Dubai, water development summit

Ministers and officials from to private and public sectors from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent are expected to attend a special water and desalination development summit in Dubai during the coming November.

Delegates will examine all aspects related to water supply, desalination and water facilities.

The summit ivenue is the Al Bustan Rostana Hotel. Panelists at the congress are scheduled to include such high-profile personalities as the UAE's minister of electricity and water, Humaid bin Nasser Al Owais, and Jordan's Deputy prime minister for development, Dr. Jawad a Ahnani.

Speakers and panelists at the summit include Jamil Al Alawi, president of the business promotion center, Bahrain , Eric Jakel, director of the Middle East De-Salination Research Center , Muscat, and Leon Awerbuch, vice-president and senior regional representative of overseas Bechtel incorporated, Egypt. Also Decline Duff, director of telecommunications, transportation and utilities, international Finance corporation, the World Bank group, USA, and Dr. Michael Baker, head of merchant banking, Saudi American Bank, Saudi Arabia, and forms advises to the UK water authority on privatization.

One hundred and fifty water projects were recently completed in the Middle East at a cost of $45 billion in private investments alone. Projects worth another $45 billion are under discussion, according to a MEIDC official.

The Gulf Co-operation Council region has now over 40 desalination plants, over half of which are in Saudi Arabia which is the world's largest producer of desalinated water with 30 percent of the global total.

Desalination plants account for up to 70 percent of drinking water in GCC states which have spent $150 billion on the plants.