Atlantic Council
Global Energy Forum

The Energy-Water Nexus

 

Moderated By:
Khaldon Khashman,
Secretary General,
Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA)

Framing Keynote Address By:
H.E. Moulay Hafid Elalamy,
Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment,
Kingdom of Morocco

Participants:
Dr. Rabia Ferroukhi,
Head, Policy Unit and Deputy Director, Knowledge, Policy, and Finance,
International Renewable Energy Agency

Dr. Matar Al Neyadi,
Undersecretary, Ministry of Energy, United Arab Emirates;
Chairman of the Board, Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority

N. Guy Winebrenner,
Vice President, Energy and Environment,
RTI International

 

Location:  Liwa Ballroom, Four Seasons, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Time:  2:00 p.m. Local
Date:  Friday, January 13, 2017

Transcript By
Superior Transcriptions LLC
www.superiortranscriptions.com

KHALDON KHASHMAN:  Good evening, everybody.  And I know the people who were in Masdar.  They came in hurrying.  And they have to grab something from outside.  I know that you have seen something unique over there.  And let’s today try to make our session also very active.  And this depends upon the audience, of course. 

We are – I’m quite sure that our speakers will do their best to make this session very active, from the knowledge that they will deliver.  If we keep in mind that we have diversity in this session, we have the law, the legal issues.  We have the finance experience and utility experience.  And three – these three areas are all – goes to the water and energy and the nexus in between.  And I hope next time we’ll be talking about nexus with also food and environment – which we believe the four areas are now integrated.  You need also water, energy for food.  And once the energy and water, also they have – and food, they have environmental impact on the society that we have to take care of.

Let me introduce our distinguished speakers.  First of all we have Dr. Matar Al Neyadi.  D. Matar, he’s the undersecretary of energy, minister of energy, in the United Arab Emirates.  He’s the chairman for the BOD for the GCC Interconnection Authority.  And the executive member in gas exporting Arab – exporting forum, member of the Executive Office of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.  Dr. Matar is a researcher.  He authored many books in – legal books regarding to different aspects, energy is one of them.  He holds the Ph.D. in international law from United Kingdom.  Welcome, Dr. Neyadi. 

Our second distinguished speaker, who comes from utilities, and he’s from international – big international consultant, RTI.  He’s over 40 years, but it looks like – seems that he has 40 years of utility consultation, experience in developing sustainable solution for infrastructure resources in water-energy in particular.  And especially in the Middle East.  Also, Mr. Guy, he has long experience in planning, design and construction of power, water, natural gas infrastructure.  He holds B.A. and M.A. in engineering, and postgraduate in business law, and also registered as a professional engineer in many U.S. states.  Welcome.

And here we talk about agenda, and we have a distinguished speaker from Algeria, mainly, Dr. Rabia.  She joined IRENA, International Renewable Energy Agency, in 2011.  Currently she’s the executive director of knowledge, policies and finance decision in the organization.  Dr. Rabia has 20 years’ experience in the field of energy development and environment, and has experience in public and private sector.  She worked for private sector.  And here, I think this is a good experience to know how things goes in the public and private sector.  And she has good experience in the MENA region – Middle East and North Africa – and the GCC, of course.  She holds the Ph.D. in economic from – M.S. and Ph.D. in economic from American University in Washington, D.C. 

Welcome, for the – our speakers.  And allow me to start with Dr. Matar, that he can give us his ideas and how we can see the nexus between water and energy.  Please.

MATAR AL NEYADI:  Thank you, Khaldon.

You make our task quite hard.  It’s quite difficult to make people awake on the afternoon on Friday –

MR. KHASHMAN:  I can say a joke that they can recover.  (Laughter.)

MR. AL NEYADI:  But we will do our best, I promise. 

