Ted talk: A Country with No Water.

By Fahad Al-Attiya

January 2013

Doha, Qatar

 In this blog post I will comment on the Ted talk by Fahad Al-Attiya, where he talked about water in Qatar. To summarize, Fahad Al-Attiya spoke about the one essential resource for life that Qatar did not have, which is water. He spoke about how having access to fresh water changed the life of people living in Qatar, and how having fresh water helped the people fulfill their everyday needs. Then he talked about how overpopulation has a negative effect on insufficient water resources, as people do not have sufficient water to satisfy their daily needs because industries use water too.

Why is this TED talk important?

I chose to talk about this talk because of the importance of water. Qatar used to be a country with no water, which made it an under developed country. But, after having access to water the country developed incredibly. This shows that water is definitely an essential source for living. In addition, the talk emphasized on the importance of taking care of water and not wasting it. And how industrial practices can have an effect on the sufficiency of fresh water. Fahad Al-Attiya sent an implicit message to the whole world and not only the residents in Qatar, and that is, water needs to be conserved.

 The problem and solution presented in this Ted talk

 The main problem that Fahad Al-Attiya spoke about was the insufficient water supply in Qatar. After oil was found in Qatar, Qatar developed and the population grew. And as a result, the new technology called desalination made it possible for this country to have clean water. However, there is a problem, growing population and a country with no water or insufficient water supply in Qatar. The situation in Qatar that Al-Attiya presented in this talk is that this country imports 90% of the food and cultivates only 1% of land. Also the number of farms have declined to -30%. This happened as a result of the open market policy. This is a problem because it affects the sustainability of this country. It is an issue for agriculture.

 The solution presented was using the renewable energy (sun) to produce water, and the water will help farmers to farm. And because of that the country will consume the food that is directly coming from the farms. Thus, Qatar will maintain its sustainability.

My thoughts:

I believe that this talk is important because it highlights important matters that need to be looked at in consideration. For example, water and how countries without water can get clean water, by using renewable energy that doesn’t hurt the environment. 

Also, this Ted Talk showed how Qatar is moving forward towards its goal to achieve the 2030 vision, in relation to the environmental sector of the vision. Qatar cares about the environment and wants to develop environmental friendly technologies that could help the country grow, and this talk by Fahad Al-Attiya shows how the country views environment as an important that needs to be taken care of.