Emirati businessman, Abdulla Alshehi, wants to tow an iceberg from Antarctica to the Arabian Gulf to supply the United Arab Emirates with drinkable water.<\/p>\n
However, he plans to trial a test case of the project’s viability by dragging a smaller iceberg with a tugboat to either Cape Town, or Perth in Australia.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Euronews<\/a><\/strong>, Alshehi said that the preliminary test is expected to cost between $60-80 million (R850 million – R1.1 billion), with the entire project expected to cost the UAE between $100-150 million dollars. The iceberg could measure two kilometres by 500 metres, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be cheaper to bring in these icebergs and utilise them for freshwater rather than utilising the desalination water,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause desalination plants require a huge amount of capital investments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c(Desalination) is pumping a huge amount of brine water to the Gulf, making the salinity of the seawater very high, killing even the fish and marine [life] on the Arabian Sea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we believe it will be a more economical and environmentally friendly project to utilise the icebergs\u2019 water not only for the United Arab Emirates, but throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Alshehi is the managing director and founder of the National Advisory Bureau Limited, an advisory firm which specialises in recycling and energy generation.<\/p>\n Towing an iceberg to Cape Town<\/strong><\/p>\n The idea of using an iceberg to supply Cape Town with fresh water is not new, following a severe drought that put the city at risk of becoming one of the first in the world to run out of municipal water.<\/p>\n