Today, water is the most endangered natural resource.  Unfortunately, until now, there’s not much attention being given to the water.  Utilities, electricity, and energy, they attract a lot of attention.  Water still is – the attention that is given to the water is less.  What has an effect on energy, on food, on health, environment, stabilities, sustainabilities, peace and security.  But today, I will limit myself to the linkage between energy and water, how they are affecting each other and what is our role, as a policymaker, to maintain a fine balance between energy and water.  This is extremely important that in some part of the world where there’s some stress on the water resource.

Let me first begin with the relation between water and energy.  An estimated of 78 percent to 90 percent of power plants across the world, they use – heat water into steam to generate electricity.  Water also serve as a primary coolant in the power generation stations across the world.  Water also has been used in oil production process.  Let’s look now to the other side of the coin, energy for water.  We use energy to pump water from underground.  If we pump less, that means we’re using less energy.  We’re also using energy to heat water.  How much we use, how much water we treat, affecting how much energy we consume.  We use energy also to distribute water in our network.  How much we use of that we water, affect how much we use from electricity.

A few decades ago, our expert were recommending thermal desalination over other technologies, such as reverse osmosis.  Today, with the water and energy nexus, as well as the introduction of clean energy, the new policy is to decouple the power generation from the water generation.  This new policy is going line with line with the new programs and the new momentum in the world of using solar and wind as a competitive source for generation.  In United Arab Emirates, water is not an abundant resource.  We have to produce it through desalination.  Almost 80 percent of the UAE water supply is produced through 25 desalination station across the country.  Most of this planet is – water is becoming as a byproduct.  Whether that will be continuous, that is under discussion.

I think, Khaldon, I will stop now, but I’ll come back to other point later on.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.  Well, we are going to listen for the three speakers, then we – I will ask some questions, and give the floor for the audience.  Please.

N. GUY WINEBRENNER:  I was very pleased to see that the Atlantic Council chose to include this topic of the water-electricity or water-energy nexus on the list of topics because, unfortunately, most countries today look at water and electricity or energy as separate topics.  And the two are – as was said – are inextricably linked.  We can’t have electricity without having water to help produce that – not only for cooling water purposes and boiler make-up purposes, but also conveying waste, also as part of the emissions control – air emissions control.  Water is used there as well.  Even with renewables, in many cases water is being used to clean solar panels.  So we can’t produce electricity without having water involved.

Likewise, we can’t produce water – even without the need for desalination, even in areas that are blessed with abundant groundwater and surface water resources – there’s still tremendous amounts of pumping that’s being done.  And typically electricity is what’s being used there.  So the two are linked together.  And when we tie the fact that the production of water, the production of electricity both have an impact upon the environment, as we are concerned about water pollution, air pollution, climate change, then we have to really look at how is the production of water and electricity driving impact on the environment as well.  With population growth, particularly in developing nations, we see, you know, the requirement for more water, more electricity, and more food.  And as was said, all three of those important resources are tied together.

So the one thing that I would like to introduce to what’s been said thus far, is in addition to looking at more efficient and more effective ways of producing or supplying electricity and water, we also have to look at the demand side, the consumers that use electricity and water.  And we should not be producing more electricity and water that would then be wasted.  So we want to, while we’re looking for new technologies, more efficient and optimal ways of producing electricity and water, limiting the impact upon the environment, at the same time we ought to be looking at how that water is being used by consumers, by businesses, by industry, by agriculture, and how we can help them be more effective in what they’re doing on the demand side as well as the supply side.  And we can talk about that as we continue on.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you, sir.  Dr. Rabia.

RABIA FERROUKHI:  Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

So in order not to be repetitive, I’ll give a few numbers and maybe a part of the solution.  I think decisions that we make today in the energy sector – and I come from the energy sector – and I think the same can be true of the other resources, water in particular, cannot be made in isolation.  Basically, that’s what we’re saying.  And obviously it’s particularly true for the energy-water nexus.  So today, as was said before, globally 10 percent of water withdrawals are done by the energy sector, and over 80 percent of that is from the power sector.  So you have a stock of power plants that is dependent heavily on access to water, which makes it vulnerable to all sorts of disruptions, be them technology, physical, environmental, regulatory environment, et cetera. 

