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Over 18,000 visitors at MEE 07 were looking for companies involved in the water and water related industries.
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Water was launched in 2007 as a new vertical segment at the Middle East Electricity Exhibition. Water at Middle East Electricity provides an ideal platform for companies in the water, desalination and waste water industries to exhibit their products, services, solutions and project references.
>>Click HERE for more information on exhibiting at MEE 2008 Water Arena
The Middle East makes up 5% of the global population, but has only about 1% of the world's renewable fresh water. At the same time, the region has one of the highest demands for power generation and clean water due to high population growth rates and economic diversification efforts.
Owing to the rapid increase in demand for water in the Arabian Gulf countries where conventional water resources such as fresh surface water and renewable groundwater are extremely limited, other alternatives such as wastewater reclamation and desalination have been adopted since the 1960s.
The UAE consumes more water per capita than any other country in the world with the exception of the United States and Canada.
- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) estimated US$100 billion of investment would be necessary over the next 10 years, which is why it moved more towards private investment.
- UAE and Oman have been the leading countries in developing the private sector in Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Build-Own-Operate (BOO) projects.
- Estimates in early 2002 showed that there were 20 ongoing and planned projects in the Middle East alone worth over US$10 billion.
- The average annual increase of demand for desalinated water in the Arab world is 6% per annum compared to the 3% global average.
- 40% of desalinated water demand in the Middle East comes from the industrial and municipal sectors.
- Approx. 70% (about 24 million cu. Meters per day) of the UAE’s water comes from desalination plants.
- Dubai alone has an installed desalination capacity of 188 million gallons per day (MIGD) with a total production of 58.8 MIGD. Water consumption increased from 49 MIGD in 2003 to 54 MIGD in 2004.
Saudi Arabia has scarce fresh water resources
- Official statistics show that the country is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water with 30 % global production.
- The 30 desalination plants in Saudi Arabia pump almost 600 million gallons per day meeting 70% of the drinking water needs.
- US $53 billion is required to increase its desalination capacity to 10.7million cubic metres per day by 2020 to meet demand.
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>> Click here to request further information about exhibiting at Water at Middle East Electricity
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