Arab millionaire plans to pull Antarctic icebergs back for drinking water

Icebergs could provide drinking water and boost tourism in the UAE. Photo: Sun.

Abdulla Alshehi, a businessman in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), plans to tow an Antarctic iceberg 8,850 km (5,500 miles) to provide water to the arid Arabian region and boost local tourism. Alshehi has been working on the project for six years and expects the journey to take about 10 months, bringing the iceberg to within 3 km (2 miles) of the UAE’s Fujairah coast.

The iceberg, which will be taken from Heard Island near Antarctica, is expected to be 2km long, 500m wide and 300m deep. Engineers are designing a metal collar to prevent the iceberg from breaking apart during the journey. However, the iceberg will still lose about 30% of its mass before reaching the Arabian coast.

The trial will take place later this year, with the tug carrying a smaller iceberg to Australia or South Africa. The first trial will cost between $60 million and $80 million. But the journey to bring the giant iceberg back to the UAE will cost $100 million to $150 million.

Millionaire Abdulla Alshehi. Photo: Sun.

The main goal of the project is to provide a large amount of potable water to the UAE. The desert nation is severely water-stressed and uses 15% of the world’s desalinated seawater. Alshehi said the iceberg could provide fresh water for about a million people over a five-year period. It would be the cheapest and most environmentally friendly option.

"It would be cheaper to use icebergs as drinking water instead of desalinated water. Desalination plants require huge investments. Desalination releases large amounts of brine into the Gulf, increasing the salinity of the seawater, killing fish and marine life in the Arabian Sea," Alshehi explained.

Alshehi said he had carried out an environmental impact assessment. The Arab millionaire believes the iceberg will have a positive impact on the Gulf. "The appearance of the iceberg can change the weather pattern. Due to its cold nature, it will pull the clouds drifting over the Arabian Sea to the central region, resulting in more rain in the region," Alshehi said.

Alshehi also hopes to develop tourism through visits to the iceberg. The average temperature in the Gulf in August is 36 degrees Celsius. But the iceberg will be anchored offshore, where it will be around 26 degrees Celsius. This will prevent the iceberg from melting as quickly, allowing Alshehi and his colleagues to tap into the freshwater.

More than 100,000 icebergs in Antarctica melt each year, causing freshwater to leak into the ocean. Harvesting fresh water from icebergs is not a new idea, according to Bloomberg. In the mid-19th century, breweries in Chile hauled small icebergs back to use as refrigeration.