Qatar University researcher developing system to facilitate commercial water-filtration – The Peninsula

Qatar University researcher developing system to facilitate commercial water-filtration – The Peninsula

According to Unicef, 36 countries worldwide already face extremely high water shortage levels. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the most water-scarce region of the world and contains only 1.4 percent of the world’s renewable fresh water.

Universal access to clean drinking water is one of the world’s biggest challenges. Water resources are at risk from climate change, pollution, geographical location, and waterborne diseases in many areas. Water scarcity affects roughly 40 percent of the world’s population. According to predictions by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, drought could displace up to 700 million people by 2030.

To meet this challenge, Qatar University Chemical Engineering PhD student Haneen Abdelrazeq hopes to develop and patent a water filtration system to facilitate commercial water filtration.

Qatar has no fresh surface water resources, making rainfall and groundwater recharge the main freshwater resources. The country’s primary water resources are desalination, groundwater and reuse of treated sewage effluent (TSE). Recently, Qatar launched the National Environment and Climate Change strategy. The strategy will significantly cut groundwater extraction by 50 percent.

In the latest issue of the Qatar University Research Magazine, Haneen, a 4th-year student whose PhD thesis is related to membrane synthesis and its application in