Water Research Highlights

Mining minerals from desalination brine in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia produces large amounts of freshwater from seawater desalination creating a concentrated salty byproduct called brine. Most brine is treated as waste and discharged back to the sea, wasting potential value and stressing local marine environments.

The Saudi Water Authority (SWA) published a report proposing a practical alternative: turning desalination brine into a source of useful minerals, such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium salts, potentially raising revenue that could offset desalination costs.

The authors propose extracting marketable salts and minerals from brine by concentrating the brine through nanofiltration to thicken the brine using less energy than traditional evaporation. This process separates magnesium and sulfate from sodium and chloride, creating two streams that are easier to process. Then, products are separated and recovered, particularly sodium chloride, bromine/bromide salts, magnesium salts, and potassium salts.

The report suggests starting with extracting high-return products, such as bromine and sodium chloride, followed by magnesium and potassium salts.

"The good news is that many countries in the region are already relying heavily on desalination, so adopting something like brine mining is a logical next step. That not only reduces the overall cost of desalination but also creates new economic opportunities", says Ahmad Ayoub, a researcher at Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari in Italy.

There are three main challenges, Ayoub says. “First, the upfront cost is high. These systems need serious investment in infrastructure and R&D. Second, you need skilled people to run them, and third, you must make sure it’s done in an environmentally safe way so that marine ecosystems aren’t harmed. If countries can address those three issues, the potential is huge." 

Advanced PVDF membranes show promise for desalination

Researchers have developed new nano-fibered membranes to improve the efficiency of desalination technology.

In their study, the team, from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), revealed advanced polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)-based mixed matrix membranes using electrospinning technology, enhanced with five different nanomaterial additives.

Electrospinning is a process that uses high electrical potential differences to produce ultrafine nanofibers from polymeric liquid solutions. This technology offers high and nearly uniform porosity and produces fine fibres free from defects.

The researchers used commercially available plastic (PVDF) and transformed it into nanofibrous membranes with interconnected pores. They mixed in microscopic amounts of five different materials: graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide, activated carbon (AC), and zeolitic imidazolate metal–organic framework (ZIF-8).

These additives improve how electricity moves through the membrane. The developed structure showed improved conductivity, pore size, and surface properties, featuring a potential for future desalination applications.

 Algeria’s untapped groundwater

Algeria’s huge groundwater reserves, particularly in the southern Sahara, represent a largely untapped, climate-resilient resource that, if properly managed, could secure long-term water supplies amid increasing surface-water scarcity. 

A recently published paper, published by Boualem Remini, from the department of Water Science and Environment, Faculty of Technology, Blida 1 University, attributes Algeria’s growing water insecurity to multiple factors.

The high evaporation losses and reduced inflows at dams in northern Algeria due to warming and shifting precipitation patterns, have caused reservoirs to dry up in recent decades. Additionally, the full tapping of open aquifers in the Tell Atlas leads to overdrawn groundwater tables, increasing stress on supplies.

Algeria’s arid climate makes surface sources highly vulnerable to variability, underscoring the need for more stable underground supplies. Additionally, ensuring sustainable water supply is critical for agriculture, urban growth, and rural livelihoods in Algeria’s expanding population and economy.

The author proposes a comprehensive groundwater management framework centered on subdividing Algeria into eight major basins (four in the north and four in the Sahara south), each managed as an integrated unit for assessment, monitoring, and allocation.

The Sahara hosts six major confined systems covering more than half the country’s area and containing multi-decadal to centennial reserves.

While northern aquifers are near full exploitation, deep southern aquifers can supply substantial volumes, if managed sustainably, to urban and agricultural centers.

Effective management depending on accurate hydrogeological data, continuous monitoring, and integrated basin planning, is needed to align extraction with recharge and avoid irreversible depletion.

The study recommends stronger institutional capacity, accurate hydrogeological data, and coordinated basin-level management. Meanwhile, independent experts highlight the potential of using solar and wind energy for pumping in remote desert regions to minimize operational costs and greenhouse-gas emissions, aligning water security with Algeria’s broader energy transition goals.

How in-stream wetlands could improve Egypt’s  water quality

Traditional treatment plants are costly and often not feasible for rural or vast agricultural regions, especially in Egypt. In-stream Wetlands (ISW) could serve as a sustainable and affordable alternative for cleaning drainage water.

Hany Mostafa from the Egyptian National Water Research Center published a study assessing the sustainability of in-stream wetlands in Egypt

In-stream wetlands are sections of stream or river channels planted with aquatic vegetation that serve as natural filters, removing pollutants and improving water quality for irrigation purposes

The study published in Water Science, looked at how in-stream wetlands, located in two Egyptian drains, Tellin and Faraa Al Bahwo, improve drainage water quality before it’s reused for activities like irrigation.

