RISING demand for water in the Gulf region will mean that governments will need to take conservation more seriously, predicts an industry leader.

Suez Environment chief executive officer Jean-Louis Chaussade believes that the current level of water consumption, in which very little recycled water is being used, is not sustainable.

Suez Environment is part of the Suez Tractebel, whose subsidiary Suez Energie International owns 30 per cent of the Hidd Power Plant and 45pc of Al Ezzel Power Station.

The Hidd Power Plant is set to deliver 12 million gallons per day to Bahrain's water supply by April and another 48m by November.

The expansion of these water production facilities is expected to significantly improve the quality of water in Bahrain by reducing the need for groundwater.

Underground water channels are also expected to recover over time as a result, helping the environment to become greener in the long term.

Subsidies

While Mr Chaussade declined to comment on whether water subsidies, which keep the cost artificially low for consumers, would be lifted, he said that the Gulf region would have to rethink the way water consumption is managed, particularly within the agricultural sector.

"Lifting subsidies would be a political decision that the governments would have to make," he said.

"But increasing the use of recycled water for agricultural purposes is something that the region must look at.

"There needs to be a shift in the mindset from one in which water is considered to cost nothing or to be very cheap, to one in which it is valuable and costly."

Mr Chaussade said more should be invested in technologies that produce recycled water for agriculture, because current practices are too costly.

"It makes no difference to productivity or

plants to use recycled water rather than desalinated water, which costs a lot more to produce and which should be reserved for the citizens of the region," he said.

Mr Chaussade said countries in the region, including Bahrain, currently do have recycling programmes that are used for agriculture, but are not as strong as they should be.

"They are very limited. These programmes should be much larger."