ABU DHABI // The effect of rising populations on water, energy and food resources will be discussed in the capital on Monday.
The closed-door forum, aimed at government officials and researchers, is organised by the Australian-based Council of Arab-Australian Relations and is coordinated by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Among the speakers are representatives of Australian institutions such as Monash University, Murdoch University, the University of Sydney as well as the International Water Centre.
There is a growing need for planners to review the relationship between water, energy and food, said Grame Barty, general manager of international operations, growth and emerging markets at Austrade.
“We are entering into a more demanding environment than we have been in the past and ... we believe that we understand the connection of the three in a way that perhaps other countries have not had to,” said Mr Barty the day before the forum began.
With large parts of Australia being covered by arid or semi-arid land, the country is facing similar challenges to the UAE, he said. It lacks significant fresh water resources and, like the UAE, most of Australia’s population inhabits coastal cities.
“Almost all of our population is concentrated in three cities and almost entirely concentrated in ten cities, all in a coastal environment,” he said.
“We believe that there are probably no two other environments globally that have similar experiences than Australia and the Gulf countries,” Mr Barty said. “We believe this is an opportunity for us to bring and share our expertise and to create a collaboration between our two regions.”
Water reuse in homes and within cities, the use of renewable energy to power desalination plants and efficient agriculture irrigation technologies are some of the areas where Australian expertise may be relevant in the UAE, said Mr Barty.
The forum hopes to create opportunities for research collaboration, as well as “opportunities in sharing experiences in policy development” he said.
Australia is also hoping to showcase its relevant services and technology as well as education resources.
“We put a lot of effort into training in environmental sciences and in understanding how to better manage a strategic environment and we think we can share those educational experiences as well,” he said.
“It is not just a case of a commercial solution to sell technology, it is actually about sharing a much broader range, of a way of life in surviving as a society in an increasingly demanding environment.
“We hope what comes out of this is that we are meeting our technical and research and expert peers in the region and we are hoping, out of this, there will be a natural step for us to move forward.
“There are some institutions that already have linkages in the region but we would like to broaden that and create a more expansive link between the countries.”
The forum will move on to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
vtodorova@thenational.ae