So what is interesting is that utilities are very conscious of that, as just was mentioned.  And there’s a survey that was done by the Carbon Disclosure Project of over 300 companies that shows that 73 percent of utilities consider that water is a major risk for their business, and 67 percent of them have experienced some sort of water-related business impact in the past five years.  So I think it goes without saying that the water-energy issue is important, and it’s a security of supply issue also.  So as was just mentioned, with demand for energy increasing, with water demand increasing, with food demand increasing, this can only intensify over time.  And we, for example, we know that non-OECD countries energy sector water withdrawals are expected to rise by 35 percent by 2040. 

So basically, the planning can no longer be done in isolation.  And part of the solution is reverting to renewable energy, in particular PV and wind, which can bring benefits both from a water perspective but also from a climate perspective.  We have done in IRENA an interesting study – which I urge you to take, and we put them outside – on the water use in China’s power sector, where we see that 45 percent of power generation facilities that rely on fresh water are located in China in areas of great water stress. 

So this study finds that increasing renewable energy deployment in line with the NDC objectives of the climate process, together with improvement in power plant cooling technologies could reduce emission intensity of power generation by 37 percent, and water intensity by 42 percent.  Notwithstanding that certain renewable energy technologies do, indeed, use a lot of water, we know that PV – solar PV withdraws up to 200 times less water than a coal power plant, for example, to generate the same amount of electricity.

Just to finish, I think – let me just finish and then we can take it from there – I agree that supply-side solutions, but there are also demand-side solutions which we can discuss a bit later.  But for us, one part of the solution is definitely to revert to some of the alternative technologies, renewables in particular.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you, Dr. Rabia.

Well, as we see, the nexus is – it’s a fact by nature, by history.  And I think it should be reflected to the future also, especially in planning.  So my first question, to Dr. Matar, how do you see in the strategic planning in your ministry – now they are in charge of water resources and energy.  And how you reflected on Emirates 2050 about planning for the future, the needs, the nexus and, of course, the investment?

MR. AL NEYADI:  Thank you.  I agree.  First of all, there is a big role for the private sector, whether of finance or the academic, to give more attention to the – to the nexus, the relation between energy and water and food, the three component, they are going together.  But also, from the government’s perspective, they would like to give more attention, more awareness that there is a relationship, that fine balance needs to be maintained.  And I agree with my colleagues that either in the supply or the demand or in the strategy we cannot, I mean, draft a strategy for water or for food or for energy in isolation.  These three need to be connected one way or another to maintain that fine balance.  Otherwise, you will end in some sort of negative effect – one of them will affect the other negatively.

For us, in the UAE, that moment and that idea we started when the government brief shuffle last year and moved the mandate of water from one ministry to the Ministry of Energy, to give more attention and to draft a policy that is connected between energy and water.  And this is, I believe, is in the right direction.  UAE announced with this new strategy that 44 percent of the energy sources – or 50 percent is coming from the clean energy.  And that will mean – that will mean more decoupling of the – of the generation from energy important.  And that, in line with this new strategy, where 50 percent of clean energy is representing half of the UAE need of electricity, which we estimated by 2050 about 100 gigawatts. 

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.

Mr. Guy, what are the management practices, do you think, in both sectors, that can draw down in demand-side management?  We were talking about supply management, which is – was the trend for the last 30 years.  But I think it’s the time to talk about demand.  And do we talk about demand, then we talk about demand for all users.  What do you think that is the practice can be adopted in both sectors to go and reach this goal?

MR. WINEBRENNER:  The best practices really rely upon three major elements, which need to be linked together.  The first is education.  The consumers need to understand that water and electricity don’t just happen, that there’s a great deal of cost that’s involved in putting together the production and transmission and distribution capabilities for that.  There’s a great deal of impact upon the environment.  And therefore there’s good reason, from both a sustainability standpoint and environmental standpoint and an efficiency – economic efficiency standpoint to be able to consider how they’re using electricity and water, and constantly look for ways to more efficiently use that. 

