Abu Dhabi Hosts the first ever International Water Summit

In a few weeks’ time, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, will host the very first International Water Summit (IWS), as decreed by the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan last January. His intention is to bring global leaders in water science, policy, and business to work toward progress in sustainable water use, particularly in arid regions such as the Arabian Peninsula.

Narrowly wedged between the Persian Gulf and the vast Arabian Desert, Abu Dhabi in the last half century has become a global hub for international business and a dominating presence in the petroleum industry. The capital was once a small Bedouin village, but everything changed when BP and the Iraq Petroleum Company discovered a wealth of oil fields within the emirate.

However, Abu Dhabi gets only 100 mm of precipitation per year and has access to very little groundwater, so it’s easy to understand how precious water is here–and it’s also easy to see why the city is backing global efforts to better manage and provide water in hyper-arid climates. (For an in-depth look at the city's water resource supply and demand, see this statistical report from 2006.)

Many have high hopes that this conference will introduce a new and innovative platform for discussion of the region's scarcest resource: fresh, clean water. And it’s no surprise that people have high expectations, given the list of speakers lined up for the three-day event. The Crown Prince has successfully pulled in water academics, foreign ministers, CEOs, presidents, UN diplomats and executives from companies such as CH2M HILL, Dow Chemicals and Veolia. Academic, industry, and government experts are gathering, providing a huge opportunity to lay out the future of water resource management in Abu Dhabi and the Middle East at large.

The summit is one of a handful of prominent events being held next month for the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. This broader event has been described as a "green conference on steroids", "an excellent string of TED Talks", and a Middle Eastern Davos or Aspen Institute. It has such lofty goals as "empowering young generations and entrepeneurs", "accelerating global adoption of renewable energy", and "elevating global water-energy nexus topics."

Masdar is hosting the event, with help from two primary sponsors, Borealis (a plastics manufacturer), and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority. Though I initially questioned the presence of petroleum-affiliated sponsorship of both the IWS and the World Future Energy Summit (Shell, Exxon-Mobil, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company are running that show), Masdar has shown it is working hard on sustainable energy innovation, particularly at home in the UAE.

The three-day event will offer a variety of presentations, interactive panel discussions, quick fire interviews, ministerial panels and more. If I were to choose one talk (not that I’ll be there), I would attend the workshop on international good governance and cooperation. The panel will include representatives from the Pacific Institute, Masdar, the UN, and the World Bank and they’ll be discussing trends in water privatization in arid regions.

Even with all the players at the table, in a year that has seen a number of catastrophic global weather events, and with the UN Doha Climate Change Conference just next door in Qatar, this ambitious summit could fall flat, as did Copenhagen’s bold climate change summit in 2009. As I have done with previous Middle Eastern water issues discussed in this blog, I remain cautiously hopeful.