Gulf agriculture, electricity and water ministers meet in al-Riyadh

Meetings of the ministers of agriculture, electricity and the waters started in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss the current needs of the Gulf states for waters and to find out appropriate solutions for that.

The participants in the meeting discussed desalinization of sea waters and the possibility of embarking on that solution as a future solution to meet the needs of these countries of waters and to search for an advanced technology of cheap cost that makes of desalinization an easy process and invest all efforts to preserve water resources at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.

At an inaugural speech, the GCC secretary general Sheikh Jamil al-Hujeilan said that water consumption at the GCC member states increased from 6 billion cubic meters in 1980 to 30 billion cubic meters in 2000 to the continued populations growth in the GCC members states and the increase health and environmental awareness in the Gulf citizens as well as the increase consumption of water in agricultural projects and the accelerated manufacturing process.

He added that 90% of the consumed waters comes from underground wells, 8% only from desalinized waters.