Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Company (Adwec) expects the total demand for its water supply to increase by an average of 5-6 per cent per year until 2020.

Speaking at MEED’s Water and Wastewater 2012 conference in Abu Dhabi, Santosh Kumar, senior water demand forecaster, Adwec, said that the total peak water demand forecast, which includes supply for the Abu Dhabi emirate and exports to the northern emirates, is expected to grow by an average of 8-9 per cent until 2015 and then by an average of 3 per cent per year from 2015 to 2020. This will result in average growth of 5-6 per cent from 2011 to 2020.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi reported a 9.2 per cent rise in peak water supply to reach 715 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) for the months of January to February, when compared on the same period in 2011. For the 10 months to October this year, the total water supply for the emirate was 201,734 MIG.

An estimated 49 per cent of the total demand for water in Abu Dhabi in 2012 has come from farm and municipality irrigation demands. About 25 per cent has been domestic demand and 19 per cent for residential irrigation for villas.