SONS, INC. Elshorbagy, W. Elhakeem, A, B. (2007).

Risk assessment maps of oil spill for major desalination plants in the United Arab Emirates, Desalination, 228 (1-3), pp. 200-216 Fischetti, M (2007). Fresh from the Sea, Scientific American 297 (3), pp. 118–119. GoldMan. M (2007), How “Water for All! ” policy became hegemonic: The power of the World Bank and its transnational policy networks, Geoforum, 38(5), pp. 786-800 Goldsmith, E. Hildyard, N. (1992). The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams. Wadebridge. Wadebridge Ecological Centre. Helms,S,W. (1977). Jawa Excavations 1975. Third Preliminary Report. Levant, 9(1), pp. 21-35 Hwang.

N. R, Moh. Z. C. (1996) Instrumentation for Underground Construction Projects, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. International Rivers Organizaion (2008) The World Commission on Dams Framework - A Brief Introduction, Retrieved From: http://www. internationalrivers. org/node/2526 Karagiannis, I, C. Soldatos, P, G. (2007). Water desalination cost literature: review and assessment, Desalination, 223( 1-3), pp. 448-456 Kumar, C, P. (2003). Fresh Water Resources: A Perspective. National Institute of Hydrology. India. Stanley, J. (2011). What Are Results of Poor Access to Safe Domestic Water Supplies?

C. Skills for Study 2: Development Issues, 43, 32-39. Nottingham, UK: KIC. Tove A. Larsen. Gujer,W. (1997). The concept of sustainable Urban Water Management. Water Science and Technology. 35(9), 1997, pp. 3-10 World Bank (1993), Water Resources Management Policy Paper, Washington DC; The World Bank. World Commission on Dams (2000) Dams and Development: a new framework for decision-making, the report of the world commission on dams. London; Earthscan Publications. World Health Organization . (2004). Burden of disease and cost-effectiveness estimates, Retrieved From: http://www. ho. int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/burden/en/index. html Younos, T. (2005). Environmental Issues of Desalination. Contemporary Water Research ; Education. Issue: 132. PP. 11-18 Garwalmail, A (2010). Simple Diagram to show Rainwater Harvesting. Retrieved From: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/File:Simple_Diagram_to_show_Rainwater_Harvesting. png A fish ladder built around a dam in the Pacific Northwest, (2010). Retrieved From: http://adventure. howstuffworks. com/outdoor-activities/fishing/fish-conservation/fish-populations/fish-ladder1. htm

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