What we’ve found in looking at – in the U.S. and Canada, Europe, and the work we’ve done here over the last eight years in Abu Dhabi is many people are unaware of what they can do.  So it starts with education.  It then moves to technology, and making sure that the efficient technologies for water utilization and electricity utilization, as well as production, you know, are available for use, and there are incentives given to the adoption of those efficient technologies.  You know, human nature is we continue to do the same thing we’ve done before unless there’s some intervention.  I’m an engineer, and unfortunately in our practice – or in the practice of engineering, I should say, in many cases engineers do what has been successful over and over again.

One of the things that has enabled renewable energy to flourish now is as we’ve started to ask ourselves the question:  Why do we continue to just build thermal energy plants?  Why can’t we also look at using solar, using wind, using other methodologies for generation?  Same thing with production of cooling and lighting, using of water for irrigation, usage of water for sanitary purposes.  There are technologies available today that could substantially reduce the amount of water and electricity that’s consumed without sacrificing comfort or functionality or, in the case of industry, productivity, on that side.

So education, technology.  The third area is to ensure that we have proper pricing signals in place.  I’m glad to see we have an economist on our panel – (laughter) – because, you know, one of the things that, you know, I’ve learned in my study of economics is that if we don’t send proper pricing signals, we don’t get good decisions to be made by the end user.  So, over time, to be able to ensure that users are aware that electricity and water are not free, and there is a cost both in terms of production and a cost to the environment that needs to also be considered in their production that needs to be incorporated in that.  And that needs to be passed on as part of the pricing signals.

Those three things together – education, availability of technology and proper pricing signals – can serve to demonstrably reduce the demand upon both electricity and water, and ensure that we have adequate resources to the future.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.

Well, I think the economic side is very important.  And regardless, sometimes some utilities don’t care about that.  There are supply-demand driven utilities.  Therefore, I want to ask Dr. Rabia what are the innovations that brings the costs down?  You know, some of the utilities, especially in case of Jordan, it’s a public-owned utilities and limited liability companies.  Those companies, unless they go for cost recovery, they should be liquidated.  So what these innovations is needed to bring the cost in both sectors – in energy and water?  And here, especially I’m talking about efficiency in energy for the water.  And this, of course, may improve also the level of service to the people.

MS. FERROUKHI:  So I’m an economist, it’s true.  But I’m not maybe a classical economist, so don’t purely believe in the functioning of the market completely.  So my answers might not please everyone.  But, yes, price is important, of course, in terms of signaling to the consumer what needs – how to consume, basically.  But price is also important in the sense that when you have, for example, the development of renewable energy – if we had only left it to the market and to the price signals, we wouldn’t be where we are today.  So I think we have to be very careful about what we mean by prices and what we mean by economics.

In terms of costs of renewables, I think that the great news is that costs have decreased substantially over the past decade, over the past years in particular.  If you see solar PV, for example, module costs have fallen by as much as 80 percent since 2009.  Wind turbines have fallen by a third since 2009.  So now you have onshore wind that is now the most competitive source of electricity available.  And you have 4 cents per kilowatt hour.  So I think this is very good news.  And we’ve seen through different – in different countries how prices are going down, and they’re mostly converging as well.

What is interesting is that this didn’t happen by pure market dynamics, but also because governments supported research, and particularly research and development, because policies were introduced that have helped and supported the sector for renewables.  And as a result, we have experienced such a reduction of cost, which allows us today to deploy massively renewable energy.  So we expect that from the research that we do in IRENA that we do need – that the cost will further reduce.  And they could be reduced by another quarter to two-thirds by 2025, as we move on.

But where – I think what is important though is the level playing field that we need to introduce in terms of the other resources, in terms of energy, be it coal or other sources that have been subsidized over time.  And that as a result renewable energy haven’t been able to play that benefit.  So in terms of pricing that, that’s going to improve.  Thanks.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.

