Wind-Powered Desalination Project Crucial to Parched Djibouti

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--An innovative project that combines wind power and desalination technology is being planned for the arid country of Djibouti, which is on the northeastern tip of Africa. The European Union will fund a $115 million project to build a 20-megawatt (MW) windfarm that will supply the power for a desalination plant, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2014. The windfarm will be completed by the end of 2013.

Almis Mohammad Abdullah, the country's head of external financing in the Economy, Finance, Industry and Planning Ministry, said after talks with an EU delegation that the new plants would help the country make progress toward the United Nations' poverty and hunger reduction targets, under the Millennium Development Goals.

The 45,000 cubic meters (45 million liters) of potable water to be produced by the project are crucial to Djibouti, which currently produces 36,000 cubic meters (36 million liters) per day. Sustainable water resources are estimated to be about 50 cubic meters (50,000 liters) per capita a year.

According to the UN Development Program, this compares with an average of 1,000 cubic meters (1,000,000 liters) available per capita in the "water-stressed" Middle East and North African (MENA) region. Djibouti has a population of about 900,000 living in 23,200 square kilometers.

The water resources available to Djibouti seem less than marginal to the needs of the population, especially when consumption in developed and developing regions reaches millions of liters per capita annually, with vast amounts going into agriculture, livestock and industry. It is this marginal supply situation that makes the new wind and water project so crucial to the country.

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