If groundwater supplies weren’t running dry and if water didn’t have to be treated in desalination plants, which requires a great deal of energy, this would be less of a travesty. But the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi estimates that the UAE could run out of groundwater within the next five decades if serious measures aren’t put in place to curtail consumption.

The report A Framework for Reducing Water Demand in Multi-Storey and Detached Dwelling details what it would take to implement greywater recycling programs in the UAE. Specifically it addresses multi-residential buildings given that a great majority of the Emirati and expatriate population lives in dwellings of this type.

Within buildings taller than ten floors will recover the cost of installing an onsite treatment system that uses recycled water from the top floors for the remaining building’s plumbing within five years, according to the report. Whereas smaller buildings will have to wait longer.

“Water issues are very important for the UAE. We are spending a lot of money on desalination and all the other infrastructure that goes with it,” one of the authors of the report, Professor Abdallah Shanableh, an environmental engineer at University of Sharjah told The National.

“We need to do whatever we can to reduce consumption of water,” he added.

Unfortunately, the current system doesn’t give landowners a lot of incentive to recycle water, which is why Shanableh urges government to subsidize a nationwide program. In so doing, daily water consumption could drop to just 385 liters a day.

One fifth of the world’s population battles water scarcity according to the World Health Organization and demand for this life force continues to explode alongside population.

Until recently, wealthy Gulf countries have been consuming water with impunity, ignorant of the long term consequences. But within the last few years, the gravity of a future without groundwater supplies, which receive little to no rainfall replenishment, has begun to settle in and a series of initiatives have been implemented to avoid the worst.

In 2010, Abu Dhabi announced that it was creating an artificial reservoir in a secret location and filling it with desalinated water in the event of an emergency. When that story broke, it emerged that if desalination facilities fail, the emirate will only have enough water to satiate its expanding population for a few short days.

But Muslims are reluctant to consider re-using wastewater, which could be a barrier, though we suspect that these sensibilities will be forced to evolve.

:: The National

Image of reclaimed water sign, Shutterstock

The post Gulf Greywater Recycling Could Cut Water Use by 30% appeared first on Green Prophet.

Instead of mistaking Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for happiness, or giant energy-hogging homes for class symbols, Lebanon could learn from Western regret by revolutionizing its green building industry. This won’t happen quickly since ongoing environmental catastrophes such as toxic waste and kerosene leaks into the Mediterranean Sea point to a slow progress, but definitive steps are being taken by concerned citizens to improve the country’s environmental profile and Greenstone Real Estate Developers are leading the way. As the firm edges closer to achieving high BREEAM rankings for La Brocéliande – a “bespoke” four-storey home in the Beirut suburb of Yarzé – a sustainable Lebanon seems increasingly possible.

Aiming High

When La Brocéliande was first conceived the Lebanese Green Building Council’s ARZ rating system had not yet been established, so Greenstone Real Estate Developers took it upon themselves to adapt their luxury building projects to the longstanding BREEAM standards formulated in 1990 by the United Kingdom’s Building Research Establishment (BRE).

Since then, BREEAM has become more strident, and has been exported to several other countries as BREEAM International.

The LGBC has eschewed UK standards for a rating system that more accurately addresses the Lebanese building context. Sourcing appropriate construction materials up to par with the developed world is just one of many challenges that designers in the developing world face when trying to incorporate international standards in their home countries. This can be disheartening and defeating, but Greenstone has the capital to aim high.

La Brocéliande

La Brocéliande is a beautiful building tucked into the side of a mountain. It receives part of its energy from solar-panels, recycles greywater, has superior thermal insulation that cuts energy consumption, and it also features a green roof. The latter further insulates the home and captures rainwater runoff. With these attributes, Greenstone’s General Managers – the Saadé brothers – expect to achieve “very good” BREEAM certification.

Building green is not only an altruistic move, though the Saadés are quick to point out that developing projects in a manner that is sustainable in the long term should become a moral imperative given the “scary” consequences for our ecosystems and climate if we don’t, but also a financially smart move. Even if building costs are initially somewhat higher, sustainable construction does pay off eventually. And the sooner more businesses and citizens demand more sensible standards, the sooner it will become economically viable for everyone to have healthy green homes.

Bare Minimum

But there is a risk. BREEAM, LEED, and Estidama are all wonderful standards, but they are frequently abused as nothing more than a marketing tool. Companies are guilty of striving for the bare minimum requirements just to sell a lazy effort as green. Building standards were typically developed by stakeholders with genuine concerns about the paltry state of our planet.

As such, achieving the very best (more than required, even) should become an integral part of the collective consciousness of architects, designers, and developers – as well as their clients – throughout North Africa and the Middle East.

:: Story and top image via Daily Star

More on Green Building in Lebanon:

Beirut is Getting its First Green Roof Tower

3 Eco-Svelte Energy Slashing Projects Awarded in Lebanon

The post Greenstone Revolutionizes Lebanese Building Industry One Green-Roof Villa at a Time appeared first on Green Prophet.