Samar A. SuleimanSamar A. Suleiman 2ndArchitect | Sustainable Design Enthusiast | Graphic ArtistArchitect | Sustainable Design Enthusiast | Graphic Artist
1 day ago • Edited • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn
1 day ago • Edited • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn
The Gulf’s mega-projects dazzle the world with their scale. But behind every tower, resort, or futuristic city is a hidden currency: water.
The Burj Khalifa alone consumes nearly 946,000 liters (250,000 gallons) of water every day for cooling, cleaning, and operations. That’s about the same as what a town of 6,000 to 7,000 people would use daily. Add in the embedded water in concrete, steel, and landscaping, and the total footprint rivals the lifetime domestic water needs of an entire mid-sized town.
We often justify these projects by the revenue they generate, the jobs created, the global prestige gained. But here’s the uncomfortable question:
If we lose our water, will all that revenue be enough to buy it back?
Desalination has kept the Gulf’s taps running, but its long-term costs — rising energy demand, carbon emissions, and millions of cubic meters of brine discharged back into fragile seas.
Because in a desert region where over 90% of supply already comes from desalination, money can build towers, but it cannot refill aquifers or bring back lost water.
The Burj Khalifa alone consumes nearly 946,000 liters (250,000 gallons) of water every day for cooling, cleaning, and operations. That’s about the same as what a town of 6,000 to 7,000 people would use daily. Add in the embedded water in concrete, steel, and landscaping, and the total footprint rivals the lifetime domestic water needs of an entire mid-sized town.
We often justify these projects by the revenue they generate, the jobs created, the global prestige gained. But here’s the uncomfortable question:
If we lose our water, will all that revenue be enough to buy it back?
Desalination has kept the Gulf’s taps running, but its long-term costs — rising energy demand, carbon emissions, and millions of cubic meters of brine discharged back into fragile seas.
Because in a desert region where over 90% of supply already comes from desalination, money can build towers, but it cannot refill aquifers or bring back lost water.
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