Question

explain the water footprint impacts on environment, water stress for irrigation and industrial activities in oman

Answer 1

water footprint

water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company. The water footprint can also tell us how much water is being consumed by a particular country – or globally – in a specific river basin or from an aquifer.

water footprint impacts on environment in oman

The impact of a water footprint at a certain location at a certain point in time will depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of water resources at the location considered, the level of local competition between various water users, the local “environmental flow requirements” and the “assimilation capacity” of the local water system. A moderate level of freshwater consumption in a region with low water availability can have a higher impact on the environment (e.g. biodiversity) than a higher level of water consumption in a waterabundant region. The impact of water consumption at a certain location also depends on the environmental flow requirements because these requirements as a fraction of monthly or annual runoff are higher in some rivers than in others (Smakhtin et al., 2004). Finally, local water systems differ in what they can assimilate, because degradation rates for specific chemicals vary depending on various conditions, so that the effect of chemicals disposed into ground or surface water systems will not be similar everywhere. In other words: the impact of a certain water footprint depends on the vulnerability of the region where the water footprint is located.

shown by Van Oel et al. (2008), the impact of a water footprint can be estimated by overlaying the global water-footprint map with a global water-stress map. Hotspots – i.e. places where the impact of the water footprint is relatively large – appear where both the water footprint and the vulnerability of the local water system are relatively large. The impact of water consumption or pollution at a certain location is obviously larger when the volume of water consumption or pollution is relatively substantial and when local water scarcity is relatively high as well. gives an example of a hotspot map, showing the water-footprint hotspots related to the Dutch consumption of agricultural products. The impacts of a water footprint can be economic, social or environmental. The water footprint associated with a certain product can have a negative economic impact when the marginal cost of the water is not fully charged to the user. In practice, users seldom pay the full marginal cost of water, which reflects the sum of investment costs, operation and maintenance costs, a scarcity rent and economic externalities. As a result, existing water use patterns are often not efficient from an economic point of view. Environmental impacts of water consumption and pollution include damage to local ecosystems and biodiversity. Social impacts of water consumption and pollution include impacts on public health and social equity issues that arise when some users apply a lot of water while other people do not have access to a minimum.

water stress for irrigation in oman

•This is the first study on the water saving effect of mulching and drip irrigation at catchment scale.

•Mulching and drip irrigation will reduce the blue water footprint in Upper Litani Basin (ULB) by 5%.

•Additional measures will be needed to lower the water footprint in the ULB to sustainable level.

•Mulching reduces the water footprint of crops more than drip irrigation, but combining is the best.

industrial activities in oman

Development in several industries and rapid population growth have impacted Oman’s water resources with around 9.5% annual growth in consumption along with a substantial demand for water conservation technology and desalination projects.

In 2016, the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) supplied 329, 786, 568 m3 of portable water to the Sultanate, with 85% from desalination plants and 15% from wells.

With 57% of households being supplied water through public piped networks and another 20% from water tankers, PAEW has announced plans to invest an estimated US$ 2.9 billion in water infrastructure. In addition, Haya Water, who is responsible for connecting Muscat municipality’s six districts, with a collective population of about 1.15 million, to state-of-the-art water treatment facilities by 2020 (2100 km of pipelines) will spend an estimated $4.3 billion on networks and treatment plants.

Haya Water’s Master Plan 2013 projected 80% connectivity of properties in Muscat by 2020. Currently the connectivity stands at 35%.

With the aim to substantially raise the country's water desalination capacity within the next six years, the state-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), has taken major steps to increase the desalination capacity of independent water projects (IWPs) by 123.6 million imperial gallons of water per day (MIGD) in the next six years. The increase will take the capacity to almost 310 million gallons, a 66% increase from the current 186 million gallons per day.

Other measures for increasing water capacity includes PAEW’s exemplary emergency water storage reservoir project, which picked up a prestigious GCC-wide award as part of the MEED Quality Awards for Projects in 2016. This emergency storage project consists of six water reservoirs located at four key areas around the capital, with the aim of providing a back-up supply of water for at least seven days following any major water shortage or a disruption in the Muscat water scheme. These reservoirs are forecasted to be able to cover sudden changes in demand until the year 2035.

PAEW has announced that the water network will have to be tripled by 2035 in order to supply piped water to at least 90% of the population.