SEWA aims to increase the availability of fresh water from 50 million gallons to 500 million gallons per day over the next five years and save 17 million gallons of water per day from being wasted.

Going With the Flow –

The utility’s water-storage system consists of numerous tanks fitted with sensors that analyze the levels and quality of fresh water. Signals are sent from the sensors via digital transmitters to an online instrumentation panel, which pumps chemicals into the tank to treat the water for impurities. The final product is pumped into clean water tanks, fed into the water main, and then distributed to homes and businesses.

The cost to operate the sensor-based system will be much less than the cost of traditional desalination, which now accounts for more than 90% of the UAE’s total water supply and costs the country about $3 billion per year to process.

Desalination requires significant energy to pump the seawater through special filters and boil it to remove the salt. The resulting brine is then dumped back into the Persian Gulf, making the seawater even saltier and requiring additional energy to desalinate it again.

(LINK)