MR. AL NEYADI:  Can I comment on that?

MR. KHASHMAN:  Please.

MR. AL NEYADI:  I mean, I just need to restress the role of innovation and the role of technology and academia.  There is huge water resource available there, but the technology will not permit.  In some part of the world, that when you extract one barrel of water – or, one barrel of oil, it’s become outside – I mean, 70 percent of that barrel is water.  But that water is not suitable for use.  Whether or not the technology will allow this in the future, that will open a new window for huge resource of water.  For that, the involvement of academia and the technology and the R&D, that will help a lot to provide and to open a new source.

The energy-water nexus is an important area.  And as has been – and, again, I would like to thank the Atlantic Council to bring this.  And we are holding here in Abu Dhabi in three years’ time the World Energy Congress.  And we determined that – to make a considerable part of that to talk about the energy-water nexus, and what the role of the private sector and the role of the academia and the R&D could play to provide a solution for some of the answer. 

Another one, to conclude, regarding the tariff, I agree with my colleague.  Tariff need to be reflecting one way or the other the right price, otherwise consumer will take it for granted and they will not realize the effort and the cost of providing them with electricity and the water.  They take it for granted.  And that will raise the consumption.  And for that the tariff need to be – one way or the other, need to be revisited between time to time if it’s not reflecting the international price.  Thank you.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you, Dr. Matar. 

Actually, I was going to ask something around what you said.  The question is direct:  Are you satisfied with the level of research and development in the Arab region regarding to these changes from thermal to reverse osmosis and renewable energy?  I know United Arab Emirates have done a lot in this respect.  But regarding to that desalination part, now 80 percent of the water in the Gulf are from desalination.  And in the future, even small and poor country has to go for desalination so they utilize most of their resources.  Are we satisfied about the level of research and development in this field?

MR. AL NEYADI:  I think there is a lot can be done.  There is a lot of effort need to be done.  Middle East unfortunately in the last few years is going through a lot of turbulence, a lot of unpleasant event.  And in the Gulf and in the UAE, we try to present an example that there is something can come from that region.  And we try to refute that story.  Yes, most of the Gulf country depend on desalination.  And the worst thing, that is all coming from one body – from the Gulf.  Maybe the United Arab Emirates, Oman, they are a better position.  Saudi Arabia, they have another that they could draw.  But we have Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, they wholly depend on the Gulf. 

And the salinity of the Gulf, the temperature of the Gulf, is rising because of the amount of desalination, amount and other activity in the list of current that is entering the Gulf.  So a lot – again, yeah, this is the reality.  This is the geographical that we are living.  We highly appreciate the work of the R&D.  And I think investing in the R&D will provide us with a solution.  Attracting the private sectors could be contributing a lot and could add value to this – to this situation.  Thank you.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.  Just a question:  Well, from your experience in utilities, do you think that it is worth to work on more commercialization issue?  I mean, at least to cover the cost of operational – at least – of this service that you give.  How you think about energy efficiency and (fighting ?) the non-renewable water?  And we know some of this very expensive water, the desalination, and in some Arab countries the non-renewable water is more than 50.  What do you think that we have to do in this aspect?

MR. WINEBRENNER:  I mean, that’s a great question, and tying into the previous comment.  I think the more we look at holistically what is it costing us to produce electricity and water, we’ll be – that is going to drive research.  That’s going to drive new types of sources, such as some of the renewables.  Part of our problem is we’ve looked at things in pieces, and not seen all the costs that are associated.  We’ve not seen, for example, all the environmental impacts of burning coal.  We’re starting to see that in the U.S., and it’s completely changing the whole police about the way electricity is being generated there. 

You know, as we look again at the combination of water and electricity being produced together, and really understand the total cost of that, that will then drive us in funding research that will find new and better ways to do that.  If we’re not really understanding what it costs us, if we’re looking at things in – looking at incomplete numbers, it’s going to drive us in the wrong direction.  So I think the research will take care of itself.  I think, for that matter, operational improvements. 

