Pearls from the Desert&emdash;Qatar's Precious Water Resourcesby Rajendra Inani, GIS Coordinator for Water, Ministry of Electricity and Water |
| Contents Page | Al-Khabar Home Page | CGIS Home Page |
The automated water supply story in Qatar began in 1953 when the first desalination plant was commissioned. The Central Doha Desalination Plant used a submerged coil technique and had a production capacity of 150,000 gallons of water per day. Prior to this, water sources in this country were limited to wells supplying both potable and non-potable water.
After the success of this first plant, there was no looking back. The water supply infrastructure continued to expand with the addition of a number of desalination plants based on technical advancements such as MFS single and dual purpose and reverse osmosis processes using brackish water feed. Well fields were expanded in rural areas and reservoirs, water towers, tanker filling stations, and village supply stations were added in ever increasing numbers.
A spider web of water pipes network this valuable system, which has grown from 390 kilometers in length in 1971 to more than 2,590 kilometers by the end of 1995. The growth of distribution pipes has meant a reduction in the need for water to be delivered by tanker to the urban areas. However, development in rural areas has meant that the number of tankers has not been reduced. The production of desalinated water is expected to grow to almost 500,000 cubic feet per day by the year 2000.
|
|
|
|
Water tower and Tanker filling facility |
Water Desalination Plant |
Meeting the growing demand for water in the country requires detailed planning and management. In the early 1990's, when Qatar's nationwide GIS was being implemented, the Ministry of Electricity & Water, who is responsible for managing water generation and distribution, decided that GIS would be an ideal method of managing its infrastructure.
Implementing GIS was a long process, involving first a user needs study of all of the departments in the Ministry and then preparing a framework for a phased approach to implementation, including users' needs and data sources.
Water data in GIS format is now available and includes water generation plants, distribution networks, and house connections. The georeferencing of the house connections is particularly useful. Just by typing in the water meter number of a consumer, it is now possible to track the whole path from where the water is sourced to where it is delivered. This alone eliminates very time consuming, tedious work and allows the water meter installation section to provide much faster service to their customers.
Many units within the Ministry of Electricity & Water have discovered the benefits of GIS and the on-line data available over GISnet, which links all of Qatar's GIS departments by fiber optic cable, allowing them to share valuable data. Information pertaining to road opening permits, building licenses and land acquisition applications can now be examined with the push of a button.
The Water Drawing & Survey Unit within the Program & Projects Department is the primary body responsible for supplying maps and plans to the departments & contractors requesting them. Only a few years ago, this unit maintained its maps on thousands of mylar sheets and their accompanying support documents in the form of schematic drawings, water network records, and survey book details.
|
|
|
|
Anticipated Water Demand & Desalination Requirements up to 2010 |
Water Inventory View |
This scene is now rapidly changing. PCs, workstations, scanners, plotters, and printers have entered the office. Information is now stored on servers rather than in drawing cabinets. Earlier, it was necessary; to maintain all maps in 1:1000, 1:5000 and 1:250000 scales. With GIS, maps can now be produced at any scale, at any time.
The Water Networks Department is using GIS for data management. Their responsibilities include the operation and maintenance of well fields, rural water supplies, tanker filling stations, and distribution points. They found that GIS was the only method that would allow them to easily manage their vast infrastructure. Because of its availability over the network, the department is longer required to go to the various other Ministries for topographic base maps, planning maps and the many other documents required for their work. They are currently expediting the automation process of converting their paper maps to digital ones so that they too will be available on GISnet.
The Operation and Maintenance unit performs analysis and simulation on the water network prior to adding any new components to it, such as a change in the diameter of a pipe, the location of a new water storage facility, or altering the pressure on a particular valve. It uses GIS record drawings, rather than schematics, so that they can use precise lengths and locations in their analysis. The availability of on-line elevation data from GISnet is an important factor for their work.
As is clearly evidenced, the use of GIS technology in the Ministry of Electricity & Water has provided great benefits to both staff and consumers alike.