The author implemented two analysis methods; SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal), based on historical data including how these wetlands operate, how well they clean water, what kinds of plants they use, and what problems or successes they’ve had.

He evaluated both the technical aspects -like removal of pollutants- and the broader aspects -like government support, funding, social acceptance, and climate threats- to identify whether these wetlands may succeed in the future.

The study showed that “Faraa Al Bahwo” successfully removed 97–99% of pollutants before it was abandoned due to lack of funding. In contrast, the “Tellin wetland” collapsed within months after funding ended, highlighting weak institutional and financial support.

According to the study, while wetlands help restore natural ecosystems, provide habitats for fish and birds, and support climate goals, their long-term success depends on careful planning, supportive policy, and sustained funding.

Maysoon Al-zoubi, a consultant on water diplomacy and international waters, highlighted the need for policies that regulate and facilitate the implementation of in-stream wetlands projects in Egypt.

Worsening droughts across the Arabian Peninsula require immediate action

The Arabian Peninsula has seen more frequent dry spells in recent decades, with rising global temperatures threatening to make droughts even worse.

Researchers from KAUST, in Saudi Arabia, showed in a Scientific Reports study, how drought patterns will evolve under different future greenhouse-gas scenarios across the Arabian Peninsula.

The researchers aim to determine whether droughts will become more common or severe, and by how much, given both rainfall changes and rising temperatures, up till the year 2100.

The team selected the eight best-performing climate models to calculate two drought measures; the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) that is based only on rainfall, and the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) that accounts for both rain and how much water evaporates as temperatures rise.

The researchers examined drought projections for three future periods; near: 2015–2044, mid: 2045–2074, and far: 2075–2100.

They used estimation approaches that emphasized evapotranspiration -how heat-driven evaporation amplifies drought- and systematically quantified each uncertainty source.

Across all tested scenarios, potential evapotranspiration rises about five times faster than precipitation, meaning land dries out even if rainfall increases slightly. Moreover, the projections showed drought frequency and severity increasing steadily from near to far future, with some northern areas witnessing 300 to 400% more drought months by 2100.

Ibrahim Hoteit, Professor of Earth Systems Science and Engineering at KAUST, and the corresponding author, recommends that communities and policymakers in the Arabian Peninsula should "reduce avoidable consumption and protect groundwater. We also should rapidly scale safe reuse supported by routine, transparent monitoring to align supply with demand."

Nuclear power may secure water in the MENA region

The MENA region faces a severe water stress issue, as limited renewable water recourses projected to decline by 0.6 km³/year and water shortage to triple by 2050.

Current conventional solutions include desalination plants, which rely heavily on fossil fuels, creating vulnerabilities to price volatility and supply disruptions. That dependency on fossil fuel resources raises long-term sustainability concerns and contributes significantly to climate change.

To explore alternatives, researchers from the University of Sharjah and the German Jordanian University, conducted an economic and environmental assessments of three nuclear reactors coupled with two desalination technologies.

The analysis showed that nuclear desalination could produce freshwater with costs ranging from $0.69 to $1.04 per cubic meter, making it competitive with fossil-fueled desalination. The authors concluded that the nuclear reactors contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and support long-term sustainability with reliable uranium fuel supply.

Satellites reveal urgent threat to Morocco’s water reservoirs

Morocco’s reservoirs have experienced dramatic water losses over recent years, threating agricultural production as irrigation accounts for 88% of national water use, and socioeconomic stability in rural communities.

Researchers from Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco, in collaboration with international partners, used satellite imagery and machine learning to monitor reservoirs changes across Morocco between 2018 and 2024.

The study, in Scientific Reports, revealed an apparent decrease in surface water areas across Moroccan reservoirs, with significant declines observed between 2021 and 2023. While southern reservoirs experienced drastic reductions, northern reservoirs exhibited more stable water levels.

Reservoirs located in central and southern Morocco, such as Al Massira and Mansour Eddahbi, showed more noticeable decline, particularly from mid-2021 to early 2024.

Al Massira dam, one of Morocco’s largest reservoirs, experienced severe declines in water storage, dropping to less than 3% of its capacity since 2023. By August 2024, “Al Massira had been operating at barely 1% of its capacity, thereby being almost completely depleted”, according to the study.

Additionally, the rainy season is becoming increasingly unpredictable; increasing temperatures are leading to excessive snowmelt in the Atlas Mountains, disrupting steady year-round stream flow.

Groundwater levels nationwide are also dropping significantly. In the Mejjat region of the Haouz plain, the decline has been up to 5 m per year since 2016.

The authors plan to extend the monitoring using multi-decadal satellite archives to capture longer-term trends, integrating remote sensing with field data and socioeconomic analysis, and using seasonal crop maps to sort out the specific contributions of different agricultural practices to reservoir drawdowns.

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