We were talking before we started about the amount of water that the average water utility company cannot account for – water comes into the system, water then goes out to the customers.  And there’s anywhere from 10 to 30 percent unaccounted for water.  That’s water that if you knew where it was going you wouldn’t have to produce it or you’d have it available for other uses.  So those types of things, as we focused on that and begin to solve those problems, it is going to solve part of the problem of, you know, do we really need to build more supply capacity if we can just do a better job of handling the water that we’re delivering. 

So all of those areas we need to understand what is the true cost of that, and then derive our operations and manage our operations around those true costs.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Yeah, there is famous, says that reducing non-renewable water, it’s a new resource with cheap investment.

Dr. Rabia, again, go to the water demand management.  Do you think that best practices are sufficient as public awareness, or we have to go to another level of strategic planning for water demand, talking about developing policy for different use?  What’s your opinion about that?

MS. FERROUKHI:  You know, I think in general – I’m not a water expert.  I know very little about water, except in its relationship –

MR. KHASHMAN:  We are talking about nexus.  Next year you have to talk about both.  (Laughs.)

MS. FERROUKHI:  Yeah, except in the relationship that it has with energy.  I think what I would say is we’ve spoken about the integrated resource planning that is required, and this need to move from the siloed sector planning that we’ve had.  On the demand side, we have looked also at the fact that we need to raise, of course, awareness.  We, I think, know now, given the strain that we have put on our resources, be they water, energy, or land, we – and we also know that this has repercussion in terms of risk issues that we have in the world.  And I think the good news is that – development and growth has a cost, obviously.  And that’s what you were referring to.  We need to look at that cost. 

But the good news is that we have solution that show us that we can develop and grow without harming our – putting too much strain on our resources or without harming our environment.  And I think that’s the good news.  We have done research last year at IRENA that shows that by growing more green – meaning, introducing more renewables – we can still grow from a GDP point of view, from an income point of view.  We can continue to create jobs.  So growing is not at the expense – or, growing green – sorry – is not at the expense of growth, so – economic growth.

So I think that’s the good news.  And I think this is what we have to keep in mind, that we have now solutions that, you know, if we’re careful about the way that we plan our resource allocation, we can grow, and we can grow green, and we can grow without harming the environment in general.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.

I will open the floor for your questions.  Ladies first, don’t worry.  But just a minute.  I don’t know, where is the – yeah, mics, please.  Dr. Shermine, here.

Q:  Shermine Darjani from PanMed Energy, Jordan.

Dr. Matar, you mentioned that you have 24 or 25 desalination stations around the UAE.  And you mentioned the salinity of the water.  Have you considered utilizing nanotechnology in desalination?  And have you – are you doing anything about the environmental aspect, the harm to the sea life in the waters around you?  I met last year a French company that had a very innovative idea.  They have – they’re using tankers and building desalination and bottling plants on those ships, and going in deep waters of the sea, and going, like, 40 meters below sea level, extracting water – cold water – cold, dark water, which doesn’t have bacteria and so on, and then desalinating that, purifying it, and then creating your own water. 

They could do your Evian, they could do your – which ever brand you have.  (Laughter.)  They could do exactly that.  They could also do all the calciums, magnesiums, all the mineral medications, or the – everything you would use in hospitals, the IVs and so on.  And I think this is very clever.  And this is an endless source of pure water – the deep, deep water.  They’re just being very innovative and, I think, they’ll be successful.  They also do water for the young, water for the old, water for the – for athletes, whichever.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Let’s go to the question, yeah.

Q:  But my question is really about the environment and about if you are considering in the future utilizing nanotechnology, because it’s more efficient.

