Thirsty Qataris some of highest per capita water users

Qatar is set to launch a water conservation campaign as it was revealed the gas-rich Gulf state has one of the world’s highest consumption rates, but only has enough emergency supplies for seven days. Qatar’s per capita water consumption rate, estimated at around 430 litres a day, was likely to be the highest in the world, Issa Hilal al-Kuwari, president of Kahramaa (Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation) was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the Gulf Times newspaper. Kahramaa also claimed Qataris consumed as much as 1,200 litres of water a day, more than six times the 200 litres consumed by their expatriate counterparts. However, these figures were based on data from 2009. Consumption is set to grow by nine percent per annum over the next few years, Al-Kuwari said. “The same level or even a little more growth is expected in water consumption in the next couple of years as well and it tends to grow further in view of steady growth in the country’s population,” he said. With high per capita usage rates and continued growth in consumption, al-Kuwari said Kahramaa was planning to conduct an awareness campaign among the country’s residents to encourage “optimising consumption” of water and to reduce their usage. The move comes as it he revealed Qatar only had capacity to store water for a maximum of seven days. “In the event of an emergency, Qatar could store water for even up to seven days without any difficulties,” he said.