UAE harvests rain as energy minister urges 40% water consumption cut

An aircraft fitted for cloud seeding operations aimed at increasing rain. (Supplied)

• The UAE will impose new laws and regulations and encourage a culture of water conservation to support its strategy
• The country has been exploring how to make better use of the little rainfall it receives each year

RIYADH: Rain harvesting will form part of the UAE’s new water strategy which relies on people slashing their consumption of the precious natural resource by as much as 40 percent.
The UAE will impose new laws and regulations and encourage a culture of water conservation to support its strategy, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei told Forbes Middle East.
The plan envisages the creation of a water platform that collects data and a water security plan that separates power generation from desalination, he added.
“We are working to reduce carbon dioxide by 70 percent,” he said, highlighting potential savings of 700 billion dirhams ($190 billion).
Next year the UAE plans to update its Energy Strategy 2050 which will focus on further reducing the country’s carbon footprint and improving its air quality.
The country has been exploring how to make better use of the little rainfall it receives each year including the practice of “cloud seeding” to stimulate rainfall by artificial means.
Last week it emerged the country planned to test drones that can produce a small electrical charge in cloud formations to help them produce rain.
The approach could efficiently replace older cloud-seeding methods, said the National Center of Meteorology,