A country with no water.

TED talk by Fahad Al-Attiya.

In this blog, I chose a TEDtalk about Qatar's water supply. This talk has been presented by a Qatari citizen called Fahad Al-Attiya. His talk was mainly focussing on water supply in Qatar and how Qatar has been developed with a lack of water throughout the years. This development involves growth in population, economic, water and power consumption. Al-Attiya has presented this idea of development in the form of Qatar's life-chapters.

Chapter 1: Qatar in 1940.
- Population: 11,000
- The nomadic way of life.
- Short life span: 50 years.
- No water, energy, and hospital. 


Chapter 2: Oil
- Discovery of oil 1939.
- Beginning of urbanization.

Chapter 3: Today
- Population: 1.7 million.
- Economic growth: 15% Average.
- Life span: 78 years.
-  Water consumption: 430 Liters per capita/ year.
- Power consumption: 16,000 kW-hr per capita/ year. 

A growth without water: 

The previous chapters introduced by Al-Attiya focused on how Qatar developed and grew throughout the years with a lack of water. Al-Attiya point-out that Qatar continued growing 15% every year to the past five years. This historical growth has happened with a lack of water. He added that Qatar has been using the best technology in the region, which is called " water desalination machines." These machines have become the main source, river, and lake of water for people in Qatar. Qatar is using its huge source of energy "oil" to run those machines. Thus, oil is considered as a black treasure for Qatar.

What are the risks?

A country with no source of water and 74 mm/ year of rain, should worry about its water stocks. Which may get affected by some global problems. These problems include climate change and rising sea levels. Al-Attiya has viewed multiple risks that could threaten the water supply in Qatar. For example growing demand, growing population, changing diets and energy crops. These risks may affect the stability and continuity of Qatar. 

Al-Attiya has talked about a very important and sensitive issue regarding the lack of natural sources in Qatar. I found his argument very motivative and inspiring by using statistics and historical facts; because we need to rais awareness regarding the overuse of water in Qatar. People should know that we are on the edge of risk. We should not relay 100% on energy (oil) and technology in providing us with water, as this energy is not renewable and it can be ended at any time.  

 Click on this link to listen to the full talk.