"Water shortage.." saudi arabia plans to tow an iceberg from the South Pole on a ship! Did you know?

Saudi Arabia: Water shortage is now becoming a major problem in various world countries. Multiple countries are implementing many plans to deal with this. Did you know that saudi arabia once planned to tow an iceberg from Antarctica? Let's take a closer look at this. Now, due to climate change, extreme weather conditions such as floods occur when it rains, and droughts when it doesn't. Due to this, many countries are facing water shortages.

Countries around the world are trying to overcome this shortage in many ways. That is why Saudi prince Mohammed Al-Faisal proposed a strange plan to alleviate his country's water shortage.

Plan to tow an iceberg

In other words, in the 1970s, there was great difficulty in getting drinking water in Saudi Arabia. Saudi prince Mohammed Al-Faisal proposed this plan as a solution to this. He planned to tow a huge iceberg from antarctica using small boats and ships. He planned to tow an iceberg weighing about 100 tons from antarctica in this way.

Wrapping it in plastic and tarpaulin would slow down the melting of the iceberg. He also planned to bring it very close to the Arabian Peninsula using tugboats. It was estimated that it would take eight months to bring the iceberg from Antarctica. It was estimated that it would cost up to $100 million at the time.

Saudi Prince

Prince Al-Faisal, a prominent member of the Saudi royal family and businessman, believed that icebergs could be the solution to his country's water needs. He thought that the iceberg could be towed from antarctica using small boats. For this, he also hosted a glacier conference at the university of Iowa in 1977. Researchers from various fields were also gathered there to discuss the matter of pulling the iceberg.

At the conference, he displayed a small block of ice brought from Alaska.The iceberg was brought in by helicopter, plane, and truck without melting. He did this to prove that his idea was possible.

Two international conferences

Two conferences were held to discuss the matter of bringing the Antarctic iceberg. Experts from various fields including oceanography, engineering, and environmental science participated in them and discussed the challenges involved. The main discussion was how such a large iceberg could be pulled and how likely it was that the iceberg would melt on the way.

Although it was a great idea, it was never implemented. The project was abandoned due to the lack of technology at that time and the high cost. However, it was seen as an out-of-the-box idea.

This time in the United Arab Emirates

Years passed. Seven years ago, in 2017, another Middle Eastern country planned to bring an iceberg from Antarctica. This time it was the United Arab Emirates. As water shortages increased there, businessman Abdullah Alshehi proposed this project. It was named the Emirates Iceberg Project and an explanatory video was released. However, for some reason, this project was not implemented either.

This is an example of how countries around the world are trying to deal with water, as water has become a huge problem. If the public saves rainwater and uses the available water economically, they can meet their water needs without such projects.