Green Arch
  • Home
  • Green Architecture
  • Design
  • Environment
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability
  • News
  • Home
  • Green Architecture
  • Design
  • Environment
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability
  • News

Green Arch

Green Architecture & Design

Innovation

The World’s Largest Water Reserve Is Being Built Under a Desert

written by Green Arch
The World’s Largest Water Reserve Is Being Built Under a Desert

The United Arab Emirates consumes about 6 billion liters of water every day. As one might imagine, maintaining that supply in the middle of a desert is no easy feat. Luckily, in order to ensure that its residents never go thirsty, the UAE has tapped into the same kind of architectural initiative that’s turned Dubai into perhaps the global capital of grandiose construction projects. Just in time for 2018’s International Water Summit (which runs this week in Abu Dhabi), the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) completed the biggest artificially desalinated water reserve on the planet. And where is it located? Roughly 262 feet under the Liwa desert and approximately 100 miles from a coastal desalination plant. Composed of 315 wells, it will take 26 months to fill up its capacity of 26 billion liters of water and will be able to provide locals with 100 million liters (which is about 26.5 million gallons) of water per day.

The $450 million water security measure was a long time coming. First envisioned in 2002, the Herculean hydration project required years of scientific feasibility studies and strategic planning through a collaboration of the ADWEA, its subsidiary organization TRANSCO, and the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi. As a result, ADWEA head Saif Saleh Al Seairi said in a statement that it’s prepared for contingencies like “storms, a malfunction, a random sea raft, and even the red-tide phenomenon which has been exacerbated by climate change” that can shut down other such desalination plants.

With the prospect of a world where water is a more valuable resource than the UAE’s oil reserves not as improbable as it once seemed, expect previously unthinkable projects to become more commonplace in the years ahead. Hopefully, Al Seairi’s willingness to share project learnings with regional partners will make such safeguards available to other nations at a lower cost.

blob:https://www.architecturaldigest.com/895d7022-aa13-4aa4-946c-e456a57044bf

previous post
See How a 3-D Printed Bridge Is Being Built
next post
Dallas Arboretum Children’s Adventure Garden & Education Center Dattner Architects

You may also like

These Solar-Powered Palm Trees Provide Wi-Fi, Charging Stations,...

How Much Would You Pay for an On-Demand...

The 12 Most Over-the-Top Transportation Designs of 2017

World’s Longest Pedestrian Suspension Bridge Opens in Switzerland

See How a 3-D Printed Bridge Is Being...

This Tiny Wooden Island Creates the Perfect Public...

Thailand Creates Technology That Decomposes Plastic Bags in...

The First-Ever Passenger Drone in U.S. Takes Flight

This $130 Million Hyperloop Hotel Lets You Zip...

Popular Posts

  • Home 09 by Architectenbureau Paul de Ruiter BV

  • WFP. Water Filtration Plant by C+S ARCHITECTS

  • Urban Collage by Maison Edouard François

  • Architectural platform Rethinking The Future has announced the winners for its Global Architecture & Design Awards 2018

  • 1100 First Street by Krueck+Sexton Architects Gensler

Recent Posts

  • Architecture, Construction & Design Awards 2018

  • Architectural platform Architecture Podium has announced the winners for its International Architecture Awards 2018

  • Y Tower in Doha by Studio Niko Kapa

  • Architectural platform Rethinking The Future has announced the winners for its Global Architecture & Design Awards 2018

  • California College of the Arts Graduate Center by Jensen Architects

Posts Slider

Architecture, Construction & Design Awards 2018

Architectural platform Architecture Podium has announced the winners...

Y Tower in Doha by Studio Niko Kapa

Architectural platform Rethinking The Future has announced the...

California College of the Arts Graduate Center by...

@2018 - Green Arch. All Right Reserved.


Back To Top