The importance now being accorded to the environment by the desalination industry was emphasized on 22 April 2010 when the International Desalination Association (IDA) announced the addition of nine distinguished scientists to its Gulf regional task force and an environmental symposium in Bahrain in December 2010.
The IDA Environmental Task Force, which was formed to review possible impacts of desalination in the Arabian Gulf and make recommendations to mitigate potential effects had an existing Steering Committee consisting of Dr Abdulmajeed Ali Alawadhi, Task Force chairman; Lisa Henthorne, co-chair; Michel Canet, Ghassan Ejjeh, Fady Juez and Tom Pankratz.
To them have been added:
Dr Mahmoud Abdel-Jawad, principal research scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR);
Dr Samer Adham, managing director of the Global Water Sustainability Center (GWSC) in Qatar;
Dr Gary Amy, director of the Water Desalination & Reuse Cente, and professor of environmental engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia
Dr Shawki Barghouti is director general, International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), the host institute for the recently established Arab Water Academy (AWA).
Raed Bashitialshaaer, researcher and staff member at Lund University-LTH, Water Engineering;
Dr Paul Frederick Holthus, founding executive director of the World Ocean Council;
Dr Sabine Lattemann, marine scientist specialized in environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies and a member of D&WR’s editorial board;
Mark Silverton, currently a lead environmental consultant with 5 Capitals;
Jos van Gils, who has 24 years experience in applied research and specialist consultancy projects related to water quality and its management at Delft Hydraulics (now Deltares).
IDA also announced that it will hold an Environmental Symposium, Desalination and the Arabian Gulf: The Relationship between the Environment and Meeting the Region’s Water Needs on 6-7 December 2010 in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. Through virtual workshops and the Environmental Symposium, IDA will develop a “Blue Paper” that includes strategies to address potential environmental impacts that are identified as part of its work.
“Desalination plays a critical role in sustaining the people and economies of the Arabian Gulf. IDA is dedicated to a clean, healthy Gulf, and we look forward to facilitating discussions between stakeholders and environmental experts to ensure the well-being of the Gulf ecosystem for this and future generations,” said Lisa Henthorne, co-chair of the Environmental Task Force and past president of the IDA.