The United Arab Emirates (UAE) in planning to drag icebergs from Antarctica to its coast in a bid to solve drinking water issues.
According to the Sunday Express report, UAE is among the top 10 water-scarce countries in the world, hopes to help ease the stress of a drinking water shortage by towing an iceberg from the freezing Antarctica in order to create more drinking water.
The National Advisor Bureau Limited’s (NABL) managing Director Abdullah Mohammad Sulaiman Al Shehi says an average iceberg contains more than 20 billion gallons of water which would be enough for one million people over five years. Up to four-fifths of an iceberg’s mass is underwater, and due to their vast density, they would theoretically not melt in the boiling climate of the Middle Eastern coastal line.
Shehi says it could take up to a year to drag the huge body of ice up to the UAE, and the project is set to begin in 2018. Not only will it partially solve a water crisis, but it could also become a tourist attraction.
