Doha, January 23 (QNA) - HE Minister of Environment and Climate Change Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al-Thani stressed on Monday that the ministry seeks to expand research and scientific experiments to manage wastewater and salts from desalination plants.

In statements on the sidelines of a scientific symposium on treating managing rejected wastewater and salts from desalination plants, which was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, His Excellency told journalists that the research related to the topic of the symposium is among the solutions sought by the ministry in cooperation with the competent authorities, with the aim of finding optimal solutions for the water that comes out of the desalination plants, extracting the salts in them, and working to benefit from them, because of their economic aspect of interest to industrial entities and companies.

His Excellency emphasized the importance of such projects and scientific research that concern all GCC countries, considering that the gulf is a semi-enclosed marginal sea, pointing out that the amount of salty and wastewater that occur as a result of desalination plants represents a major challenge facing all the GCC countries, because it causes a rise in temperature and an increase in concentrated salts in the Gulf waters, which affects marine life, in addition to the harmful impact on the environment in general as a result of high salinity.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change seeks to expand such research and experiments that have yet been proven successful on a small scale, as well as bringing together the relevant research and scientific authorities and private companies to work on applying them in a matter that serves the GCC countries, in addition to extracting hydrogen as the future of energy and entering many industries, without having carbon residues, HE Minister of Environment and Climate Change added.

On the other hand, His Excellency explained that the cause of the phenomenon of fish mortality from time to time is not limited to high temperature, indicating that the importance of this research also lies in reducing the salinity of sea water, and thus reducing fish mortality.

Environmental expert and engineering advisor at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari said that lots of scientific research and studies specialized in water have shown that desalination of sea water is a major source of fresh water in many parts of the world, pointing out that the countries bordering the gulf depend heavily on desalination of sea water to supply them with fresh water, and that they contribute to 33 percent of the global desalination capacity.

In his speech at the outset of the symposium, Dr. Al Kuwari noted that the disposal of brine produced by desalination plants into seawater is a very serious environmental issue, explaining that it contains high salinity, high temperature, and residual chemicals from pre-treatment processes, causing potential damage to marine and underground habitats, which confirms that the management of highly concentrated saline solution has posed technological, economic and environmental challenges.

He also indicated that in light of such challenges, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change decided to discuss this highly significant environmental issue, especially as it falls under the third axis (water) of the Qatar National Environment and Climate Change Strategy, which stipulates that regular and effective monitoring of all water sources (groundwater, seawater and potable water) must be done by the ministry. Dr. Al Kuwari considered the symposium a scientific platform for exchanging ideas, information and technical date, with the aim of practical results that treat rejected wastewater and salts generated from desalination plants, in accordance with international environmental legislation, and in line with Qatar's National Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change will form a scientific and technical committee that will consist of several scientists, experts and advisors from academic institutions and officials from government agencies, institutions and relevant bodies, as well as some of the participants in the symposium, to develop a comprehensive and applicable plan for the treatment and management of rejected wastewater and salts generated from desalination plants explaining that this plan will include recommendations, practical suggestions, ideas, information and data that will be discussed in the symposium and serve the country and the environment.

In this context, the symposium also discussed the methods for treating waste that comes out of water desalination operations in the Arabian Gulf region, which cause great damage to the marine environment.

On this occasion, HE Minister of Environment and Climate Change honored some of the officials, researchers and experts who participated in the symposium.

Prof. Bader Shafaqa Al Anzi, a Kuwaiti researcher and university professor in mechanical engineering, said the research under discussion in the scientific symposium would work to find solutions for the rejected brine from desalination plants, which affects the marine environment after decades, including the deposition of salt at the bottom and lack of oxygen in the Gulf water.

Talking to reporters, he said that the research would work on extracting two types of important salts from the water that comes out of desalination plants, adding the first of these two types is wet and used in some oil industries, and the other is dry and is table salt, in addition to extracting hydrogen that is currently used as clean energy, with this water being reused again.

Chairman of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD) Dr. Yousef bin Mohammed Alhorr highlighted GORD Institute's research project that uses desalination waste brine for the production of a gypsum plaster alternative.

He said Carbonate Based Plaster is GORD's patented sustainable gypsum plaster board alternative of comparable/superior performance, produced from carbon capture and mineralization processes using more than 30% of CO2 by weight.

Speaking to the press, Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, an environmental expert and engineering consultant at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, said the importance of the symposium lies in the existence of an environmental problem resulting from the wastewater of desalination plants, because it contains concentrated brine, high temperature and some chemicals mixed with this water that comes out of the desalination plants to the beaches or seeps into the sea to form lakes behind the desalination plants, polluting the environment, groundwater and marine habitat.

Al Kuwari reviewed scientific research and studies conducted by scientists around the world and the Gulf region over the past 30 years to find solutions to address this problem that affects marine life, which makes seabeds very salty and unfit for other fish to live.

He noted that modern innovations would contribute to solving this problem, which he described as a kind of waste, thus benefiting from wastewater, its recycling and reutilization. This results in hydrogen, which represents clean energy as well as useful wet and dry salts, he added.

Dr. Al Kuwari stressed that Qatar will succeed in these experiments and will present a gift to the world on how to address the problem of rejected wastewater and salts generated from desalination plants, after it recently presented a gift to the world relating to a mechanism to sustain the World Cup stadiums.

(QNA)