The world’s water crisis is growing, and scientists in the Gulf are finding solutions

More than 700 million people around the world lack access to clean water. Nick Donaldson / Getty Images

As we mark World Water Day, the staggering scale and complexity of our planet's water crisis comes into sharp focus. Today, more than two billion do not have safe drinking water services, and nearly 703 million have no access to clean water. If current trends continue, by 2030 water scarcity could displace more than 700 million people worldwide.

Climate change is exacerbating these challenges, accelerating the melting of glaciers at an alarming rate. In the past 25 years, glaciers have lost more than 6.5 trillion metric tonnes of ice – about 5 per cent of their total volume. The speed at which they are melting has increased by more than a third in the past decade, with 2023 seeing a record loss of 548 billion metric tonnes. The implications of this rapid glacial retreat are profound. It threatens water supplies for millions, particularly in regions dependent on glacier-fed rivers.

Adding insult to injury, melting glaciers release long-trapped pollutants, including heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic. The contamination poses a serious threat to drinking water quality in affected regions.

It is hard to overstate the consequences of growing water scarcity. It threatens food security, economic stability and public health on a global scale. Here in the Middle East, the World Bank estimates that by 2050 climate-related water scarcity could reduce GDP in Arab states by as much as 14 per cent.

Addressing the challenge requires the utilisation of all available technologies. The good news is that as we develop and refine our approaches, we can start to apply them in the decades ahead to solve more than one problem at once. That is what we have been finding in our work in recent years at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Centre.

One of our key areas of focus is the development of advanced membrane technologies for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. Reverse osmosis is a method of desalination – a way of getting clean, drinkable water from seawater by forcing it through a membrane, allowing water molecules to pass while blocking salts and impurities. This method uses a fifth of the energy compared to the traditional thermal desalination method commonly used in this region, which involves boiling seawater to produce steam.

Our research has focused on improving the membrane design to reduce the amount of energy required and the amount of carbon emissions that come out of the process. We are also working on heavy metal removal from wastewater and brine, a critical issue as desalination becomes increasingly important in water-scarce regions. We’ve also manufactured the first UAE-made membrane, tailored to the specific water properties of the Arabian Gulf. This achievement marks a crucial step towards localising water treatment technologies and reducing dependence on imported solutions that may not be optimised for regional conditions. These innovations have the potential to not only better treat seawater that is contaminated with recalcitrant pollutants – that is, pollutants that do not biodegrade easily (or at all) – but to do so at an industrial scale from our university lab, which is totally unique in our field.

By 2050 climate-related water scarcity could reduce GDP in Arab states by 14 per cent

New membrane materials and designs can be harnessed for many other uses, and consequently the advancements being made right now in the Gulf can help solve water scarcity-related problems even in the Arctic region. We’re currently adapting the technologies discussed above to effectively treat contaminants released by melting glaciers; this could be hugely important to ensuring access to clean drinking water around the world. And bearing in mind that 70 per cent of our species’ global water usage goes to agriculture and a further 20 per cent to industry, we are also using membrane technology to reclaim wastewater for use in these industries, offering a sustainable solution to water scarcity in arid regions like the UAE.

Today, more than half of all desalinated water in the world is produced in the Middle East and North Africa region, and an additional 25 billion cubic metres of water per year will be needed to meet the region’s needs by 2050. Scientific advancements alone are not enough to meet this demand. The true impact depends on being reinforced by awareness, regulations and policies.

But through programmes like the Mohamed Bin Zayed Water Initiative, which is driving innovation in sustainable water solutions, as well as the UAE’s Water Security Strategy 2036, our region is uniquely positioned to lead the way in addressing our own needs and the wider global crisis. By using this expertise in desalination and investing in cutting-edge research and development, the UAE and the Gulf as a whole can pioneer new approaches to water management that could benefit water-stressed regions worldwide.

As well as further advances in desalination and membrane technology, initiatives like atmospheric water generation and cloud seeding could all provide exciting future solutions. By sharing this knowledge and resources, Gulf countries can play a crucial role in ensuring water security for future generations, both in the Middle East and around the world.

This is a fight we must win. Consider that all the water on Earth today is the same water that has been cycling through our planet’s systems for millions of years. The challenge is immense, but with continued research, innovation and collaboration, we can develop sustainable solutions to make every drop of that precious resource count.