MR. AL NEYADI:  Excellent question.  As well we are pleased that we are – we have another window in the Gulf of Oman where we are connected with the Indian Ocean that we could get us more – and we have one of our major desalination station – two are on the coast, in Fujairah – on the eastern coast in Fujairah.  That is open to the ocean.  But the rest is in the Gulf.  With respect to the nano, Masdar Institute is doing huge research in water and what sort of membranes and what sort of nano – so we are working on that one.  And maybe I forgot to mention that one of the desalination, which is now two years – (inaudible) – is, I mean, embarked with a solar desalination.  It has four different membranes, four different technique of desalination which is, in the last two years, the result – the data is coming.  It’s amazing, that we hope that that will come into operation shortly.

Regarding the environment, the UAE, it is well-known that they are looking and taking care about the environment and different – and there is a number of study of the sea.  We are measuring the temperature of the Gulf.  We are measuring the temperature – the quality of water itself.  And there is a lot of work is being done to maintain that, or to maintain – or to monitor the sea life.  Especially in this part of the world, the sea life is not only a source of water, but also it’s a source of food.  And that, we have to look after the Gulf and the quality of the water.  There is a lot of work is being done to protect the marine life, even around the oil field.  And our colleagues here from the Chevron, they know the restriction that the government puts on the oil company to protect and to maintain around that, either offshore or onshore.  Thank you.

MR. WINEBRENNER:  If I might add to that, very quickly.  In addition to looking at new types of desalination technologies, and new sources, and impact of desalination on the environment, there’s a lot of work being done globally now on water reuse – taking, you know, what that has been used once, going through treatment process, and then reusing it for non-potable uses.  A lot of water is being used for irrigation and other, you know, non-consumptive uses that could be displaced by using – reusing that’s been treated.  So there are many other aspects of how, if we better manage our water supply, that we can sustain greater life out of it.

MR. AL NEYADI:  And if I just – I mean, I’m just – thank you for reminding me, that in Abu Dhabi, Fujairah and Dubai and Sharjah, as well, that treated water is being given to the farms, given to the mining sector in Fujairah to use.  And to prevent any mining company to withdraw from the reservoir, they’re being given treated water.  And that is one way that we use it.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you.  Now, we have one question.  Should be very short, and the answer should be direct with two minutes.  One question, because the lady instructed me there about the time.  Any question?  Please.

Q:  Well, I was waiting.  Nobody had a question, so I just have a remark.  I think when it comes to using water –

MR. KHASHMAN:  But very short, please.

Q:  (In Arabic.)

MR. KHASHMAN:  Hello, sir.  (Laughter.)

Q:  I’m seeing when it comes to saving water, I believe it has – you know, there is a lot of talk and fuss about R&D, how much we spend on technology, and how much we spend on education and all these things.  And I think it comes all to the root.  It’s about the education from the family, from home.  How many of us, we go into very fancy restaurants and we leave – when we see people leaving their half-full bottles on the table?  And when you ask them, they say:  It’s paid for.  You go to many cafes, I see the expensive six or 10 – (inaudible) – bottle.  They just open it, take a sip, and – (inaudible) – I paid for it.  So that comes from the family.

MR. KHASHMAN:  It’s a culture that we have to work on, please.

Q:  You know, how to use the water at home.  You know, when you wash dishes, you keep the open tap and you’re not washing the dishes.  It all adds up.  So just a remark.

MR. KHASHMAN:  Thank you. 

And then I can conclude in less than 30 seconds.  We need new technologies for effective management of water systems and energy.  And help the utilities to run their facilities in a smart way.  We need to smart networks management and a good monitoring and evaluation system for all our process and work.  And again, try to make the water and energy available for as much as we can from the people.  Now, in some countries they have full coverage, but in other countries they are facing with a reasonable price cost that allow those people to be affordable and for utilities not to be losing.  And we are talking about financial efficiency of the utility. 

Thank you all.  And I have announcements.  Well, the second session will be at 3 p.m. on the physical and cyber risks of energy, in –

MR.     :  It’s upstairs.

MR. KHASHMAN:  What’s the name of that hall?  Maryah?  Maryah Hall.  It’s upstairs, the main.  And innovation business strategies in this hall.  Thank you for your attendance.  And again, let us give a hand for our distinguished speakers.  (Applause.)

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