With little or no fresh water, the UAE relies heavily on costly, energy-intensive desalination plants. Treating waste water is much cheaper - if only we could make more use of it.
According to the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi, in 2012 treated wastewater met less than 10 per cent of Abu Dhabi city's total water demand. Desalinated water and groundwater met 79 per cent and 12 per cent of the total water demand, respectively.
Treated wastewater is used only for irrigation and landscaping. If we could put it to other uses, we could make a big dent in our carbon and energy expenditure.
But for applications beyond irrigation, science must first address important questions about water for treatment and reuse. What happens to micropollutants and pathogens in the wastewater treatment process? What happens to any residual micropollutants and pathogens present in recycled water when it is reused? Or to put it more simply, do we remove the harmful stuff, and how harmful is the stuff we do not remove?
Micropollutants consist of natural and synthetic chemicals, from hormones to pharmaceuticals and flame-retardants.
They are typically organic compounds, found at low concentrations in the municipal waste stream as a result of their large-scale production and widespread use in commercial and consumer products.
They affect both human and other living things, disrupting endocrine - hormonal - systems, killing cells, and causing increased antibiotic resistance.
One uncertainty is where the large number of micropollutants present in waste water end up.
These compounds tend to persist in treated waste water because conventional treatment processes, such as activated sludge treatment and membrane bioreactors, do not target their removal.
In order to address these concerns, we at Masdar Institute are interested in using a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary computational, experimental, and field-scale approach at all points along the waste water generation, treatment, and end-use process train to help allow more water to be reused safely.
Analysing micropollutants requires sophisticated instruments and techniques, such as gas and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, which most water utilities are not equipped for.
Monitoring pathogens and other biological agents is tricky, too. All water, even tap water and bottled drinking water, contains complex microbial communities that are, for the most part, harmless to humans.
Unlike chemical contaminants, microbes can multiply in the treatment system - so counting the microbes in one part of the system doesn't necessarily tell you how many there are somewhere else.
And while some microbes are potentially pathogenic, many others are entirely benign. So simply counting them - as is the conventional practice - does not tell you if there is actually anything to worry about.
For these reasons, conventional microbiological methods are grossly inadequate for monitoring presence and levels of pathogens, especially in warm and hot climates.
Modern molecular biological techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and high-throughput or metagenomic DNA sequencing, can provide cost-effective, detailed analysis of the microbes present, including pathogens.
These techniques, coupled with quantitative chemical and microbial risk assessment, offer a scientifically robust way of assessing any health risk from disease vectors in treated wastewater.
This, in turn, would allow the UAE to use treated waste water for a wider variety of applications - which would reduce the UAE's carbon footprint and energy demand, while enhancing food and water security.
Dr Farrukh Ahmad is associate professor of water and environmental engineering, Dr Jorge Rodríguez is assistant professor of water and environmental engineering, and Dr Andreas Henschel is assistant professor of computing and information science, all at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Company%20Profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
RESULT
Argentina 0 Croatia 3
Croatia: Rebic (53'), Modric (80'), Rakitic (90' 1)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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