Goodbye Summer and Welcome Back Tarsheed
 

Summer has just passed and I spent my time in the United States, yet again. In the summer of 2007 I received a message from Kuwait from an unlikely source, the message was sent by “Tarsheed”. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, Tarsheed  is Kuwait's national energy efficiency program aimed to cater the needs of Kuwait's growing energy demands by providing advice and raising awareness in order to achieve the desired national optimal efficiency.

Kuwait's energy crisis, according to many news reports, has been ongoing for years. However, it only came to prominence in 2006 when electricity and water shortages “flooded” the nation. People were made to believe that this crisis is short-term and not worth losing sleep over; however, time proved otherwise. As the summer of 2007 knocked on the doors, rumors circulated around the nation that the energy crisis is greater than people first thought it was. So what seemed to be the problem? Besides people's consumption ignorance, it was reported that an over aged generator was the culprit for this mini-crisis. Furthermore, it was reported that the generator went bust after years and years of “over-time” and it finally gave in when more urban blocks and sectors were developed. So why not buy a new-generator? I do not have the answer to that however, I do believe that the problem is greater than we were told to believe for if the whole problem was related to one single generator then our beloved government would have pre-ordered a new generator from amazon or Best-Buy. But, to reiterate, the problem is much greater than that.

What I respect about Tarsheed is that they are trying to do their best to raise awareness about the consumption and use of both water and electricity. However, their best is not good enough. Why is it that Tarsheed was only launched in 2006 when the energy crisis was present way before that? Moreover, the Tarsheed campaign had a staggering starting budget of 10 million KD, which was used to spread awareness for 2.5 million people, without avail, by txt messaging, multi-advertising and of course the infamous “3adaad” on Kuwait TV.
So after spending 10M KD, has there been any improvements? Well, we will only know if you get a txt message from Tarsheed. That's one txt message I am not looking forward to ;)

p.s: check out Tarsheeds website (www.tarsheed.org). After spending an excess of 10M KD you would expect something more impressive.

Kuwait's Water Shortages

Kuwait has been suffering from water shortages, believe it or not, way before suffering from electrical shortages. It might not make sense as even the most ignorant of people would realize that Kuwait overlooks the Persian Gulf. The large masses of Kuwait cannot just use the, full of impurities, sea water for every-day uses. And in order to make the sea-water more useful than just fishing, it has to be desalinated.

The catch, however, is that desalination is a very expensive process as the following factors are determinants of the capital and operating costs: capacity and type of facility, location, feed water, labor, energy (which is already scarce), financing and concentrate disposal. All the same, it appears that it is the best solution available as plans for developing desalination plans are already in progress:

“According to the Minister, Mohammad Al-Olaim, the demand for potable water is increasing every year.The search for new sources of potable water and the preserving of current existing bodies from threats of pollution and depletion continue to be major concerns for Kuwait.As noted by the Minister, potable water is a critical issue that requires extensive review and research in order to better manager existing and potential new water resources well into the future. Because of the country’s ongoing water shortage, Kuwait has pro-actively supported the development and operations of desalination plants for the production of freshwater. Additionally, the country is a big supporter of using treated sewage water for irrigation and/or industry. In his speech, Minister Al-Olaim noted that local water production from desalination plants is anticipated to increase. The current production capacity of the plants is roughly 400 million gallons per day. Production capacity will now be raised to 600 million gallons during the next few years. Additionally, the Minister is calling for greater conservation measures and a more rational use of water. With the average individual consumption water rate hovering around 450 liters, Kuwait presently has one of the highest water consumption rates in the region."

        Source: Kuna