Strategic Water Storage and Recovery Plan in Liwa, Western Region

Abu Dhabi, UAE

The infiltration of water into the underground plays a critical role in water resource management, especially in arid regions where optimized usage of water resources is essential. In arid climate zones, mismatched water supply and demand patterns often lead to challenges. Water supply schemes may fail without backup solutions, and traditional water storage methods face significant drawbacks—such as high evaporation losses in dams and the high costs of storage tanks. 

 

This project addressed these challenges by implementing advanced aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) systems, which included: 

  • 3 recharge & recovery schemes 
  • 315 recovery wells 
  • 117 monitoring wells 
  • 3 infiltration basins 
  • 3 pumping stations and 3 reservoirs 
  • 155 km connection pipelines from wells to reservoirs 
  • 160 km C.S. transmission pipelines (DN 900 & DN 1,200) 
  • 1 downstream pumping station 

 

Overall SCADA system connecting all ASR infrastructure components Functionality: 

  • Supply of 1,000,000 residents with 182 liters of drinking water per capita and day over a period of up to 90 days 
  • Recharge: 7 MIGD (~ 32,000 m3/d) of desalinated seawater for 27 months 
  • Recovery: 40 MIGD (~ 182,000 m3/d) of groundwater for 90 days 
  • Location: Liwa Desert (~ 225 km from Abu Dhabi) 
  • Strategic water reserve 

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